Walmart Inc. spent $300 million more than expected on COVID-19 paid leave thanks to omicron spikes, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company now says it will no longer offer employees paid time off for coronavirus-related absences. As labor shortages persist, the retail giant will have to reinvest in its workforce to improve recruitment and retention.

On today's episode, we discuss what it's like to launch an ecommerce business unit during the pandemic and how customers are changing. We then talk about livestream ecommerce's US entry point, how to solve the fitting-room dilemma, and how seriously we should take retailer rental services. Tune in to the discussion with ecommerce general manager for the Americas region at Tekmovil Cristian Serrano and eMarketer senior analyst Matteo Ceurvels and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

Retail has accounted for more than 20% of the market ever since we began tracking digital ad spending by industry, and the pandemic-driven ecommerce explosion of 2020 has only launched retail to new digital heights.

A decade after the end of the Great Recession (and before the coronavirus roiled the economy), consumers have stuck with older means of economizing and added new ones to their shopping mix.

Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu discuss how the coronavirus changed retail and ecommerce. What are our base, best and worst cases scenarios? They then talk about who frictionless retail is for and what Americans' online grocery experience really looks like.

The pandemic has been a learning curve for many marketers, including Elana Gold, who began her role as Del Monte’s newly appointed global CMO in the midst of it.

Even as the U.S. starts to open up again, consumers are still shopping online, and Shopify, a leading commerce platform that lets merchants manage their online retail operations in-house, is well positioned to capture the growing online market as it continues to strike new partnerships.

As uncertainty over coronavirus continues to grow, consumers are becoming more cautious about shopping in public places and are utilizing online shopping as a means of getting necessities.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch, principal analyst Jillian Ryan, and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss the major digital pivot to reimagined events amid COVID-19. Then, the usual suspects talk about Twitter's fight against election misinformation, TikTok's potential rivals, untapped marketing to lower-income customers, ecommerce within YouTube, and how cats aren't as heartless as they seem.

Kate Lubenesky: As an omnichannel brand, we don't just do direct to consumer, but we also partner with a lot of retail partners and other brands who have physical stores or pop-up experiences or coffee shops. During COVID, we had to shift to D2C, which was a luxury in that it allowed us to focus on that singularly.

On today's episode, we discuss how the pandemic changed the car buying customer journey and what BMW's digital experience is trying to achieve. We then talk about why online-only brands might need to do more to earn customers' trust, whether people want more—or less—human interaction when shopping, and what eBay's latest move says about the future of the retailer. Tune in to the discussion with general manager at Autogermana Andrés Fuse, eMarketer senior analyst Matteo Ceurvels, and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

The year 2021 marks a new era for retail and ecommerce. The pandemic drove a massive shift in almost everything digital, and while 2020 will remain an anomaly in terms of the frenzied pace of adoption, consumers’ new behavior is here to stay. Over the next five years, digital activities will continue growing from today’s accelerated base.

Worldwide, the retail industry has had perhaps the smoothest transition into ecommerce and general digitization. Germany may have lagged initially, but it got there eventually, and the pandemic accelerated the trend.

eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver and Sara M. Watson, vice president of research Jennifer Pearson, and junior analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch discuss the pivotal decision of Facebook's Oversight Board to ban former President Donald Trump, private search engines making a push, whether social media damages teenagers' health, whether baby boomers will want to shop online post-pandemic, Apple's reported paywalled podcast platform, what happens to astronauts when they're in space, and more.

eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver and Nicole Perrin at Insider Intelligence discuss the most significant consumer behavior shifts in the wake of the coronavirus. They then talk about where people start their online shopping, search trends during the pandemic and how young is too young for kids to use chat apps?

The food and beverage category is seeing the biggest gains in retail ecommerce sales growth this year as more consumers have gotten comfortable shopping online amid the pandemic. Over the past few months, Kellogg’s has also experienced this digital growth and implemented ongoing efforts to adapt to the rapidly changing retail environment.

For digitally native brands, 2020 was a hard year, especially as the pandemic shifted shopping priorities to essential goods. Even so, collectively, these brands saw increased growth—and more than we expected.

On today's episode, we discuss Twitter's major initiatives and figure out what the platform will look like after it reinvents itself. We then talk about Facebook's cost-per-thousand (CPM) recovery, TikTok's ecommerce efforts, and a recent study about COVID-19 news on Facebook. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Jasmine Enberg.

As lockdowns slowly lift in the US, retailers face a changed shopping landscape. With lingering fears over renewed outbreaks, many consumers are wary of returning to stores.

Ecommerce has been a bright spot among retail channels during the coronavirus, as consumers became reliant on digital transactions amid physical store closures and fear of infection.

On today's episode, we discuss how the pandemic changed how we buy electronics and how omnichannel marketing and operations are evolving. We then talk about whether YouTube is living up to its potential, ESPN+'s sports rights strategy, and whether DAZN can shake up sports TV. Tune in to the discussion with head of ecommerce at Samsung Electronics Argentina Guido Shama, eMarketer senior analyst Matteo Ceurvels, and director of forecasting at Insider Intelligence Oscar Orozco.