Amazon’s freewheeling approach to brick-and-mortar is at an end: The retail giant closes stores as it focuses on boosting profitability and winning grocery market share from Walmart and Target.

Thanksgiving store closures return thanks to shifting consumer habits: Increasing online shopping and earlier deal-seeking, plus criticism over opening on Thanksgiving Day, could lead many retailers to forgo the trend for good—Target has already committed to doing so.

Private label brands have taken on increasing importance in retailers’ arsenals on the heels of positive consumer sentiment. This report looks at how retailers can use store brands to bolster their product assortment and thus increase their margins.

Here’s a breakdown of the online and in-store features that apparel retail shoppers value the most, and a ranking of how 10 leading retailers stack up.

US click-and-collect sales will maintain strong momentum over the near term, but the fulfillment method is no longer meaningfully stealing dollar volume share from delivery or from in-store purchasing.

Inflation hasn’t hurt retail sales, which grew 7.2% in April: That growth stems from people flocking to stores. In-store sales rose 10.0%, while ecommerce sales fell 1.8%.

Black-owned brands are underrepresented on store shelves: While many retailers use Black History Month to support Black-owned businesses, addressing long-term inequities is a year-round challenge.

For context, Walmart and Target stores are within 1 hour of 99% and 94% of the US population, respectively. As global climate change and sustainability concerns heat up, Amazon’s biggest uphill battle will be addressing its image as an environmentally unfriendly business.

Business Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes and eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Andrew Lipsman discuss how Amazon's Prime Day went and what to expect from holiday shopping this season. They then talk about miniature Ulta Beauty shops inside Target stores, the health of retail in 2021, and whether in-garage delivery can rival curbside pickup.

Amid the carnage of bankruptcies, store closures, and massive layoffs in 2020, some retail companies actually fared very well. Adjustments to supply chains, product and service bundles, stocking and inventory, and customer service have been the keys to success for big-box retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. Others, such as Apple, lululemon athletica, Nike, and Starbucks, are focusing on innovating and modifying store experiences through digital integration, frictionless shopping, and atmospherics modified for a “new normal” of social distancing and sanitization.

On today's episode, we discuss Pinterest's unique advertising challenges, how its user growth compares with the other digital advertising giants, and the balance between shopping and buying on the platform. We then talk about what is most important to customers using curbside pickup, how Target capped off an exceptional 2020, and how to fairly measure in-store retail's performance going forward as stores reopen with limited capacity. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence Daniel Keyes.

Consumer trust in eco-friendly claims is wavering: That’s driving large retailers such as Amazon, Target, and Starbucks to find new ways to demonstrate the effectiveness of their efforts.

In addition, with Target leading the charge, Thanksgiving store openings should also become a thing of the past. The more recent shift to always-on, digital-first shopping will likely establish an earlier shopping cadence going forward. Should Amazon decide to re-introduce an event like Prime Day into Q4, the once predictable shape of the holiday shopping season will likely forever be altered.

In-store credit spending growth will stabilize. This will pull credit’s share of in-store retail transaction value to over a third (36.3%). Consumers’ lasting embrace of ecommerce will push online credit card usage past $500 billion for the first time.

Some retailers have already taken steps to do so, such as Target’s local stores, convenience store and delivery service Foxtrot, which operates in urban neighborhoods in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, DC, and Virginia, as well as Ulta Beauty’s locally focused stores. The big takeaway: Retailers need to recognize and adapt to evolving shopping behaviors.

Amazon has also struggled to fully leverage its brick-and-mortar locations: While Amazon Fresh stores have resonated with consumers, Amazon Go convenience stores have been less successful. More on this: Since Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods, the company has made grocery expansion a priority.

In context, the Open App Markets Act, which targets how companies operate app stores with more than 50 million users, aims to ban app stores from forcing developers to use the stores’ payment systems. The battle with established mobile app stores is brewing on a global level, with Japan, South Korea, and the EU cracking down on monopolistic app store controls.

Government regulators are in hot pursuit of mobile app store owners Google and Apple for how much they take in fees from developers, as well as for forcing them to use platform payment methods. In context, the Open App Markets Act, which targets how companies operate app stores with more than 50 million users, aims to ban app stores from forcing developers to use the stores’ payment systems.