In seven charts, this report tells the story of some of the most critical trends that digital leaders need to know about in 2024 and beyond.

Three in four consumers are concerned about fake reviews, according to January 2023 data from Bazaarvoice. Amazon and other retailer websites have a fake reviews problem, and it’s driving consumers—Gen Zers in particular—to seek information about products on social media sites like TikTok and Reddit.

Amazon Fresh doubles down on affordability as shoppers focus on cost: The retailer will roll out Prime-exclusive discounts on over 3,000 products and a new private label as it tries to narrow the gap with Walmart.

It’s a concerning buildup for one month, but it merits some skepticism—consumers may be faring better than one data point suggests

Consumer-facing tech in stores is rapidly evolving. Retailers must prioritize investments carefully to maintain already implemented tech—and explore interesting (but largely untested) innovations.

Oracle’s 13% revenue jump reflects the success of its multi-cloud strategy and major partnerships, positioning it as a leader in enterprise cloud services.

Amazon and Walmart are search advertising’s growth engines: The latter is a distant second to the former, accounting for nearly 4 in 10 non-Amazon retail media search ad dollars this year.

A truncated holiday spending period with fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the election will throw a curveball to retail sales this season, our analyst Sky Canaves said on an episode of the “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast. In-store retail will see healthy growth, consumers will continue holding back on splurges, and mobile will uplift overall ecommerce. Here are three trends we’re predicting for the upcoming holiday season.

Amazon and Walmart scoop up beauty sales as shoppers search for convenience: Our Industry KPIs data shows that the two account for the majority of purchase intent clicks in the beauty and personal care category.

The Trade Desk is developing a CTV operating system: Its ambitions could trigger a new age in CTV advertising and potentially upend the balance of power.

48% of US retail business decision-makers say video ads drive the biggest return on ad spend (ROAS) on Amazon, according to March 2024 data by Zogby Analytics and Feedvisor.

When it comes to retail memberships, Amazon is the leader, boasting 97.2 million household Amazon Prime members across the US, nearly three-quarters of the country’s total households, per our forecast. Taking a page from Amazon’s playbook, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are using their own members-only sales events to build out their retail memberships.

Walmart’s digital ad revenue grew 26% in Q2 2024, ahead of Amazon’s 20% growth, according to the company’s earnings.

Digital technologies are reshaping customers' in-store payment experience. Here’s what payment providers must know about in-store payment digitization trends.​

Amazon received 236.9 million unique US visitors in June 2024, according to Comscore. It far exceeded Walmart in second with 137.2 million unique visitors.

Retailers faced no shortage of challenges in the first half of the year as elevated interest rates, the lingering effects of inflation, and a loosening labor market weighed on consumer spending. In this report, we’ll contextualize our coverage of retailers’ Q2 revenues across four key verticals: department stores, home, mass merchants, and off-price.

US apparel ecommerce sales are set to reach $263.18 billion by 2028. To take advantage of this opportunity, brands and retailers need to understand online sales trends as well as shopper behaviors and preferences.​

In August, brands got physical, with Olipop entering a new stadium, Nordstrom inking a deal with Rihanna, and Walmart growing with nonendemic retail media opportunities. Others took a more digital approach, making shopping more seamless on social media sites and AI-powered search. Here are the moves that made our analysts name eight brands to our unofficial most interesting list in August. 

Gen Z shoppers embrace Temu, Shein, and TikTok Shop: 1 in 4 makes a purchase at a Chinese online marketplace at least once a week, as their array of cheap, trendy goods proves impossible for the price-sensitive cohort to resist.

YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon are Gen Alpha’s coolest brands, per an August 2024 report by Beano Brain that surveyed more than 55,000 kids under 14. To foster relationships with the generation that not only has growing spending power of its own, but also influences parent purchases, marketers will have to understand its evolving digital habits.