Temu overtook Target in US unique website visitors in January, but Walmart and Amazon remain on top (by a wide margin, in Amazon’s case), per Comscore Inc.

Holiday retail sales will grow by approximately 4.5% in 2023, a slight increase from the previous year’s 3.9% growth, according to our June forecast. While this growth may not seem significant, it would represent the sixth-fastest growth rate in holiday sales in the past 15 years, according to our forecast.

The IAB and MRC propose retail media guidelines to help solve the industry’s measurement problem: The framework is meant to improve transparency and ensure consistency across RMNs.

Here’s how ad buyers ranked the retail media networks of 14 leading CPG-focused retailers—including Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Amazon, Costco Wholesale, CVS, Instacart, Kroger, Target, and Walmart—according to the attributes they value most.

Mcommerce will account for almost half (49.8%) of US ecommerce sales by 2027, according to our forecast.

Key stat: A majority (73%) of US adults are not at all comfortable with Amazon biometric payments that would allow hand-scan checkout at Whole Foods Market, per CivicScience. That’s 5 percentage points lower than in 2019.

Nielsen reverses stance on Amazon first-party football data: After networks and industry groups cried foul, Nielsen won’t include Amazon data in its panel currency.

Retail’s resilience and its outsized role in digital ad spending will help offset the impact of a broader slowdown in growth in the US digital advertising market.

Shopify looks to competitors for help as growth slows: The company’s partnerships with TikTok and Amazon should help with customer retention and acquisition.

Mcommerce sales growth will slow again this year as the market normalizes from the pandemic peak. But the channel is growing twice as fast as desktop as people do more online shopping on smartphones.

Walmart expands third-party seller features as it tries to take on Amazon: The retailer is seeing early results from its marketplace initiatives, but its share of the market will remain at just 2.2% this year compared with Amazon’s 72.4%.

Amazon’s advertising division ranked highest in our Power of Amazon in 2023 report. Its retail ecommerce division, Amazon’s biggest business by dollars, lost share between our initial rankings in 2021 and our current forecast.

Best Buy believes we’ve hit a low point in tech demand: The combination of inflation and shifting spending patterns has made for a tough environment for the consumer electronics retailer.

Amazon and Disney could team up on ESPN: Thursday Night Football could make Amazon a desirable partner for ESPN’s uncertain streaming future.

On today’s podcast episode, we take a deeper dive into lesser-known areas of Amazon’s business. First, we examine the initiatives at play for the company's TV and voice businesses. Then, we discuss Amazon's ambitions around “just walk out” and smart payment technology. Tune in to the conversation with our analysts Grace Broadbent, David Morris, and Yory Wurmser.

Target shifts away from a nationwide distribution network: By placing goods closer to customers, the retailer is delivering orders faster and speeding up store replenishment.

ByteDance is dead set on building up TikTok Shop in the US: Its aggressive moves to build a robust shopping service could lead to a $500 million loss this year.

Amazon wants to compete with FedEx and UPS: The retailer relaunched its Amazon Shipping service, which delivers products sold on Amazon's marketplace, sellers’ own websites, and other sites and marketplaces.

This month’s ad platforms update is all about analytics, with Google, TikTok, and Microsoft announcing improved reporting tools. Plus, Amazon announced on-site and off-site retail media innovations. And we saw some interesting ad network updates from Lyft and Intuit. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new.