The news: Amazon reported strong Q2 results for its advertising business, with advertising revenues reaching $15.6 billion—up a significant 23% YoY. Net sales increased 13% YoY to $167.7 billion, well above Q2 guidance that warned of “tariffs and trade policies” and “recessionary fears.” Our take: Moving forward, Amazon will need to innovate what it’s already offering by pioneering a retail media strategy that extends Amazon’s data and ad tech beyond its own storefront, AI-driven tools that simplify creative production and optimization at scale while prioritizing privacy, and more immersive and shoppable ad formats in its streaming offering.

Amazon shrugged off tariff concerns in its Q2 earnings report, after reporting growth ahead of expectations. But the retailer’s Q3 forecast was murky, suggesting that while consumer demand remains resilient, uncertainty from tariffs and trade policy—along with extensive investments in AI—could weigh heavily on its bottom line. Amazon’s strong quarter and Q3 sales guidance help dispel some fears about the health of the consumer. But its decision to once again offer an unusually broad profit range for the next quarter shows considerable uncertainty about the impact the Trump administration’s trade policies will have on retailers’ costs.

This is the first installment of our annual “Brazil Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our “Brazil Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our “Brazil Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The situation: Amazon and Google, once bound by a symbiotic relationship in which Amazon funneled ad dollars into Google Search and Google indexed Amazon’s pages, are now veering toward open conflict as generative AI (genAI) blurs the lines between ecommerce, advertising, and search. Both companies are determined to own the entire journey from discovery to checkout, and that ambition is unraveling what remains of their former détente. Our take: Amazon and Google are racing to define where and how consumers discover and buy products in the genAI era. If Amazon succeeds in walling off its marketplace data and steering shoppers to its own AI interfaces, the retail landscape could splinter into walled gardens where tech giants cooperate far less. That winner‑takes‑all dynamic might suit the victors, but it risks degrading the overall consumer experience with fewer choices and less transparent pricing. At the same time, it could lead brands and retailers into a margin‑sapping race to the bottom inside whichever closed ecosystem proves most dominant.

Consumer spending will be restrained during the 2025 holiday season as shoppers remain cautious amid ongoing economic uncertainty. That means retail and ecommerce will see the slowest growth since we started tracking the metrics.

North America was a bright spot for L’Oréal’s otherwise mixed Q2. Like-for-like sales in the region rose 8.3% YoY, more than twice the consensus estimate of 4%. L’Oréal’s bullishness about the health of the beauty sector is decidedly at odds with some of its peers. That doesn’t mean its optimism is entirely misplaced: L’Oréal is better positioned than its peers to capitalize on the beauty ecommerce boom, while its local manufacturing model significantly reduces its exposure to tariffs.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of July. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Vice President of Content and guest host, Suzy Davidkhanian (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Suzy Davidkhanian will defend their list against Senior Analyst Blake Droesch, and Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

Canada’s ecommerce market is catching up with global peers. A key factor: the growing digital presence of the “big three” grocery players—whose ecommerce sales we’re forecasting for the first time.

The triopoly looks stronger, but it's digital that's getting bigger. Amazon, Google, and Meta now command 58.8% of total US ad dollars, up from 47.1% in 2020. But that's not an indication that the triopoly's control of the digital ad market is growing.

Ecommerce growth is slowing as the market matures, but gains will come from mobile commerce, Gen Z buyers, and high-performing categories.

Our midyear report revisits the top trends we named in early 2025 to see what’s shaping the market, evolving fast, or fading in the rearview mirror.

In this podcast episode, we discuss Amazon’s yearly discount sales drive, Prime Day, and how it morphed into a 4-day shopping spree, the number of sales revealed on each day of shopping, how other retailers responded, and what should we expect when the holiday season approaches. Listen to the discussion with Analyst and guest host, Arielle Feger, Senior Analyst Zak Stambor, and Analyst Rachel Wolff.

The news: Amazon is acquiring AI wearables company Bee, opening up a path for the Big Tech player to reenter the wearables field. The startup sells $49.99 AI-powered watches, which record and transcribe all conversations. Amazon said all Bee employees have been offered roles at the company. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed. Our take: With Bee’s technology—and its endlessly refreshed user data—Amazon could incrementally improve its beleaguered Alexa or train future products. If the company plans to keep Bee running, rather than cancel the product and use its software elsewhere, it could have substantial competition in the AI wearables space—especially if OpenAI launches an AI device.

GenAI will reach about 51% of US internet users by 2029 as growth stabilizes, with search dominating use cases and Gen Z leading adoption. Amid rising competition from Google and others, ChatGPT will maintain dominance. Brands must adapt to AI-mediated customer relationships.

Target will no longer match prices at Amazon and Walmart, a move it claims will simplify its pricing policy, per a Bloomberg report. Strategically, this is another move that could backfire for Target, which is already having a hard time getting shoppers to its stores. It could widen the gulf that is emerging between the retailer and its mass-merchant rivals, who are increasingly using Target’s own tactics against it.

AI is upending every aspect of marketing, from neuro-contextual ads that read emotions to autonomous shopping agents that make purchasing decisions. As tech giants consolidate control of the sector, six pivotal trends are reshaping advertising, search, and commerce.

The news: President Donald Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, known by its shorthand as the GENIUS Act, during a White House ceremony on Friday. Our take: The GENIUS Act ushers in the clarity and legitimacy sought after by crypto players and traditional FIs alike.

The insight: Amazon’s decision to double the length of its Prime Day sale delivered significant rewards for its advertising business—as we said it would. The takeaway: The first four-day Prime Day was an important learning experience for brands. With the event unlikely to get any shorter, sellers will need to be more precise about their ad strategy—focusing spending on times of day when shoppers are more likely to buy, or saving the bulk of their budgets for end-of-sale urgency.