Digital grocery has evolved from a pandemic-era convenience to a core retail channel. More than 90% of US consumers now shop for groceries both online and in-store, according to FMI and NielsenIQ. As the channel matures, the competitive battleground shifts from basic fulfillment to AI-powered personalization, retail media monetization, and seamless omnichannel experiences. This FAQ addresses the trends, players, and strategies shaping digital grocery in 2026.

Amazon is pushing suppliers to cut prices amid lower China duties and questions over tariffs’ legality

The growing role of AI in shopping is forcing retailers to rethink discovery and decision-making. Walmart, for example, is embedding its ecommerce capabilities into external AI assistants like Google’s Gemini. Meanwhile, Amazon is keeping AI-led discovery and decision-making inside its own ecosystem with tools like Rufus.

This FAQ discusses how the holiday marketing season is evolving into a longer, leaner, and more competitive period, driven by economic headwinds, earlier shopping behavior, and the growing importance of retail media. It outlines why marketers must plan earlier, prioritize measurable and omnichannel strategies, and avoid overconcentrating spend around the Cyber Five to capture demand across an extended season.

As streaming services capture an increasing share of both viewership and subscription revenues, this FAQ will help marketers understand the terminology and dynamics shaping video advertising in 2026.

As genAI assistants play a more prominent role in shopping, retailers and brands will have to rethink how their loyalty programs support direct consumer relationships, and how loyalty benefits can be surfaced in AI conversations.

OpenAI seeks real consumer intent, and a potential Pinterest acquisition would give OpenAI first-party shopping signals and native ad infrastructure to rival Google and Meta.

Next year will bring shifts that redefine how networks operate, how brands show up, and how performance is measured. Here are three predictions for commerce media in 2026.

In a year marked by platform volatility, AI acceleration, tariff shocks, and shifting consumer behavior, marketers searched for clarity across EMARKETER’s most-read topics. The top 10 themes reflect where advertiser attention truly moved in 2025. These trends captured the forces reshaping performance, discovery, and measurement: AI-driven optimization, creator-centric social ecosystems, commerce-led advertising, and CTV’s rise as the new premium video default. Together, they tell the story of a market recalibrating around efficiency, accountability, and cultural relevance as marketers prepared their 2026 strategies.

As 2025 closes, we’re assessing where our predictions for the payments industry went wrong, specifically for pay-by-bank solutions for major retailers.

Capital One is reportedly exploring alternatives to its AWS cloud contract because of rising AI costs.

Amazon’s grip on ecommerce stays firm—for now—as Prime-led growth holds steady, yet AI agents could eventually challenge its ecommerce and retail media supremacy.

While online pharmacy is booming, access to an in-person pharmacist remains important. Expect chains to focus on smaller, health-focused stores and expand their digital services in 2026.

Retailers faced a challenging year as economic factors, new technologies, and changing consumer behaviors reshaped the landscape. Here are our top five stories from this past year and what they meant to a tumultuous industry.

In 2025, retail media found itself at a turning point as networks, advertisers, and platforms pushed into new territory and redefined what the channel could be. Here are five of our top stories from the year, from the challenges of tracking CTV campaigns to the evolving competitive landscape shaped by Amazon, Walmart, and a wave of innovative smaller networks.

Amazon is recalibrating its relationship with the agencies and adtech firms that helped build its retail-media dominance. While Amazon insists agencies remain central, many intermediaries say rising data costs and tool duplication echo earlier platform playbooks from Google and Meta—centralize strengths, limit external dependencies, and scale in-house automation. The result is a more controlled, AI-driven ecosystem that may reduce tooling diversity while boosting Amazon’s own ad stack. For marketers, the challenge will be balancing Amazon’s convenience and scale with the flexibility, transparency, and customization offered by independent partners.

While we were right that retailers would offer richer in-store experiences to attract shoppers, we were wrong about how Amazon, discount retailers, and dollar stores would evolve their physical and digital strategies. From AI tools that stayed online to unfulfilled marketplace ambitions, here’s how we did with our 2025 predictions.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss our “very specific but highly unlikely” predictions for 2026: what Amazon will do with the price of Prime; between OpenAI and Apple, who’s most likely to buy whom; and why a potential WBD acquisition by Netflix might not go through in 2026—if at all. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Principal Analyst Nate Elliott, and Vice Presidents of Content Suzy Davidkhanian and Paul Verna. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Amazon has partnered with the fintech Slope to offer AI-underwritten financing to Amazon sellers and reduce friction in the lending process. Eligible US Amazon merchants will be able to apply for and access loans through their seller accounts. Amazon could position itself as the go-to platform for higher-volume sellers as well as a more sophisticated alternative to financial institutions—and compete aggressively based on accuracy of underwriting and the time between applications and loan funding. It is the wise move for banks to move into embedded lending for ecommerce rather than try to sell loans to these merchants directly.