Retail ended 2024 on a high note as mobile shopping drove ecommerce sales and stores staged a comeback. Will the 2025 holiday season be as fruitful?

Amazon and Walmart dominate the landscape, but the other half of US ecommerce sales is still up for grabs.

Best Buy faces stiff headwinds: The consumer electronics giant warned of higher prices due to President Trump’s new tariffs, which will likely crimp demand.

Retail media’s rapid growth has spurred nonretail verticals to harness their first-party data to fuel their own commerce media networks. Retail media spending still dominates the commerce media landscape, but distinct challenger cohorts are finding their footing.

Retail media will set the pace for digital advertising growth in the coming years as more retailers invest in monetizing the channel and more advertising options become available to media buyers.

Retailers have already announced more than 2,000 closures: Macroeconomic headwinds and category-specific challenges are expected to lead to roughly 15,000 store shutdowns this year.

In January, the most interesting retailers capitalized on New Year’s trends like resolutions, lower-alcohol consumption, and an influx of holiday returns. Poshmark and Sephora introduced new partnerships, while Amazon and Temu increased their own retail media-related offerings. Here are the eight most significant retail developments of January 2024, ranked by their potential market impact.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of January. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Sara Lebow (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 Analyst Arielle Feger and Senior Analyst Sara Lebow will defend their list against Senior Analyst Zak Stambor and Analyst Rachel Wolff, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

Existing home sales fell to the lowest level since 1995 last year: Conditions likely won’t improve much this year, which could spell trouble for housing-related retailers.

Best Buy takes another stab at an online marketplace: The consumer electronics giant, which operated a marketplace from 2011 to 2016, aims to align the marketplace’s SKUs with its product mix.

While our analysts have shared their major trends for the year ahead, the newsletter team has a few additional thoughts. In 2025, we think retailers will focus on personalized in-store experiences and technology to boost foot traffic and engagement while Amazon brings its AI assistant, Rufus, to brick-and-mortar locations. Discount retailers will struggle to retain customers, leading them to diversify or launch marketplaces to stay competitive.

The economy is looking good as the calendar turns to 2025: Consumers are in a good position to spend, but the new administration’s policies could change that trajectory.

Christmas Day is less than a week away, but some consumers are still chipping away at their lists. That’s why Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Dollar General are announcing last-minute holiday deals for consumers seeking the perfect gift.

November retail sales surge past expectations: Shoppers shifted their spending up a gear amid a flurry of deals and concerns over tariff-related price hikes.

Temu, Shein, and TikTok Shop are winning this holiday season: Sales growth for all three outpaced larger players like Amazon and Target in November.

Our annual Trends to Watch report for Canada highlights expected developments in the country’s media and advertising market for 2025. Next year, we anticipate a shift in media buying will favor domestic publishers and retail media channels, while large platforms will contend with the new Digital Services Tax.

Amazon launches Temu competitor Haul to maintain price advantage against online retailers: However, growing pains like shoddy AI-generated imagery could limit its traction with customers.

To take on retail media giants like Amazon and Walmart Connect, smaller networks need to constantly show what sets them apart and step up their media game.

GenAI could help boost the efficiency of customer service teams and give shoppers access to fast, personalized, 24/7 support. To make the most of the technology, retailers and brands need to understand the key use cases in a customer service setting—and stay mindful of the risks.

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.