On today's episode, we discuss the implications of the Federal Trade Commission thinking Amazon tricked customers into signing up for automatically renewing Prime subscriptions, whether it makes sense for companies to force livestream shopping on Americans, if speciality stores really work, the impact of Facebook and Instagram restricting news access in Canada, whether reduced inflation can save the day, what a real work-life balance looks like, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian, vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti, and analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf.

Cross-border ecommerce continues to rise in popularity among US consumers, even as growth in the number of buyers slows. In 2023, the US will rank second globally in total cross-border buyers, with 69.8 million, per our forecast. It will trail far behind China’s 280.0 million, but that’s because of relative population sizes.

Moving across the US-Canada border can be the first step toward international expansion for retailers. Canadian brands like lululemon athletica and Aritzia are thriving in the US. Meanwhile, US-based companies Lowe’s, Nordstrom, and Bed Bath & Beyond recently announced they were leaving Canada. And let’s not forget Target’s famous Canadian failure. Here’s a look at how brands on both sides of the border have fared, and the lessons you can learn from them.

Consumers value features that protect their accounts and financial data, based on our exclusive survey data and analysis of 42 emerging features from the seven largest Canadian financial institutions in their mobile banking apps.

Canada is behind other Western economies in digital payments adoption, but new technologies are finding footing against cards. Diving into usage among different demographic groups foretells how adoption will progress.

Retail media networks will challenge Google and Meta, and offer retailers serious margins.

Search advertising is the oldest form of digital promotion, with roots in Google’s rise during the late 1990s. Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) were disciplines that brought legitimacy to digital marketing departments. The sustained performance of search to this day is a big part of why Google remains such a powerful digital ad platform.

Canada ramps up 5G security: Huawei and ZTE solutions are banned. Critics say the move comes a little too late as telecoms bear the burden of replacing without disruption by June 2024.

Canada’s digital audio audience is growing faster than any other digital medium we track in the country, including digital video viewers and social media users. This year, digital audio will match terrestrial radio in listenership and exceed it in engagement, according to our forecasts.

According to a PayPal-commissioned poll by Maru Group in July 2021, almost three-quarters (72%) of adults in Canada said they like being able to order groceries online,

Ecommerce sales in Canada will reach $79.80 billion in 2022, up 10.4% year over year (YoY).

Time spent with digital audio surpassed that of radio for the first time in 2021.

Canada’s Generation Z—the kids and young adults in the country born between 1997 and 2012—is a lucrative demographic for brands, especially as it ages into higher levels of income.

In 2021, digital payment card transactions—credit card, debit card, and prepaid card—will total $67.74 billion in Canada.

Canadian viewership will reach new heights this year, according to our latest digital video viewer forecast.

In the past year and a half, several traditional brick-and-mortar retailers in Canada have accelerated their personalization and segmentation efforts, largely due to the pandemic and the need for brands to communicate more effectively via email.

eMarketer senior analyst Paul Briggs discusses one thing that summed up 2019 for him, as well as some of his predictions for 2020, focusing on video streaming and TV viewing in Canada.