Retail media ads are an important way to boost marketplace spend, but how brands go about advertising requires strategy. When setting up your retail media approach this holiday season, consider which products sell when, what kinds of ads drive conversions, and the importance of discovery in retail media.

Walmart has the largest audience of any digital grocery platform. But our survey found that Amazon Fresh customers were more active and willing to try new products.

Brands must balance personalization with privacy considerations and ensure product pages are comprehensive and complete. Lower-funnel ad tactics and easily accessible shipping and returns info also help to encourage purchases. Here are four strategies to boost online conversion rates.

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.

Mobile wallet integration makes checking out more convenient, while composable commerce gives brands the ability to customize and alter their tech stacks to fit their specific needs. Generative AI helps to enhance personalization and product recommendations, and one-click checkout buttons speed up the payment process.

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.

As consumers hunt for the best deals, generative AI will drive $194 billion in consumer spending by enabling brands to provide personalized customer service, marketing promotions, and commerce experiences, per Salesforce. Social media advertising will also have an outsized impact on purchase decisions versus traditional marketing efforts.

Ecommerce sales growth worldwide is poised to increase by 8.9% in 2023 after increasing by 6.5% in 2022, according to our forecast. While this growth trend will continue in 2024—reaching 9.4%—ecommerce sales growth worldwide will fall to 8.6% in 2025.

Digital activity now plays a major role in product discovery, with younger generations driving sizable shifts in the way shoppers find new products.

Casper’s subway ads give commuters fun puzzles to solve while increasing its brand awareness. Albertsons Companies leverages a game to entice consumers to play for discounts and rewards. And Nike’s mobile app earns the brand a spot in consumers’ everyday lives. Here are five ways brands are embracing gamification across different stages.

While the retail media opportunity is massive, it requires reaching consumers across a growing number of channels and adapting in real time. Google—which receives billions of searches daily—can help capture new demand, and turn that demand into purchases, by bringing in valuable first-party data to a brand’s retail media program.

Digital commerce platforms are leaning heavily into payment processing to grow revenues and enhance customer engagement. But it’s still early innings: They are ripe for payment provider partnerships that can evolve as the platforms grow.

Instead of trying to compete with Amazon, Barnes & Noble is changing to appeal to consumers looking for the experience of an independent bookstore with the resources of a large chain. Leaning on local inspiration and a store layout that optimizes discovery, Barnes & Noble is revamping its 596 locations, as well as its membership program.

In the two years since our inaugural “Power of Amazon” report, Amazon has remained a retail and tech powerhouse—but it hasn’t been immune to economic uncertainty, shifting consumer behaviors, or increased competition. We examine how Amazon’s 19 business divisions have changed and how these new developments might affect your industry.

After three years of wild fluctuations in retail and ecommerce sales growth, a sense of stability and normalcy is slowly emerging. A healthy if unspectacular rebound for ecommerce is in the cards, and most national markets are heading in the right direction.

US retail ecommerce sales will reach $1.720 trillion by 2027, hitting a milestone of more than 20% of overall retail sales, according to our forecast.

As US mcommerce sales approach nearly half of total US online sales, marketers need to adopt mobile-first strategies that improve both the shopping and checkout experience. For those looking to boost adoption for their mobile shopping apps, banner ads are the best deal, though more interactive ad formats could become popular as retailers gamify their apps.