This FAQ explores the evolving brand safety landscape, risks in creator partnerships and synthetic content, and the tools marketers need to protect their brands in 2026.

"Returns may feel like a cost center for retailers, but if you don't have the right levers in place and you don't treat it like an opportunity to court a customer, you might never get them back," said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian on a recent episode of “Reimagining Retail.”

In today’s podcast episode, we discuss why we think Meta will surpass Google to become the world’s leading digital advertising business this year, whether Google can wrestle back control in the following years, and how close Amazon is to getting a shot at the title. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Forecasting Analysts Zach Goldner and Drew Spink. Listen anywhere, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.

Rising gas prices are the visible face of the current energy crisis, but the real impact on retail runs much deeper. "Energy touches everything,” said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian on “Reimagining Retail.” “It acts more like a tax on fixed costs like fuel and utilities, leaving less room for everything else.”

This FAQ explores why event marketing is growing, what new technologies are changing the event landscape, and how marketers should approach event strategy in 2026.

Digital shelf labels (DSLs) are gaining momentum in retail stores, as major players prepare to scale adoption. Walmart recently announced plans to roll out DSLs across its entire store fleet within the next year, while Kroger has already begun replacing traditional paper tags with electronic labels in its Cincinnati-area stores.

Social media is emerging as a key growth channel for retail media networks (RMNs) as they expand beyond their owned properties.

In today’s podcast episode, we discuss what if Apple delivers on its vision of Apple Intelligence? What if Abercrombie evolves beyond retail into a lifestyle brand? What if Google starts paying for the content its AI uses? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Vice President of Content Suzy Davidkhanian, and Principal Analysts Nate Elliott and Yory Wurmser. Listen anywhere, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the difficulty of defining a department store, what to keep or discard from the old model, and how success should be measured. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Paul Briggs, and Analyst Rachel Wolff.

This FAQ covers what agentic commerce is, who the key players are, and what brands and advertisers should do about it.

On this episode, we examine the challenges and best practices for measuring impact of commerce media advertising. We discuss discuss moving beyond platform-reported metrics, incrementality testing frameworks, clean room strategies, cross-network measurement and building internal capabilities. Arielle Feger, EMARKETER’s Senior Analyst, Media Content hosts Jack Kneuper, Senior Digital Performance Marketing Manager at Perdue Farms and Matt Barresi, President of Digital Commerce and Capabilities at Kimberly-Clark.

In today’s podcast episode, we discuss the main takeaways from the recent social media harm trials, how much Americans are using social networks (and which ones they’re using the most), and the changes we expect to see as a result of this landmark verdict. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Principal Forecasting Writer Ethan Cramer-Flood and Analyst Emmy Liederman. Listen anywhere, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.

On this episode, we explore how leading brands are implementing successful offsite strategies. Focuses include data partnerships and clean rooms, audience targeting off-platform, measuring offsite incrementality, and balancing scale with signal quality. EMARKETER Senior Analyst, Minda Smiley hosts Jason O’Toole, Head of Connected Commerce & Media at Gildan and Ryan Verklin, Paid Media & Retail Media Senior Lead at Bayer.

This FAQ covers what AI creative optimization is, which tools are available, how consumers react, and how marketing teams should reorganize for the shift.

In this episode, we discuss digital screens and audio, connecting in-store exposure to purchase, attribution challenges, retailer infrastructure investments, and shopper experience considerations. EMARKETER Vice President & Principal Analyst, Sarah Marzano hosts Gabi Viljoen, Vice President & Head of eCommerce at Nestlé Health Science and Austin Leonard, Vice President and General Manager of DG Media Network.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the most interesting moments from ShopTalk, the three types of consumers retailers need to be thinking about, and whether retailers are overestimating or underestimating where AI is actually showing up in the customer journey. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, and Senior Analyst Carina Lamb.