Quick commerce startup Gopuff raised $250 million at an $8.5 billion valuation—a significant downgrade from the $15 billion it commanded four years ago. Gopuff claims to be in the “strongest financial position in company history,” with record revenues and continued growth for its core businesses. To get to that point, the company has forged partnerships with companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Disney, a strategy that has broadened its audience and the appeal of its advertising platform. However, consumers’ reluctance to use quick commerce platforms, coupled with competition from DoorDash and Uber, could hamper Gopuff’s growth prospects.

Robinhood has partnered with Gopuff to deliver cash that customers have withdrawn from their Robinhood bank accounts. Robinhood is building on its super-app strategy for Gen Zers and millennials to draw them in with entirely new financial products: It recently added trading for nontraditional assets as well as “event contracts” to trade bets with other users. The Gopuff cash delivery partnership blends premium banking services that younger consumers expect with the digital access and convenience they’re accustomed to.

The news: Amazon has partnered with delivery firm Gopuff to bring ultra-fast delivery to several UK markets, including Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, and Manchester. Our take: Amazon’s focus is crystal clear: Get orders to shoppers’ doors as fast as possible. In the US, it has pushed next-day delivery as the new standard—even as it rapidly expands same-day service. In some cases, delivery happens within hours (for example, a Prime Day order we placed at 6 am today arrived at our door by noon.) To extend that promise beyond urban hubs, Amazon is investing over $4 billion through 2026 to triple the size of its rural delivery network. By year-end, it expects to bring same- or next-day delivery to more than 4,000 smaller cities and rural communities. Speed isn’t just a perk. It is the key component within Amazon’s growth strategy. The faster the company delivers, the more frequently consumers turn to Amazon for their everyday needs—and the harder it becomes for competitors to keep up.

Incrementality has always been the holy grail of retail media. But lately, it’s taken on greater importance as ad budgets are squeezed and retail media networks (RMNs) fight for their share of ad dollars.

As tariffs put pressure on retail media budgets, advertisers are, in turn, pressuring retail media networks (RMNs) for more sophisticated measurement tools that provide them with richer data across the entire funnel.

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.

Just Eat Takeaway expands retail media offerings with Rokt partnership: The delivery company joins DoorDash, Instacart, and Gopuff in enhancing its ad capabilities

Gopuff enhances retail media capabilities to help advertisers reach Gen Z, millennial audiences: The retailer hopes the moves will differentiate it in a crowded market.

The quick-commerce space isn’t totally dead: German startup Flink raised $150 million at a nearly $1 billion valuation, as the company finds success in staying local and partnering with food delivery platform Just Eat Takeaway.

Intermediaries like Instacart and DoorDash have a unique place in retail media. With consumers buying goods from major retailers through their platforms, intermediaries have engaged audiences and valuable first-party data. Here are three recent intermediary moves that caught our eye, and what they mean about broader retail media trends.

While intermediaries’ share of ecommerce sales (grocery or otherwise) will remain relatively flat for the next couple of years, they’re still a long-term threat to traditional retail. But there’s an opportunity for retailers to use intermediaries’ strategies against them.

Digital grocery sales are growing again across Western Europe as inflation forces higher spending, click and collect gains momentum, and mobile loyalty schemes come to the fore. ​

Here’s how ad buyers ranked the retail media networks of 14 leading CPG-focused retailers—including Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Amazon, Costco Wholesale, CVS, Instacart, Kroger, Target, and Walmart—according to the attributes they value most.

Evolving consumer behavior and easing regulations are opening new pathways for long-term growth.

The days of heady growth are over for rapid grocery startups: The once-frothy sector is now down to a handful of players and facing steep competition from Uber and Doordash.

Ultrafast delivery app downloads exploded worldwide during the pandemic. The top 10 apps in this space were downloaded 23.1 million times collectively in Q1 2022, according to Apptopia. Getir leads by a wide margin, ahead of rivals like Gopuff and Gorillas.

The rumors of rapid grocery’s demise are exaggerated—but not by much: While startups struggle to make the model profitable, Uber Eats and DoorDash see an opportunity.

A proposed rule would make it easier to reclassify gig workers as employees: That could have severe repercussions for DoorDash, Amazon, Uber, and countless others that rely on the gig economy.

The layoff-hiring puzzle: In what seems like a paradox, scores of layoffs coincide with hiring growth. Tech moves away from broad expansion plans while still needing software innovation to stay afloat.

Despite rapid grocery’s well-documented struggles, companies continue to invest in the space: Retailers see value in quick commerce even as Gorillas, Jokr, and others scale back their ambitions.