In-store retail media is moving beyond pilot programs and becoming a strategic priority for major brands, with leading consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies now operationalizing campaigns across budgets, teams, and measurement frameworks to reach shoppers where most purchase decisions are made.

While consumers are always looking for more efficient ways to shop and engage with brands, they aren't always ready to trade that efficiency for relinquished control. Marketers seeking to enhance engagement with AI have an evolving tightrope to walk.

Amazon’s Interests AI delivers personalized recommendations: The feature is the retailer’s latest genAI-powered attempt to make the ecommerce experience more relevant.

Over half of Gen Zers discover products primarily on TikTok and Instagram: Google’s relevance is fading as social search takes over.

Amazon reevaluates social commerce ambitions with Inspire shutdown: The retailer is prioritizing Rufus and shoppable partnerships with TikTok and other platforms.

Instacart makes long-term bets on retail media: We expect the company’s advertising business to grow 16.1% this year and to continue expanding as it diversifies its offerings.

Instacart launches new ad formats to help CPGs drive impulse purchases: The delivery platform will roll out shoppable recipes, occasions, and bundles to facilitate discovery and boost brand engagement.

Not all assumptions about how Gen Z consumers shop are correct. While it’s true that they’re motivated by sustainability, they’re also limited by their budgets. It may be difficult to earn their loyalty, but they still have brand affinities. Here are four assumptions about Gen Z and whether there’s any truth to them—straight from members of Berns Communications’ Z Suite network of Gen Z consumers.

Shein, Amazon shift tactics to keep each other—and Temu—at bay: Shein is offering its supply chain services to brands, while Amazon is leaning into its delivery capabilities and customer service.

To help keep return volumes down, retailers are trying everything from implementing return fees to ensuring product descriptions are as accurate and detailed as possible. But there are still a couple of out-of-the-box solutions that they could try, like leveraging peer-to-peer solutions to cut down on logistics costs or being more cautious around inspiring impulse purchases.

A generous return policy can encourage consumer spending and inspire loyalty. On the other hand, a policy that makes it more costly or inconvenient for customers to return their items could sting a retailer’s bottom line. Here are some short- and long-term ways return policies can affect retailers, and ways to avoid charging customers a fee to cover return costs.

Amazon turns to Meta, Snap partnerships to keep TikTok at bay: As the retailer moves in on social commerce, TikTok is beefing up its supply chain.

Frictionless online checkouts allow consumers to click, pay, and complete purchases for exactly what they were looking for—but less so for what they weren’t necessarily expecting to find. For retailers, encouraging impulse purchases online requires a different strategy than at brick-and-mortar stores that capitalize on physical displays to prompt low-consideration additions to shoppers’ carts.

TikTok’s latest strategy to boost social commerce sales relies on AI: The social platform is testing a feature that automatically links users to TikTok Shop without creator input.

Over one-third (38%) of US adults have decreased their impulse spending this year, up from 14% in 2022, per a study commissioned by Slickdeals and conducted by OnePoll. As we enter the holiday season, there are still a few ways retailers can encourage impulse purchases, from experimenting with shoppable media and putting seasonal products front and center to anticipating the last-minute needs of customers picking up orders in-store.

Retailers can use digital wallets to speed up the checkout process both online and in-store and reward repeat customers. But creating a standalone wallet may not be the best solution for most retailers, and that’s where partnerships with existing providers can help out.

In-store shopping is seeing a resurgence as retailers continue to provide consumers with convenient and exciting purchase experiences. And with the holidays approaching, it’s important for retailers to evolve their in-store strategies to encourage repeat shopping.