The news: To effectively engage Gen Z, banks must offer more than just basic digital experiences. This generation demands instant gratification, expecting rapid account openings, quick loan decisions, and frictionless onboarding. Gen Z also prefers visual learning, gravitating toward video explanations and gamified education for financial literacy. Despite their digital fluency, they still value human connection for problem-solving, requiring quick access to live help. Our take: Banks should move beyond traditional "channels" or "products" and design a responsive, omnichannel ecosystem that delivers education, trust, and personalization in real time, fitting seamlessly into Gen Z’s lives.

The market will return to growth in 2025, but retailers face ongoing disruption from ultra-fast-fashion players and TikTok Shop.

Retailers want richer experiences that still respect guest trust. Katy Hershey, senior director, partner solutions group at Roundel shares how Target’s 165 million guest profiles and 15 years of retail media insight fuels its brand-safe omnichannel campaigns—and outlines what’s next: goal-based buying, AI-driven personalization, and broader reach via off-platform partnerships.

There are now more than 80 retail media networks (RMNs) in the US. The volume of RMNs, combined with the dominance of Amazon and other established competitors, makes it challenging for new and niche RMNs to capture share.

Retail media ad spending in France, Germany, and the UK continues to rise, outpacing all other ad formats. The space is developing rapidly despite fragmentation and a lack of standards.

"Retail media could have a key role to continue driving growth for advertisers which sell products through retail," said Jonathan Fasano, business development director at Walmart Connect Mexico and Central America, during a recent EMARKETER Summit on commerce media.

Peloton balances expanding retail presence without busting budget: The company will build more “micro-store” kiosks as it pushes to meet consumers where they are.

Ikea thinks small: The retailer plans to open eight smaller-format stores this year to get closer to where its customers live and work.

B2B ecommerce growth is outpacing B2B product and electronic sales growth. And ecommerce site sales are taking an increasing share of the market. Macroeconomic conditions, buyers’ preferences, and AI use are fueling increased digital transactions, particularly through third-party marketplaces.

This deck provides critical data to help retailers benchmark their own ecommerce sales against the wider market.

Halfway through the current decade, retail media has bled into the wider concept of commerce media, which will be a $68.69 billion industry in the US this year, per our December 2024 forecast.

In 2025, retailers must prioritize data-driven measurement, seamless online-to-store experiences, and programmatic out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Seeking heightened measurement has nearly half of marketers emphasizing attribution, making actionable insights crucial. Meanwhile, bridging digital and physical shopping and leveraging real-time OOH campaigns can help retailers stay competitive. Here are three areas retailers should prioritize in 2025, according to industry experts.

Luxury brands are grappling with downturns in the US and China, the largest markets for personal luxury goods, and will have to seize opportunities for growth from new markets and product innovation.

Retailers are prioritizing unified commerce solutions to help gain a complete picture of their business operations—including consumer behavior. As the tech landscape becomes more complex, key players are emerging across channels.

As marketers attempt to piece together a full, nuanced picture of how their paid media affects outcomes, old-fashioned measurement tactics are coming back into vogue, and new players are rising to prominence.

US digital commerce platforms will process $471.37 billion of their own payments by 2026. As a result, they’ll enjoy stronger customer relationships, added revenues, and cross-sell synergy.

Loyalty programs are back in the spotlight in Western Europe as consumers seek savings and brands look to boost revenues and gather first-party data.

Summer is just getting started, but it’s already back-to-school season for parents. As of mid-June, nearly a quarter (24%) of US adults have already begun back-to-school shopping and another 45% will start sometime before the end of July, according to a March 2024 survey from LTK. As retailers roll out their back-to-school campaigns, here are three tips to keep consumers engaged and spending.

Leveraging over 90% of sales data, Target's innovative use of first-party information through its Circle program and Roundel network is redefining how brands connect with consumers. Explore the transformative power of data in crafting personalized shopping experiences that resonate and drive loyalty.

Ahead of his keynote session at this year’s CommerceNext event on June 11-13, Lockton shared how Tractor Supply leverages its physical and digital channels to connect with the retailer’s varied audience and how its retail media enables advertisers to target a hard-to-reach rural audience via digital channels.