Marketers project Q4 revenue gains: Sales to outpace ad spend growth, driven by focus on more efficient spending strategies.

Kroger benefited from shoppers’ deal-seeking behaviors in Q2: Despite a difficult operating environment, the grocer won over consumers with lower prices and expanded private label selections.

Ad spend continues to grow faster than the GDP, fueled in no small part by connected TV (CTV), retail media, social media, and search.

Two in three advertisers don’t plan to invest in new retail media networks (RMNs) in the next couple of years, according to Association of National Advertisers (ANA) data. “The majority of dollars used to fund investments in retail media are being borrowed from existing budgets within advertisers’ organizations,” said our analyst Sarah Marzano.

Ad spending on retail media will increase by more than $75 billion by 2028. To take advantage of this opportunity, retailers must understand advertisers' top priorities and be prepared to address their challenges.

In August, brands got physical, with Olipop entering a new stadium, Nordstrom inking a deal with Rihanna, and Walmart growing with nonendemic retail media opportunities. Others took a more digital approach, making shopping more seamless on social media sites and AI-powered search. Here are the moves that made our analysts name eight brands to our unofficial most interesting list in August. 

US ad market grows 14% YoY in July: While spending continues, the industry remains cautious amid economic uncertainties and election-year volatility.

Coupons play a bigger role in purchasing decisions as consumers become increasingly value-conscious. More than a quarter (26%) of US adults are using more coupons this year because of the state of the economy, according to July 2024 data by Prosper Insights & Analytics and the National Retail Federation. Here are five stats to better understand how and where consumers are seeking savings.

Lowe’s retail media network rebrand isn’t signaling a new identity, but a confirmation of the relationship it's built with its advertising partners.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of US data and ad professionals have adopted data clean rooms as a result of privacy legislation and/or signal loss, according to February 2024 data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and BWG Strategy. Since data is at the core of retail media success, enabling brands to target and measure campaigns more accurately, it’s not surprising that data clean rooms have come into play.

Digital ad spend grows in Q2 2024, says Skai: Retail media leads with 21% YoY increase, despite higher CPC and CPM across channels.

Another strong quarter for The Trade Desk: International growth and CTV surge, boosted by data-driven advertising and the new Kokai platform.

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.

An evolved form of omnichannel retail, adaptive retail tailors shopping experiences to meet the specific wants and needs of each customer by offering convenience, personalization, and a seamless shopping experience no matter how they choose to shop.

Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP) is launching display ads within its Scan & Go mobile checkout experience as an expansion of its omnichannel retail media formats. The move puts smartphones at the center of in-store retail media advertising, a move more retailers will likely make.

As consumers turn to social and retail media for discovery over traditional search engines, marketers face a shifting omnichannel advertising landscape. Effective strategies and the right measurement partners are crucial for optimizing cross-platform efforts and gaining holistic campaign insights.

“Google will account for over half of search ad spending this year, but Google's not the perfect fit for every query that every person could ever ask,” our analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said on a recent EMARKETER webinar. “It never has been, and now consumers are also going elsewhere to satisfy their search needs.”

Retail media networks are facing a little more competition these days as banks, payments providers, airlines, and hotels are starting their own media networks to monetize their first-party data and build out new revenue streams.

Search is undergoing a seismic shift. Google is still the go-to for most inquiries, but generative AI is changing how people search, and leading people to explore alternative search engines. Meanwhile, paid search dollars are moving to retail media networks as shoppers begin their searches on Amazon and other retailer sites. And Gen Z’s search habits look different from older generations, with the cohort flocking to social media sites like TikTok and using visual search and chatbots.

Amazon’s ad portal crashes during Prime Day: Though sales are unlikely to be impacted, the outage highlighted tensions between Amazon and sellers.