The retail space is changing rapidly as marketers experiment with things like retail media, generative AI, and social commerce. In this discussion, Zia Daniell Wigder, Chief Content Officer, Insider Intelligence, talks about the trends on her radar and what she learned at Shoptalk.

Sam’s Club rolls out closed-loop attribution: Connecting the dots between ads and cross-channel sales should help advertisers be far more efficient with their retail media ad spending.

Where many retailers struggled last year, Dollar General succeeded as cost-conscious consumers sought out lower prices amid inflation. But there’s a larger opportunity on the horizon for Dollar General: retail media. The discount store’s ability to reach rural audiences coupled with its popularity among marketers place it in a favorable position for the years ahead.

Which networks should brands be paying attention to as they refine their retail media strategy? From the king of them all to the ones that are just catching up, here are five retail media networks to keep an eye on this year.

An emerging tension between retailer ads and customer experience (CX) is brewing as consumers grow more attuned to high ad loads online and in stores. Retailers’ core competency of delivering exceptional CX is now being pitted against their own retail media networks’ desire to expand their digital advertising surface area to capture high-margin revenues.

Asos is working with Criteo to expand its retail media business: The retailer hopes that retail media revenues can help it navigate the challenging economic environment.

“We’re showing 20.5% growth for retail media ad spending this year, and 22.9% actually accelerating into next year,” said senior forecaster Ethan Cramer-Flood at our recent “Attention! Seizing the Retail Media Opportunity” summit. That stat assumes inflation will cool some in the second half of this year, which our forecasters currently predict it will.

This year, we forecast that Walmart’s digital ad revenue growth will outpace Google, Meta, and even Amazon. This success is driven by updates made to Walmart’s retail media platform as well as partnerships to help advertisers activate across channels like social and connected TV. “You know [how they say] crawl, walk, run? We’re getting to that walk/run phase now where our platform is maturing,” said Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president and general manager at Walmart Connect.

Walmart is taking a page from Amazon: The retailer looks to diversify its revenue streams by growing its ecommerce, retail media, and services businesses.

Just two days ago, another TikTok ban bill was proposed. Though it’s not law, there are already state bans for the use of the social media app on government phones or accessed through Wi-Fi offered at some state colleges.

Retail media will be a $45 billion market this year and will continue to grow by about $10 billion in 2024, according to our forecast. Currently, the majority of retail media ad spend is driven by search. But the next phase will be driven by upper-funnel formats and in-store ad opportunities.

US display ad spend will grow by 15.7% this year, reaching a total of $163.29 billion. Here are five charts that offer a closer look at what display ad spending looks like in 2023.

US social ad spend growth will near 9% this year and return to double digits in 2024, per our forecast. Last year’s 3.6% increase reflects a normalization after 2021’s rapid growth, as well as targeting challenges resulting from Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework.

Shopify delivered a stronger-than-expected Q4: But the company’s efforts to turn around its lackluster 2022 remain a work in progress due to the tough economic environment.

Among the major global platforms, Facebook and Instagram will remain firmly at the top in both total revenues and user base, and TikTok will once again be the fastest-growing platform in both areas

Sick of disappointing retail news? So are we. Just like we’re sick of paying $6 for a carton of eggs. Some good news: US employers added 30,000 retail jobs in January, offering a big boost after a sluggish second half of 2022, when retail jobs fell for three consecutive months from September to November and were stagnant in December. Here are some more positive indicators.

Previously, we didn’t expect video to hit the 50% milestone until after 2024. With advertisers preserving more of their social video budgets during the downturn, this trend was accelerated.

Amazon’s revenues rose 9% in Q4: While the company’s highly profitable retail media business continued its upward trend line, ecommerce sales fell 2% YoY.

Does a set of standards devalue retail media networks’ walled gardens? Unilever is trying to convince the industry that it doesn’t, and is urging competitors to come together.

Walmart’s fledgling retail media business made big gains in Q4: Ad spending on the platform rose 31% YoY thanks in part to the ads’ growing effectiveness.