Digital ad spending growth in Canada is being driven in large part by a host of industries. Our rankings show that retail and consumer packaged goods continue to have the most ad spending share.

The retailer’s Great Value branded products are now harder to sneak by self-checkout thanks to barcodes embedded in their packaging

Amazon and Walmart are search advertising’s growth engines: The latter is a distant second to the former, accounting for nearly 4 in 10 non-Amazon retail media search ad dollars this year.

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.

Gen Z’s complicated path to purchase leans heavily on digital platforms and channels. But offline resources still play a key role.

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.

While travel media networks aren’t new—Marriott has had one for years—the burgeoning commerce media landscape is ripe for travel and hospitality brands to secure their share of ad dollars.

The 2024 holiday season is forecasted to top $1.353 trillion, according to EMARKETER. To thrive in this high-stakes period, businesses must embrace opportunities like AI-driven personalization, seamless payment options, and the longer gift-buying season.

The close tie between Amazon's ecommerce and advertising businesses presents both opportunities and challenges. "When ecommerce sales are growing, retail media dollars are going to go up,” our analyst Jeremy Goldman said on a recent episode of the "Behind the Numbers" podcast. “But when ecommerce dollars aren’t growing that much, it's harder to get the retail media dollars to grow because they’re so intertwined."

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

From the staying power of self-checkouts to the growing integration of mobile, here are three trends shaping the way consumers are completing their in-store purchases.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

Gauging the influence of digital on the shopper's journey.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss if ‘Just Walk Out’ technology will ever catch on at scale, how different generations respond to self-checkout, and what the next iteration of in-store payments will look like. Listen to the conversation with our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and David Morris.

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.

As consumers become increasingly cost-cautious, competition for dollars is fierce. Halloween costumes, decor, and party supplies may not be a top shopping priority, but specialty retailers such as Spirit Halloween still find a way to engage consumers and attract their dollars.

US omnichannel retail media ad spend will account for nearly a quarter of total media ad spend by 2028, reaching $129.93 billion, per our forecast. This growth will be fueled by a surge in retail media search, non-endemic partnerships, and off-site placements. However, financial media networks may give retail media networks some competition for advertiser dollars.

In today’s episode, host Bill Fisher is joined by Paul Briggs, Man-Chung Cheung, and Carina Perkins to discuss the longevity of subscription services and loyalty programs from both a client and corporate perspective. How many subscriptions can people afford, and how much can companies afford to give away as part of their loyalty programs?

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.

Retail media ad spending will be increasingly responsible for digital advertising’s double-digit growth. By 2028, the powerhouse channel will grow to represent nearly 1 in every 3 ad dollars spent.