Retail media has matured greatly since our 5 retail media networks (RMNs) worth watching. That evolution has come from growth in spend (we forecast US omnichannel retail media ad spend growth at 26.0% this year, with larger increases in off-site and connected TV), in-store innovations, and new entrants from other non-retailers.

In today’s episode, host Bill Fisher is joined by researcher Man-Chung Cheung and analysts Sarah Marzano and Carina Perkins to discuss the in-store retail experience. What’s next for Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, what lessons can be learned from Asia-Pacific, and how is Tesco helping marketers get in on the in-store act?

JPMorgan Chase launched its Chase Media Solutions ad unit earlier this month. The venture looks a lot like a retail media network (RMN), with one important distinction—Chase is not a retailer. But because it’s monetizing purchase data, Chase Media Solutions operates a lot like an RMN.

As third-party cookies go away, “The question you need to be asking yourself is, ‘Are you data rich, or are you data poor,’” Joshua Lowcock, president of Quad Media, said on our recent webinar.

Amazon is ditching Just Walk Out in favor of Dash Carts. Not only will the move satisfy customers’ desire for familiar technology, but it’s also creating more ad inventory. Walmart Connect also emphasized its in-store retail media potential last week, with a focus on expanding familiar strategies like sampling and TV screens. This back-to-basics approach might spark more in-store retail media ad spend.

Our revised US resale forecast reflects a slowdown for the ecommerce-dominated market, as the cost of selling one-of-a-kind items online comes into focus.

Amazon will continue to gain market share, but new competition from Temu, Walmart, and other retailers could stunt future dominance.

Walmart Connect today announced new in-store and off-site ad inventory, omnichannel measurement tools, and upper-funnel offerings. The retail media network (RMN) is providing advertisers with more opportunities to connect with customers on app, online, and in-store, Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Connect, said in an interview with our analyst Sarah Marzano.

In the third of five reports in our “Payments Ecosystem 2024” collection, we unpack how the lines between POS hardware and software are disappearing as providers push the innovation envelope.

Brands and marketers have an increasingly prominent presence at the annual technology, arts, and culture festival in Austin, Texas, which this year took place from March 8 to 16. We break down the key topics that drew the most attention from attendees.

“What’s really exciting about retail media is a lot of it is uncharted territory,” said Paul Longo, general manager of retail media at Microsoft. “We’re in inning two, inning three. What’s gotten us here will not get us where things need to be.”

Growth has slowed, but bright spots remain in key categories.

AI-driven personalization is one of the top trends US digital retailers believe will impact their business this year. It’s tied with an increased focus on omnichannel tools like SMS, according to December 2023 data from Bolt.

We look at the demographic trends driving this and why retailers need to prioritize offering consumers’ preferred payment methods.

Nearly three-quarters (74.2%) of the $59.61 billion in US digital retail media ad spend we forecast for 2024 will go to Amazon. That leaves $15.35 billion going to non-Amazon retailers and $370 million going to in-store formats.That should excite marketers, said EMARKETER’s new principal analyst Sarah Marzano.

Though on-site search and display remain retail media’s bread and butter, off-site advertising—placing ads in channels outside of a retail media network’s (RMN’s) own properties—will lead the next evolution due to its ability to expand advertisers’ reach and achieve upper-funnel goals like increasing brand awareness.

“The beauty of a clean room is that it's a privacy-centric way for CVS to share data from its 74 million Extra Care members and for us to share the data from our 498 million users, and end up with a repository of powerful, completely anonymized first-party data,” said Carrie Sweeney, VP of retail at Pinterest. “Then we can connect our users with targeted ads without sharing any of their personal data, just as CVS can on its website.”

Consumers care about sustainability, but often aren’t willing to buy environmentally friendly products if they’re deemed lower quality, especially if it costs more. One solution for retailers and consumers is resale, an industry worth $108.64 billion in 2024, per our December 2023 forecast. Not all environmental initiatives have to be at the consumer level, though.

All eyes are on streaming. Last year, non-pay TV viewers surpassed traditional pay TV viewers in the US, per our forecast. Years of streaming platform proliferation are over, yielding to consolidation and fragmented ad measurement. Bundles between streaming platforms and partnerships with retail media platforms are forming, leaving media buyers with a headache over how to strategize.

Since bringing its retail media capabilities in-house, grocery giant Kroger continues to develop its self-service strategy for advertisers, Cara Pratt, SVP, Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°, recently told EMARKETER.