With an increasing number of ways to discover, research, and buy products, the customer journey is becoming less linear and more spread across touchpoints in the physical and digital worlds. We break down these changes and what retailers need to do to stay in touch with their consumers.

Search is already a major component of retail media; social is the next integration. Advertisers still view social media as a discovery medium and retail media as a conversion-driver. But both platforms are “potentially full-funnel,” according to Liz Cole, executive director and US head of social at VMLY&R, speaking at our “Attention!” summit.

What do you get when you cross a $35 billion ad platform with a 160 million viewer streaming service? A snapshot of Amazon’s US retail media connected TV (CTV) potential. Luxury brand Movado is leveraging that potential to push video campaigns for Amazon Prime and Freevee viewers.

Worldwide, retail sales growth has rebounded after taking a dive in 2020, per our forecast. Though growth rates won’t return to their pre-pandemic levels, they will stay steady through 2026. Meanwhile, ecommerce sales growth has decelerated after a few banner years, falling to single digits from 2022 through the end of our forecast period.

Private 5G partnership could boost enterprise adoption: The rise in ransomware and security exploits in enterprise will accelerate private 5G solutions. Provider consolidation can go a long way in gaining adoption.

Brands were abuzz at eTail West 2023 in Palm Springs this week, talking about tech, loyalty, and integration. Here are our top five takeaways from brands like GNC, Poshmark, and Spanx.

This year, we forecast retail sales of cosmetic and beauty products will reach $86.42 billion, a 7.6% increase from 2022. This increase will be driven in large part by in-store sales and luxury beauty categories. But going forward, technology may play a large role in driving online sales.

Consumer device and behavior trends are affecting payment providers’ strategies across retail, P2P, B2B, disbursement, and cross-border channels. Here’s what that means for the payments ecosystem.

Temu, the recent entrant to the US ecommerce market, has taken the ecommerce world by storm since its September 2022 launch. The China-based etailer went from zero to 44.5 million unique visitors by December 2022, according to Comscore—a virtually unprecedented growth in traffic in just four months.

It won’t get much better than low single digits going forward. The next few years will see low growth by historic standards but not to a disastrous extent.

Forty-four percent of US adults plan to spend their normal amount on health and beauty products this year, according to a MetaPack survey. More than two-thirds said they’re not changing their spending on apparel (39%) or on DIY and gardening (34%).

Click and collect has matured as an ecommerce channel, but growth will slow as pandemic concerns alleviate.

In the last quarter of 2022, Amazon increased its total net sales 9% YoY to hit $149.2 billion. But compared to the massive growth the company has experienced in the past, its Q4 results were a bit lackluster. From ad revenues to physical store sales, let’s take a closer look at how some of Amazon’s business units fared in Q4.

Online purchases will account for a growing share of total US retail returns.

We asked our analysts which companies they have their eyes on this year and why they’re positioned for potential success (or disaster). The Kroger Co., for example, is leveraging its digital offerings to scale its business, while Nike may pivot back to wholesale to stay competitive.

“If you’re going to grow a brand, it’s not going to come to loyalty alone. You will have to reach more customers. You will have to have more customers buying more often.” That’s according to Jared Schrieber, co-founder and former CEO of InfoScout (now Numerator), speaking on the “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast about his new book, “Breakout Brands: Why Some Brands Take Off...and Others Don't.”

Some 58% of Association of National Advertisers (ANA) marketers used retail media networks last year, according to a report from the ANA. In the next year, expect to see more movement from marketers outside of consumer packaged goods as brands look to take advantage of the recession-friendly ad space.

On today’s episode, host Bill Fisher is joined by our analysts Paul Briggs, Carina Perkins, and Man-Chung Cheung to talk about the biggest retail, advertising, and social media trends they expect to see in their regions in 2023.

This year, US retail returns volume will reach $627.34 billion, representing 8.5% of all retail sales, according to our forecast. After surging in 2020 and 2021 (due to the pandemic ecommerce boom and stimulus-driven boost in consumer spending), growth normalized last year and will continue to slow through 2024.

There’s often a perception that markets in Asia developed digital offerings far faster than the US and Europe—that’s only partially true in retail.