Store brands have traditionally proliferated when inflation or a recession spurs consumers to spend more conservatively. But as store brands become more premium and fill specific customer needs, price is no longer the only driving factor.

In 2022, 40.7% of China’s digital ad spending will go toward the ecommerce channel, for ads offered by retailers like Alibaba and JD.com. This eclipses the share in the US, where 14.5% of digital ad spending will flow to ecommerce channel ads sold by the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and eBay.

European consumers are changing their buying habits vis-à-vis inflation: The war in Ukraine is impacting economic conditions in numerous European markets, driving up prices to near-record levels and reversing recent gains in consumer confidence.

Private label brands have taken on increasing importance in retailers’ arsenals on the heels of positive consumer sentiment. This report looks at how retailers can use store brands to bolster their product assortment and thus increase their margins.

Amazon workers vote to unionize as labor activism remains potent: A historic victory in New York could forever change Amazon’s relationship with its workers.

After a booming holiday shopping season in 2021, privacy-compliant consumer intelligence data offers a great deal of insight into what we can expect to see moving forward.

Here’s a breakdown of the online and in-store features that apparel retail shoppers value the most, and a ranking of how 10 leading retailers stack up.

People trust their gut, but AI doesn’t have one: Executives are guarded about AI adoption for high-level use. There’s a path forward, but given the risks, C-suite caution is wise.

Younger consumers turn to social media to inform their purchases: 45% of Gen Z shoppers use Instagram for product research, 1.5x more than look to Facebook and TikTok.

A new set of regulations on AI recommendation algorithms went into effect in China on March 1 in an attempt to introduce unprecedented oversight and inject transparency and accountability into an opaque industry. This is the first case of a major economy enforcing such sweeping rules on the machine, and the world is watching.

Amazon will account for 39.5% of all US retail ecommerce sales in 2022, or nearly $2 in $5 spent online. Altogether, the next 14 biggest digital retailers will make up just 31.0%, with the remaining 29.5% of the ecommerce pie going to everybody else.

In a study of select countries, adults favored in-store over online shopping everywhere except China. There, 54% would rather shop digitally and only 16% preferred physical stores, while the rest had no opinion.

US consumers pined for pre-pandemic pleasures in Q4 2021, with the delta wave receding and omicron just entering the frame—and it showed in their search behavior. Organic Google search visits to travel sites increased 41% year over year that quarter. Meanwhile, retail and consumer goods took a hit: Visits to those sites decreased 14% as the prospects of in-store shopping improved.

Traffic on ecommerce websites and apps is ground zero for establishing a retail media network.

Of the 10 biggest digital retailers in the US, Carvana will see by far the fastest ecommerce sales growth this year. The online car dealer is poised to increase sales by 50.0% to hit $19.11 billion in 2022. This speedy growth will blow past Target’s 22.3% bump and Apple’s 22.0% boost.

After more than doubling in 2020, US click-and-collect sales growth slowed to 9.7% in 2021, totaling $80.28 billion in sales.

The rubber band effect drove much of the top performing product categories and retail brands in 2021, as they snapped back from mid-pandemic lows.

US jewelry sales grew 27.5% in 2021 to reach $47.1 billion, making up 8.8% of the apparels and accessories category.

The pandemic has accelerated consumer adoption of QR codes. Here’s how marketers can take advantage of the technology.

Payments Ecosystem: This year will reveal how providers must adapt to lasting pandemic-driven digitization across payments channels, ranging from in-store retail to B2B ecommerce.