In 2026, stablecoins, agentic commerce, and AI-driven rewards will reshape the payments industry. Providers need to bet early or risk being sidelined by faster, cheaper, and more intuitive payment experiences.

Amazon is continuing to see success with its maturing ad offerings. Q3 advertising services reached $17.7 billion, up 24% YoY, while net sales increased 13% to $180.2 billion. Q4 guidance points to continued confidence, with Amazon expecting growth between 10% and 13% YoY. Amazon’s ad success indicates that it will continue to be a promising opportunity for marketers that offers a unique proposition combining data-driven targeting, commerce integration, innovative ad formats, and the ability to reach consumers both onsite and offsite.

Albertsons Media Collective, Evan Hovorka, retail media, RMN, commerce media, omnichannel marketing, contextual advertising, data collaboration, clean rooms, LiveRamp Habu, The Trade Desk, Meta, Pinterest, DV360, performance marketing, campaign continuity, retail media standardization, creative innovation, measurement transparency, non-endemic brands, PayPal, digital out-of-home, CTV, shopper experience, brand storytelling, in-store media, performance optimization, KPI-driven campaigns, grocery retail, media maturity, Ad Week New York

PayPal launched PayPal Ads Manager so that small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can create their own retail media networks and generate new revenue streams, per a press release. Layering retail media networks within its financial media network gives PayPal a dual pipeline for revenues. Within its Q2 2025 earnings, Brand Experiences accounts for two percentage points of growth YoY, matching P2P and Venmo. PayPal stands to juice these sectors even more, as advertisers and businesses clamor for access to valuable transaction data. Shoppable ads can reduce conversion friction, which could become a major differentiator for SMBs considering the best place to allocate their advertising budgets.

The digital ad market is splitting into a two-speed dynamic. Retail and a few fast-growing sectors are surging, while others are stalling slightly under regulation, weak demand, and economic strain.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how retail media is impacting traditional search marketing, and how marketers can best leverage themselves on the wave of new retail media network platforms. Then, we break down how AI tools will affect the future of paid search advertising. Join our conversation with guest host and Director of Reports Editing, Rahul Chadha, Principal Analyst, Sarah Marzano, and Senior Analyst, Max Willens. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

The news: Chases unveiled “The Shops at Chase,” an integrated shopping and promotion platform for Chase Freedom, Sapphire, and Ink cardholders. Our take: Being able to convert Chase rewards into material purchases is a draw. However, retraining Chase cardholders to make purchases at The Shops instead of starting their product search with Google or Amazon will be an uphill battle.

Retail media ad spending in France, Germany, and the UK continues to rise, outpacing all other ad formats. The space is developing rapidly despite fragmentation and a lack of standards.

With Amazon accounting for 76.7% of the US retail media industry’s $60.81 billion in ad spend, smaller retail media networks (RMNs) have to innovate to differentiate themselves in the longtail of the marketplace.

The payments giant is expanding its financial media network to monetize its data and push profitability efforts forward

Video ad spending continues to outpace overall digital ad spending and will power the fastest-growing ad-supported media.

Consumers typically buy consumer packaged goods (CPG) more frequently and often in-store, making those purchases different from general merchandise. Nonetheless, ad-buying on retail media networks (RMNs) is somewhat more established with more sophisticated options for CPG than for general merchandise because retail media has been a staple of CPG ad-buying for longer. That means CPG ad-buying habits could be a model for future trends in retail media.

The connected TV ad opportunity is growing significantly in scope. The promise of broad yet targeted reach, retail media tie-ins, campaign measurement, and ad interactivity are fueling strong spending growth.

Retail media was the fastest-growing ad channel we tracked in the US in 2024. While that growth will slow slightly (from 20.4% to 20.2%) in 2025, it’s still primed for innovation—and challenges. Here’s what our analysts and podcast guests had to say about retail media, with insights into what it means for 2025.

Walmart and Target reported their Q3 earnings last week. Despite varying retail success, both reported strong growth in their retail media networks—Walmart Connect’s US business grew 26% while Roundel’s growth was in the mid-teens, per CEO Brian Cornell.

US ad spend on financial media networks (FMNs) will more than double in 2025 and again in 2026. But with just $710 million projected in US ad spend in 2025, per June 2024 EMARKETER forecast, FMN ad spend will be 18 times smaller than retail media network (RMN) ad spend.

US travel media network (TMN) ad spend will reach $2.13 billion this year and increase to $2.96 billion in 2026, per our September 2024 forecast.

2024 has been a disruptive year for generative AI (genAI), which transformed from a buzzword into a practical part of marketing workflows, and commerce media as more platforms launch. Meanwhile, advertisers are still figuring out the lifespan of third-party cookies. And connected TV (CTV) advertising got a big boost from Prime Video.

What is non-endemic advertising, and what should brands and retailers know about this emerging ad format?

Retail media ad spending in the US will reach almost $55 billion in 2024, as advertisers’ focus on off-site spending intensifies.