Q1 results show how the biggest retailers are managing uncertainty as the Iran war pressures consumer spending

Major brands are racing to optimize their presence in large language models (LLMs), but they're confronting an uncomfortable reality: Traditional measurement frameworks don't work, and executives demanding ROI metrics may be asking the wrong questions.

Search ad spending keeps rising as AI fuels online discovery and people search across more platforms than ever. Despite this, search’s share of digital ad spending is edging downward due to faster growth in other channels.

Global ad spending is accelerating again, despite geopolitical shocks. Digital is tightening its grip, even as traditional media gets a temporary boost from major events. The sources of growth are shifting across regions—and among platforms.

Although the US economy is facing hard financial times due to rising gas prices and other headwinds, consumers expect to up their spending this summer, according to a Spring 2026 survey by Optimove Research.

The brand will make its Walmart debut next month as part of a broader emphasis on big-box retail.

As ecommerce scales, online returns are becoming a permanent margin drag. Fees and tighter policies can shift consumer behavior but put sales and loyalty at risk, forcing retailers to balance cost control with convenience expectations.

Retail media is concentrating as a scaled second tier takes shape and the long tail slips further behind. Growth will persist, but the hierarchy is sharpening, raising the stakes for how networks compete and where advertisers place bets.

As marketers increasingly bet on in-store commerce media and consumers shorten their shopping trips, GSTV argues that brevity is a reason advertisers should bet on convenience stores.

"Marketing is less about persuasion now, it's more about participation," said Justin Breton, head of partnerships, content and emerging experiences at Walmart, at the IAB Connected Commerce Summit last month. "How do you actually get consumers to participate with your brand?"

AI is rewriting the digital shelf. As discovery shrinks to a handful of recommendations, brands are forced to optimize for both humans and machines or risk disappearing early in the purchase journey.

Creator content is shaping how AI answers questions. But content that’s good at engaging audiences isn’t always what AI surfaces. That’s forcing brands to rethink their creator strategies and content formats so they can show up in AI tools.

The Walmart-backed fintech is expanding crypto use cases in the app.

Ad spending will surge in 2026 as AI-driven gains and a packed events calendar offset mounting economic strain. Social will lead the way as Meta overtakes Google in net revenues and the wider ad industry closes in on the half-trillion-dollar milestone.

A new spin on secured credit helps credit-thin consumers build credit profiles with guardrails.

The lack of a standard definition for agentic commerce reveals a fundamental split in how the industry is preparing for AI’s role in shopping

A divide between discretionary and essentials leaves rivals to compete on convenience or discovery.

Retail media is reshaping search advertising. Costs are rising unevenly while performance gaps widen, forcing advertisers to rethink where spend delivers real results as traditional search dominance fades.