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The insight: Costco firmly rebuffed a shareholder proposal that challenged its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives鈥攁 marked contrast with retailers like Walmart and Lowe鈥檚 that have scaled back DEI measures in response to pushback from activist investors.

Why it matters: The new ad product reinforces Amazon鈥檚 position as a dominant force within digital advertising and will help solidify its grip on retail media even as competitors like Walmart and Instacart enhance their own capabilities.

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.

Walmart expands third-party seller features as it tries to take on Amazon: The retailer is seeing early results from its marketplace initiatives, but its share of the market will remain at just 2.2% this year compared with Amazon鈥檚 72.4%.

The ecommerce search experience is ripe for reinvention: Pinterest, Walmart, Etsy, and others are relying on AI to deliver more relevant results and drive sales.

Walmart, for example, bought a mall in February. 3. Wellness isn鈥檛 going away. Consumers鈥� relationships with fitness and wellness are 鈥渇undamentally different鈥� than they were five years ago, Chernofsky said. The fitness industry has seen continued growth in visits YoY every month for over three years, per Placer.ai.

Walmart de M茅xico y Centroam茅rica (Walmex).

The news: Target鈥檚 weak guidance eclipsed better-than-expected Q4 results, as it followed Walmart and Amazon in predicting a significant hit to profits amid tariff uncertainty. By the numbers: While Target has notably struggled to keep pace with its mass market peers, its Q4 showed promise.

Walmart expanded its retail media offering to linear TV (using QR codes) through its partnership with NBCUniversal. The retail giant also completed its acquisition of Vizio, paving the way for a much larger CTV ad offering that could include shoppable ads. Instacart launched shoppable ad formats on YouTube and Roku, expanding its off-site advertising offerings.

Walmart enhanced its product development by collaborating with platform creators on back-to-school merchandise. Forever 21 used virtual item performance data to guide physical product development decisions. Our take: For brands struggling to connect with younger demographics through traditional channels, Roblox's immersive experiences represent the next evolution in digital engagement.

Amazon and Walmart account for 84.2% of US retail media ad dollars, per our November 2024 forecast, leaving other RMNs competing for a small slice.

Olipop is currently available in nearly 50,000 stores across the US鈥攊ncluding 12,000 Starbucks caf茅s as well as Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods Market鈥攚hile Poppi recently launched a limited-edition flavor and apparel collection at Target, in addition to splashing out for its second-straight Super Bowl ad.

Walmart has also ventured into shoppable entertainment over the past few years, including with the debut of its first shoppable feature film, 鈥淛ingle Bell Love,鈥� on the Roku Channel last holiday season and a shoppable rom-com 鈥淎dd to Heart鈥� in 2023.

Walmart expanded its retail media offering to linear TV (using QR codes) through its partnership with NBCUniversal. The retail giant also completed its acquisition of Vizio, paving the way for a much larger CTV ad offering that could include shoppable ads. Instacart launched shoppable ad formats on YouTube and Roku, expanding its off-site advertising offerings.

Boots鈥� home market has pursued widespread distribution in the US through Walmart, Target, Ulta Beauty, and Amazon, and expanded its brand marketing by partnering with American actress Elizabeth Banks since 2023 to launch new products and build awareness in the US.

Yeah, I mean Walmart, which is the closest analog to Amazon, has also been very conservative about their expectations for the coming year, even though Walmart is technically less exposed to tariffs.

Walmart Connect has partnerships with NBCUniversal, Roku, and Disney Advertising to enhance targeting and measurement capabilities. Albertsons Media Collective works with NBCUniversal to provide advertisers with CTV measurement solutions. Best Buy Ads and Roku enable advertisers to use Best Buy鈥檚 first-party data to target and measure CTV campaigns across the streaming platform.

Amazon and Walmart are among the retailers that have implemented generative search on their shopping platforms. Tech heavyweights are also moving quickly. Meta is working on its own AI-powered engine, while other players have rolled out search functions, including:. Google: AI Overviews. OpenAI: SearchGPT. Perplexity: Pro Search and a macOS desktop app. Microsoft: Bing Generative Search.

And being able to market products to its massive customer base gives Walmart a key competitive advantage over more traditional financial institutions. Keeping these offerings in-house also ensures Walmart gets more of the payments revenues they generate and helps it avoid paying as many costly fees to other payment providers.

Digitally native D2C brands embrace traditional retail strategies: More are inking partnerships with retailers like Amazon and Walmart to expand their reaches and offset soaring acquisition costs.

Meanwhile, a growing focus on price and value is pushing shoppers toward lower-priced competitors like Walmart, Amazon, and Ulta Beauty. Our take: The retail landscape is always in flux. Even amid the swirling headwinds, 5,800 new stores are expected to open this year. But the merchants that will succeed are those with a clear, compelling value proposition.

While Temu, Amazon, and Walmart will drive most of the growth, there鈥檚 still room for growth. Just ahead of the new year, Lowe鈥檚 and Best Buy each announced plans to launch third-party marketplaces. And we think dollar stores may be next.

Retail media鈥攅specially on platforms like Amazon, Walmart Connect, and Instacart鈥攊s tightly linked to product availability, competitive pricing, and shopper intent. Tariffs on imported goods, particularly from China, could squeeze margins for marketplace sellers and force price increases, suppressing ad spend.

Amazon is the largest retail media player by far, with $39.81 billion in US retail media ad revenues last year鈥�Walmart came in second at $3.87 billion, by comparison. Hy-Vee and others are fighting for scraps, but claiming even 1% of the expected $62.35 billion in US retail media ad spending this year represents hundreds of millions of dollars.

Walmart Connect and international expansion power retail giant to 26% advertising growth. Walmart's global advertising revenues rose 26% in Q2 as the US-focused Walmart Connect division outperformed with 30% growth. Walmart Connect's growth has been fueled by a surge in advertiser participation, including marketplace sellers.