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The news: Walmart is scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including eliminating key partnerships and rebranding efforts, marking a significant shift in corporate diversity strategy among major retailers. The retailer is ending its $100 million commitment to the Racial Equity Center, a program launched in 2020.

Within retail media, Amazon commands more than three-quarters of the market, with Walmart coming in at a distant second. The remaining market is highly fragmented, with nearly 200 RMNs competing for less than 20 points in market share. Back-to-back announcements from Chase and PayPal have cemented financial services as a formidable part of the commerce landscape.

Amazon and Walmart combined will gobble up more than 84% of all retail media ad spending in 2025, representing a pervasive and unyielding dominance within the channel. The share of ad spending allocated to all other RMNs increased by less than 1 percentage point between 2019 and 2024.

Semrush data cited by Reuters found that Temu and Shein were buying Google ad space on search terms like 鈥淲补濒尘补谤迟 Black Friday,鈥� 鈥淏ed Bath Beyond,鈥� 鈥淲补濒尘补谤迟 Clothes,鈥� and other key terms with major competing brands in hopes of targeting consumers during the Cyber Five. CPCs on 鈥淲补濒尘补谤迟 Clothes鈥� increased 16 times from August 2022 to August 2024.

The grocer is losing ground to rivals due to its inability to stay competitive on pricing and lack of scale compared with companies like Walmart and Amazon. Without the merger, Albertsons may be forced to close stores and exit markets, company counsel Enu Mainigi said during the federal hearing.

Unlike Walmart鈥攐r Costco, which has a similar upscale customer base to Target鈥擳arget hasn鈥檛 found a formula that works in this macroeconomic environment. It is hard to shift brand perceptions, and Target鈥檚 increased emphasis on value is playing on turf owned by Walmart and Costco.

"Nobody ever talks about Sam's Club as much as they talk about Walmart, but they really are doing some cool things when it comes to making the shopping experience more frictionless," our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian said. "They're not using technology to use technology, they're using it to solve a problem, and I think that's probably what makes them stand out the most.".

Walmart expanded the beta test for its genAI shopping assistant and is using AI to show shoppers more relevant holiday content throughout the season. Our take: GenAI is set to play a larger role this holiday season. Retailers are trying to offer customers more relevant experiences, and customers are relying on the tech to research products and uncover deals.

Without the advantage of de minimis, Shein and Temu would lose their price advantage relative to players like Amazon and Walmart. The two also face growing competition from Amazon, which is challenging Shein and Temu on their own turf with its own low-cost marketplace, Haul, where all products sell for $20 or less.

The recent decision by Walmart to shut down its health clinic business and Walgreens to scale back its primary care investments reflect retailers鈥� challenges of operating two very different business models. Plus, a recent Bain survey revealed that less than one-third of consumers are likely to visit a retail store or pharmacy for primary care needs beyond vaccinations and common cold symptoms.

Pharmacies and convenience stores struggled as consumers shifted to lower-priced competitors like Walmart, Costco, and Ulta Beauty. Pharmacies鈥� margins also shrank under pressure from pharmacy benefit managers and waning demand for pandemic-era staples like tests and vaccines. Major chains like CVS (586 locations), Rite Aid (408), 7-Eleven (492), and Walgreens (259) all closed underperforming stores.

As the share of US ecommerce sales on marketplaces continues to expand, our latest survey examines consumer buying habits and expectations across leading platforms.

Just 15.8% of US retail media spend will go to networks that aren鈥檛 Amazon or Walmart, per our November 2024 forecast. That means retail media ad buyers will need to be selective about where investments go. While many networks are comparable (such as similar grocery retailers), they each offer unique audiences, measurement capacities, and ad formats.

But it still isn鈥檛 available at major ecommerce sites like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart. Availability on these platforms will be crucial for Paze to start gaining significant traction. Our take: Paze could transform the digital wallet industry鈥攂ut not for some time given its slow merchant rollout. Still, other wallets like Apple Pay and PayPal will need to prepare for Paze鈥檚 influence.

Forbes also held a Creator Upfront with Walmart in November, where a roster of creators pitched to potential brand partners the same way TV networks have long-pitched upcoming content to advertisers. Creators move to the living room. To break through the noise, brands and agencies will continue to test creator partnerships that span beyond an unpredictable algorithm on a social feed.

FMNs are modeled on retail media networks (RMNs) pioneered by Amazon and Walmart. But unlike RMNs, FMNs capture retailer-agnostic data鈥攁nd therefore a fuller picture of customers鈥� spending. Many FMNs are being built on top of existing reward programs and have built-in reward functionalities alongside advertising. FMNs let banks tap a lucrative advertising opportunity.

Coca-Cola鈥檚 steps dovetails with Walmart, Lowe鈥檚, and other retailers retreating from their DEI initiatives as conservative activists and shareholders put corporate diversity programs under the spotlight. Our take: Coca-Cola is making a bet that any criticism it faces from its more modest goals will quickly fade.