蘑菇AV

That dovetails with a recent CNBC study that suggests US companies will import slightly more items for the peak holiday season this year compared with 2023. The conditions suggest a relatively healthy landscape for retail, which is in line with our expectations of US retail sales growth of 2.8% this year, up from 2.1% last year.

The news cycle slowed for a while as much of the business world took a break over the holiday season. But it didn鈥檛 stop entirely. Here are a few useful things to know about that you may have missed:.

How we got here: Both card networks likely benefited from strong travel spending and holiday shopping in Q4. Domestic flights increased 84% YoY in Q4, according to Emburse data. And international flights surged a whopping 998% YoY as consumers released pent-up travel demand and countries relaxed COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Holiday shopping. Issuers also benefited from strong holiday spending throughout Q4. US holiday retail and ecommerce sales reached $1.297 trillion last year, according to Insider Intelligence forecasts. Looking ahead: Economic headwinds coupled with an elevated reliance on credit cards among consumers may increase the risk of missed payments and delinquencies.

We're in the holiday season, so I'll start off with some holiday stats. 81% of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers say they're ready to splurge this holiday season, but 62% say they are not financially prepared to do so. Ready to splurge, not financially prepared to do so, who can't relate? That's according to Harris Poll data.

Amazon grows ad revenues by 19% in Q3: Sports, shoppable ads, and live news bolster its appeal to advertisers.

In a recent campaign, Ninja leveraged an array of Roundel鈥檚 cross-platform solutions with remarkable success during the holiday season. Taking a full-funnel approach, inclusive of awareness tactics like CTV and YouTube, alongside conversion-driving tactics like Target Product Ads and on-site display, allowed Ninja to drive a 16% sales increase year-over-year from 2022 to 2023, per campaign data.

Meta is calling this year its 鈥渇irst AI-powered holiday season.鈥� It鈥檚 expanding audience targeting and campaign management and budgeting through Advantage+ shopping campaigns. Player: Walmart. Walmart Connect is putting Sponsored Videos in search results. These video ads are an opportunity for visual storytelling within a retail media format. Player: Pinterest. Pinterest is offering more ad formats.

She pointed to a series the retailer did on cooking with BuzzFeed and a holiday shopping experience with NBCUniversal. Livestream has a 鈥渇ear of missing out鈥� (FOMO) factor that normal video content does not.

More than half (51%) of US adults planned to purchase resold clothing as holiday gifts in 2022, according to Deloitte. Sustainability can make resale a feature, rather than a caveat, for gift givers. Twenty-three percent of US and UK consumers said sustainability is a brand bonus when buying, according to an October 2022 survey from Coveo and Arlington Research.

Macy鈥檚 futureproofs: Gennette said that while the company is taking a cautious approach after seeing more pronounced lulls during the holiday season, Macy鈥檚 is prepared to 鈥減ounce when opportunities and signals present themselves.鈥�. The retailer continues to mine its credit card data to assess consumers鈥� financial health, as well as identify where their spending priorities are going into 2023.

Stretched budgets will allow even less wiggle room for big-ticket items like electronics and jewelry, both of which saw sales fall during the 2022 holiday season, per Mastercard SpendingPulse data. And any excess funds are more likely to be funneled to services like travel and dining out over items like televisions and furniture.

Over the same time period, despite fluctuations during the holiday season, mobile order values averaged $139 compared with desktop鈥檚 $164. A separate study by Salesforce Commerce Cloud found that mobile faces an 85.0% abandonment rate compared with desktop at 75.0%. 鈥淓ven though there鈥檚 been an increasing amount of investment and emphasis on mobile, desktop still has an edge,鈥� Droesch said.

How retailers can prepare for the holiday season in 5 charts. How Casper, Albertsons, and Nike gamify the customer journey. More Chart of the Day:. 8/23 - Programmatic OOH watch. 8/22 - Gen Z鈥檚 social motivators. 8/21 - Buying into Klarna. 8/18 - Agencies in review. 8/17 - Marketing measurement mix-ups.

Holiday shopping helped lift buy now, pay later (BNPL) volume in Q4 but couldn鈥檛 compete with 2021鈥檚 BNPL surge. Some clients tightened their lending standards, which also hurt Marqeta鈥檚 volume. What鈥檚 next? Marqeta anticipates a modest slowdown in consumer and business spending in 2023鈥攖hough not to the extent that a recession would bring.

Balances are expected to increase in Q4 as the holiday season increased pressure on consumers. Banking heads are beginning to take threats of a coming recession more seriously, and their commentary around Q4 earnings releases will likely describe the steps they鈥檙e taking to weather the storm, including references to recent and upcoming job cuts. Dates to watch:.

The news: The ad downturn is extending past the summer, past the holiday season, and into 2023. Nearly 30% of major advertisers say they鈥檙e cutting their ad budgets into next year, according to a World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) survey of 43 multinational companies. 74% said the economic downturn is influencing their 2023 budget decisions.

The feature will be available to Walmart Luminate Charter subscribers before the end of the year, in time to capture 2024 holiday sales data. 2. Temu. Temu鈥檚 newly opened US warehouses are helping it ship faster, allowing it to better compete with other major ecommerce players with local fulfillment centers such as Shein and Amazon.

Entertainment brands embraced shoppable media last holiday season鈥攚ith partnerships between NBCUniversal and Walmart, as well as Roku and The Coca-Cola Co.鈥攇iving rise to interactive ads that allow viewers to purchase products between episodes or films. These blends of streaming and shopping help advertisers capitalize on popular content while delivering an interactive, convenient experience. 3.

Walmart had a strong holiday season but posted a cautious outlook for 2023. Keeping prices low will likely play to the retailer鈥檚 strengths as consumers seek less expensive alternatives to brand-name products, though there is a risk that sticking to low-priced private label goods could backfire if the margins are too low. Gassed up: OPEC+ announced earlier this month it would cut oil output.

That鈥檚 up from 11% in June 2022, fueled by rising grocery prices and deal-seeking holiday shoppers. A shocking 43% of people ages 18 to 34 paid for Walmart+ as of December, way up from the 19% who subscribed as of June. For comparison, 60% of survey respondents paid for Prime in December, down from 62% in June. And it鈥檚 not just the low prices.

To promote its partnership with Target, iconic toy store FAO Schwarz (which has only one location in New York City) hosted a series of toy demonstrations in Target stores during the 2022 holiday season, giving consumers the chance to touch and feel the toy offerings before making a purchase. Nike is another brand that uses its physical locations to increase brand affinity among customers.

What United鈥檚 OOH campaign reveals about the channel: Digital billboards give OOH a leg up over other traditional media.

We know that last year, 2022 had a sluggish holiday season with US sales growth around 5% per our forecast. Are people going to be willing to spend more than they did last year on toys this holiday season? Sky Canaves:. I think so.

Our latest analysis of 12 companies in Latin America unpacks key trends in the region鈥檚 retail ecommerce during H1 2023. This will provide retail and marketing professionals with insights into the current landscape, company developments, and what trends to look out for in 2024.