蘑菇AV

In Brazil, 63.2% of consumers use mobile banking at least once a week鈥攆ar outweighing the 49.7% of US consumers who do so, per a 2023 PYMNTS survey. Even lower-income consumers are frequent digital banking users. For example, Brazilians in the low-income bracket were more engaged with financial apps than their counterparts in the US, per PYMNTS.

The company has also begun paying small and medium-sized vendors both in the US and abroad after months鈥攁nd in some cases, nearly a year鈥攐f missed payments, according to WWD. It pledged to pay down $275 million in past-due vendor bills through monthly installments starting in July, with the goal of paying off all outstanding balances by Q2 2026.

The trend: Walmart has begun rolling out 鈥淪ummer Frights鈥� Halloween displays in about 1,000 stores across the US, featuring quirky early-season items like watermelon jack-o鈥�-lanterns and ghost plushies in Hawaiian shirts. Our take: Walmart is smart to embrace offbeat retail moments like Summerween. While consumers are cutting back on discretionary spending, they continue to splurge on seasonal celebrations like Halloween and the holidays. Halloween alone has become a major retail event, with spending hitting $11.6 billion last year鈥攁 31.8% increase from pre-pandemic 2019. Summerween pulls some of that spending forward and gives budget-conscious shoppers a playful reason to open their wallets鈥攅ven if they鈥檙e feeling spooked by the economy.

Go further: Read our latest report on US Retail Ecommerce Returns 2025.

The news: Users will no longer be able to pay with their PayPal accounts in Google and Samsung wallets in the US, per a Verge report. Linked PayPal accounts will be automatically deleted by Google Wallet on June 13. Users can add their PayPal Debit Mastercard as a replacement payment method. PayPal鈥檚 cards can also be added to the Apple Wallet. Why the switch?

Restaurant sales rose 5.3% YoY in May, the third straight month of growth above 5%, per the US Commerce Department. That鈥檚 a clear sign that consumers are still spending but being pickier. Editor's note: This content is part of 蘑菇AV鈥檚 subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports.

Five leading GLP-1 drugs are projected to account for over $51 billion in US sales for two companies this year鈥攗p 49.1% YoY鈥攑er an April 2025 analysis from I-MAK. This includes Novo Nordisk鈥檚 Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus (semaglutide), and Eli Lilly鈥檚 Zepbound and Mounjaro (tirzepatide). The forecast $51 billion represents a 49.1% jump from 2024 and 155.2% from 2023, per I-MAK.

Some shoppers will scale back spending altogether, while others will seek savings by turning to discount retailers, private labels, or secondhand sellers. We forecast back-to-school sales will rise 3.0% this year, a slowdown from 3.3% growth in 2024. Retail ecommerce back-to-school sales are set to increase 6.8%, a deceleration from last year鈥檚 7.4% gain.

More than an AI pilot, Green Dot Assist will roll out across the US and Canada in fiscal 2026 as part of CEO Brian Niccol鈥檚 effort to reverse slowing US sales and restore brand efficiency. Starbucks showcased the tech to 14,000 managers, signaling confidence in scalability. Can AI brew efficiency?

Influencer spending growth in the US will slow but surpass $13 billion in 2027, according to our March 2025 forecast. This comes earlier than we had projected in our March 2024 forecast, demonstrating accelerating growth. Click here to view our full forecast for US influencer marketing. Proving ROI is essential for credibility and continued investment.

According to our forecast, approximately 15% of Americans use X. But that doesn鈥檛 mean those users trust X and Musk with their sensitive financial information. Convincing them otherwise will be a long, uphill battle.

The trend: Over three-quarters of US hospitals now task pharmacists with patient care responsibilities, according to a recently published survey from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. Our take: Struggling retail pharmacies should also entrust pharmacists to play a bigger role in patient care, especially as some drugstores pivot to health-focused store formats.

Layoffs have outpaced hiring for the past three consecutive quarters in the US, per Janco Associates, and more than 62,000 tech jobs have disappeared in 2025, per Layoffs.fyi. In May, Business Insider laid off 21% of its workforce and highlighted a 鈥渉uge opportunity鈥� for early AI adopters. Business Insider and 蘑菇AV are both owned by Axel Springer.

Brand challenges: Capri is banking on reviving Michael Kors, which has faced trouble in the US due to discounting and competition from brands like Coach. It has also reportedly explored a sale for Jimmy Choo. It recently launched an Amazon storefront for Michael Kors and plans to renovate roughly half of its stores.

Kennedy thinks pharma ad rules are too lax, and have caused an overreliance on prescription medications in the US. He also believes media companies don鈥檛 fairly cover the drug industry since they heavily rely on its ad dollars.

Chinese consumers鈥� travel spending softened during a recent holiday: That鈥檚 a clear sign that confidence is strained due to trade tensions with the US.

Social shoppers regularly buy products on Reddit鈥�16% make purchases via Reddit once a week, while 24% make purchases two to three times monthly. Yes, but: Advertisers haven鈥檛 fully tapped into the platform. Reddit captures only 1% of US social ad revenues, and many brands still consider it an experimental platform where it鈥檚 difficult to understand what works and what doesn鈥檛.

In 2025, US digital gamers will spend nearly as much time playing as social network users spend on social platforms each day (1 hour, 48 minutes versus 1 hour, 51 minutes, respectively). But at $8.76 billion, US gaming ad revenues will account for just a fraction of the $102.66 billion that social networks garner in ad spending.

The backdrop: As khakis lost favor in the US, Dockers tried to expand into more tops and bottoms鈥攂ringing it into direct competition with Levi鈥檚 and weakening the parent brand鈥檚 focus. The buyer: Authentic Brands, which owns labels like Nautica and Eddie Bauer, is known for acquiring heritage brands with high name recognition and licensing potential.

Digital audio consumption continues to grow in the US. Younger audiences are leading the way, adopting platforms like Spotify and audio content like podcasts.

The USDA projects US orange production will fall to its lowest level in 88 years this year. Florida鈥檚 crop alone is expected to plunge 33%, hurt by unfavorable weather and persistent citrus disease.

PRO+ subscribers have access to Industry KPIs, our collection of more than 400 benchmarks in marketing and retail and ecommerce across a range of industries and countries. AIOs are eating into traditional search ad real estate. Last May, AIOs took up to 600 pixels of screen space on search results pages, per BrightEdge data.

While most of Ralph Lauren鈥檚 supply chain is outside the US, no single country accounts for over 20% of production, while China represents a single-digit percentage of the products sold in the US. Even so, both companies are taking a conservative approach to the year ahead.