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Why it matters: A take-private deal with Sycamore could include a sell off of some pieces of Walgreens鈥� business, such as Boots, the company's UK pharmacy chain that has been in talks to be sold multiple times over the past few years.

RH evolved from a furniture retailer to a lifestyle brand, in part by revitalizing landmark buildings such as a 17th-century estate in the Cotswolds, England, and using those spaces to house restaurants and showcase its wares. While it makes sense for Ralph Lauren to lean into luxury, transforming its brand perception will take time.

DMs began rolling out Tuesday in 鈥渕ost markets,鈥� excluding Australia, Japan, the EU, and the UK, per TechCrunch. The chats won鈥檛 be encrypted like XChat or WhatsApp. Why it matters: Threads is trying to get out from under Instagram鈥檚 shadow鈥擨nstagram accounts are required for signup, psychologically linking the two for many consumers.

The company also reported expanded adoption of Unified ID 2.0 across Japan, Italy, and the UK, and additional publisher integrations via OpenPath, including Warner Bros. Discovery and The Guardian. By the numbers:. Revenues: $616 million, up 25% YoY (vs. $575 million expected). Customer retention: Held above 95% for the 11th straight year.

Zara began testing a program for resale, repairs, and donations in the UK in late 2022, and H&M launched a new resale program in the US in March 2023. Shein鈥檚 P2P resale platform debuted in October 2022 and creates listings based on customer purchase history. But some of these efforts have also heightened criticism of the brands and their association with overproduction.

Klarna: The buy now, pay later company expanded its Ads Manager to the UK and Sweden, but Klarna has been fairly quiet on the retail media front. It risks being overshadowed by other payments companies entering the RMN game. This was originally featured in the 蘑菇AV Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.

Canada ranked No. 2 globally in cross-border retail ecommerce buyer penetration, according to our December 2024 forecasts. More than half (56.1%) of digital buyers were forecast to make transactions outside of the country (mostly the US) in 2025. But tariffs on US consumer goods and services will reduce demand significantly.

The audio platform also introduced Generative AI Ads, allowing advertisers to produce customizable audio spots at no extra cost鈥攃urrently in English with North American accents, with UK English coming next. Why it matters: Spotify is addressing digital audio鈥檚 underinvestment problem with tools that meet marketers鈥� growing demand for targeting, attribution, and automation.

CPG digital ad spending this year will thus account for a mere 5.4% of total digital outlays in Germany, well below their counterparts in France and the UK. To view the CPG industry digital ad spending forecast, click here. Among industries, too, CPG is the digital laggard.

Apple made its NFC tech available to developers in the US, the UK, and five other markets in the iOS 18.1 update. To use the tech, developers have to enter into a commercial agreement with Apple and pay fees. What this means: This could open the floodgates for more competing wallets on the iPhone. Google Wallet stands to gain the most.

Key stat: Inundating consumers with ads doesn鈥檛 make them move down the marketing funnel. 29% of ecommerce shoppers said being shown too many ads is one of the main reasons they abandon their cart, according to a Rokt and Harris Poll survey. Consumers prioritize personalibility and relevance. 74% would rather receive no offer at all than one that is irrelevant to them, according to the survey.

This year, TikTok will pull in 22 times the ad revenues of fellow fast-grower Mercado Libre($1.02 billion), but Latin America鈥檚 largest ecommerce retailer will rapidly ascend the advertising ranks in the coming years. Amazon will get a growth boost from its OTT video service.

Charlotte Tilbury rolled out its first-ever ecommerce app, which features personalized recommendations, early access to new products, and a video library of how-to tutorials and other app-only content. Est茅e Lauder launched an app in the UK and Ireland that helps visually impaired users more easily apply makeup.

The news: Checkout.com added card issuing to its suite of offerings for clients in Europe and the UK, per a press release. The API-based service lets businesses create physical cards and single- or multi-use virtual cards. It鈥檚 also designed so that Checkout.com shares interchange fee revenues with its clients. Why it鈥檚 worth watching: API-based card issuing is setting the pace of payments innovation.

The survey was conducted in China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US.

That increases the pressure on every retailer to find ways to distinguish their programs to keep shoppers enrolled. For example, beyond access to exclusive sales, Amazon Prime offers a broad swath of perks, including fast, free shipping; a free Grubhub+ membership; Prime Video streaming service; Prime Music streaming service; and photo storage.

And finally, we're in the UK to look at some of the legal implications that generative AI might throw up. At the end of last month, Getty Images issued a formal notification of impending litigation in the UK against text-to-image AI platform Stable Diffusion. Technology editor at France 24, Peter O'Brien, explains more. Peter O'Brien:.

Ingenico acquired UK-based software point-of-sale (softPOS) provider Phos, per a press release. Phos鈥� technology lets small businesses accept contactless payments with smartphones and tablets, and comes in a white-label version, enabling merchants to add their own branding. Visa and Mastercard are among the firms bidding to acquire cloud-based banking and payments platform Pismo, per Bloomberg.

Paze will hit 2% share of digital wallet ecommerce during Q4 2024. For now, it just houses and updates cards online鈥攈ardly the stuff to sway users of leading digital wallets that offer far more utility. But as 2024 unfolds, we expect Paze to woo merchants by layering data sharing and point-of-sale offer benefits into its no-fee value proposition.

This week, Disney鈥檚 EMEA division announced several new UK unscripted original titles for Disney+, including documentaries on sports brands, music, and fashion, with a focus on A-list collaborations. Warner Bros.

Outside of the US and China, the UK is the largest B2B digital advertising market. In the major markets of Western Europe, a relatively higher share of digital ad spending comes from B2B compared with the rest of the world. This will help put the UK, Germany, and France among the top countries for B2B digital ad spending outside of the US and China.