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68% of US internet users think marketing from national brands with local messaging makes ads more relevant and shows advertisers are investing in local communities, per a study from The Harris Poll and Locality.

Cyber Monday will generate $13.93 billion in US ecommerce sales this year, the highest of any Cyber Five day, according to a July 2024 Ä¢¹½AV forecast.

37% of AI initiatives in the UK and US are run by the CMO or another executive, and 26% by a marketing operations team, per a November report from Invoca.

Social shoppers find inspiration for their purchases from many different types of content, but none more so than creator, influencer, or celebrity influencer content.

The news: Fiserv will acquire the remaining 49.9% stake in AIB Merchant Services, one of Ireland’s largest payment solutions providers and Europe’s largest ecommerce acquirers. Our take: Fiserv has to find innovative ways to grow among a competitive POS landscape, rising softPOS adoption, and pervasive economic uncertainty.

Computer and consumer electronics must mount a Prime Day comeback for Amazon to recharge its ecommerce growth. Amazon’s recent slowdown in ecommerce growth can be attributed largely to soft demand in one of its most critical categories—computer and consumer electronics. Computer and consumer electronics is vital to the health of Amazon’s ecommerce business.

The news: Walmart rolled out Sparky, its generative AI (genAI) assistant, to all Walmart app users this week—a preliminary step that puts it closer to achieving its agentic ambitions. Our take: By broadening Sparky’s capabilities, Walmart is trying to position itself not only as a shopping destination, but also as a place where consumers can go when they need everyday life advice or information—such as how to fix a leaky faucet or help with event planning. Whether the retailer succeeds will depend on how well Sparky works, and whether it can convince shoppers to overcome their current skepticism of AI tools.

As AI-powered CTVs become more sophisticated, they're creating new opportunities for content discovery, personalization, and ecommerce. The combination of AI assistants with visual search could make TVs less about passive entertainment and more about active engagement and shopping, which could increase the opportunity for CTV advertisers. AI wearables are still searching for their moment.

The news: Nearly half of US and UK consumers admit to abusing retailers’ returns policies in the past 12 months, according to a survey conducted by The Harris Poll. Our take: Retailers face a Catch-22 when it comes to returns. Being too generous opens the door for fraud and can result in retailers being overburdened by reverse logistics costs. But being too restrictive can deter shoppers from opening their wallets.

Search will account for 64.0% of retail media next year, as it is heavily tied to product discovery on ecommerce sites. Display will make up 25.0% of retail media ad spending, 11.0% of which will be video. In-store advertising makes up a small but growing share of dollars spent.

The ecommerce giant also revamped 26 Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers to include a wider array of products, including items from Whole Foods Market and Amazon.com. Amazon is building a micro fulfillment center attached to a Whole Foods location in Pennsylvania, enabling Whole Foods shoppers to order items from Amazon’s website and Amazon Fresh and pick them up in store.

The US is expected to remain the world’s largest market for personal luxury goods through 2028, with roughly 25% share of the total, per our Luxury ecommerce 2024 report. Shoppers between the ages of 18-34 are more than twice as likely to buy luxury goods on social platforms compared with older buyers, per our August 2024 Ä¢¹½AV Luxury Survey conducted by BizRate Insights.

Disney’s password-sharing changes didn’t boost subscriptions—yet: The company saw a slight dip in Disney+ subs as it faced a tough holiday period.

Temu and Shein ad impressions dropped to 0% as both retailers effectively cut off Google Shopping ad spend in April.

The market will return to growth in 2025, but retailers face ongoing disruption from ultra-fast-fashion players and TikTok Shop.

Although the Cyber Five will hit record ecommerce sales in the US this year at $41.43 billion, the retail event’s share of total retail ecommerce holiday season sales will continue to shrink, per our July 2024 forecast.