蘑菇AV

Our first-ever worldwide forecast for retail media ad spending shows enduring momentum and lots of good news for Amazon and other ecommerce platforms around the world.

Amazon is expanding its logistics network to include over 300 sea routes. The company claims this will facilitate hassle-free transportation from customs to final delivery for UK small and medium-sized enterprises selling to consumers across Europe.

Shein鈥檚 IPO delayed due to supply-chain concerns: The UK鈥檚 financial regulator is probing the retailer鈥檚 labor practices amid pushback.

Consumers鈥� adoption of AI banking chatbots varies by country. Though the US and UK promote their tech-friendly banking environments, the geographically concentrated, Big-Six-focused Canadian market has taken the lead in embracing this much-hyped tech.

UK budget spells trouble for retailers, warns Currys: The electronics chain says tax hikes will push costs onto consumers and limit its ability to hire more workers.

As the leading payment method online, mobile wallets account for 40% of all ecommerce transactions in 2024 in the UK, per Worldpay鈥檚 Global Payments Report 2025. PayPal remains the big kahuna in the UK mobile wallet space.

ASOS in October began charging UK shoppers who frequently return items a return fee of 拢3.95 ($5.26) if they keep less than 拢40 ($53.22) worth of items, per the BBC. Nordic department store Boozt banned roughly 60,000 so-called 鈥渟erial returners鈥� who it claimed 鈥渆xploit high service levels of free shipping and returns at the expense of our business, other customers, and the environment.鈥�

Tesco鈥檚 newest venture takes aim at Ocado: The UK grocer鈥檚 Transcend Retail Solutions division aims to help international supermarket chains develop their ecommerce operations.

UK retail footfall declined in November as shoppers waited for Black Friday deals: Poor weather and subdued confidence also weighed on traffic, souring retailers鈥� holiday prospects.

Next year, 20.2% of all US retail ecommerce sales will be returned, per our forecasts, a share that is likely similar in the UK. But lengthy return processes can be a major pain point. 蘑菇AV 40% of consumers expect a refund to hit their account within 24 hours when making a return, per Worldpay, but they often take multiple days.

Ecommerce鈥檚 share in both the UK and South Korea has been backtracking recently, and share growth in most other countries has become very gradual. But Indonesia is booming, thanks at least in part to homegrown digital retailers like Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and Blibli. Ecommerce鈥檚 share of retail will hold steady or increase in every country this year except the UK, Chile, and Hong Kong.

The news: Amazon announced its Prime Day event will run from July 8 at 12:01 a.m. PDT through July 11, starting eight days earlier than last year and lasting twice as long as previous events. Our take: Amazon recognizes that while consumers have grown more selective about when and where they spend, many will still jump at the chance to save if they find compelling offers. By extending Prime Day鈥檚 duration, adding tech-driven shopping tools, and broadening its footprint across countries and third-party sites, Amazon is turning the event into an inescapable, large-scale retail moment. Even in a margin-squeezed environment, the visibility and sales potential of Prime Day may be too significant for sellers to pass up.

In Germany, Amazon commands 80% of retail media spend, while the UK and France have more competition from grocery retailers, according to Perkins. With over 100 local retail media networks operating in Europe, fragmentation remains a challenge, particularly for cross-border campaigns. New predictions: Bold moves in response to tariffs.

Amazon can stake a claim as one of Canada鈥檚 top mass merchants, even without having physical stores. It has reached this milestone after more than three years of accelerated retail ecommerce in the country.

OTT video viewing is about to get a boost in the UK, as traditional TV viewing gets a broadband delivery option next year.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss why a surprising amount of people think Meta's Orion smart glasses are the future of computing, whether people will turn to Amazon for live news, what's happening to the middle of the market, why screensaver ads can have a significant impact, who was the richest American in history, and more. Tune in to the discussion with host Marcus Johnson, director of reports editing Rahul Chadha, and analysts Bill Fisher and Max Willens.

Its global same-store sales fell 1.5%, a much bigger decline than the 0.6% that analysts surveyed by StreetAccount expected, due to struggles in international markets such as the Middle East, France, and the UK. That was the second-straight quarter the company鈥檚 global same-store sales have fallen.

It will go live in the UK before expanding to other regions. The service will offer consumers more protection through a formal dispute resolution process and biometric verification. It will also let consumers monitor payments more easily and set up different payment permissions.

TikTok is primarily banking on countries in Southeast Asia to reach its objective, but it鈥檚 not giving up on the US: In May, the Financial Times reported that TikTok had restructured its ecommerce business to focus on the US and the UK. The US is the world鈥檚 second-largest social commerce market after China, generating $68.92 billion in sales this year, per our estimates.