蘑菇AV

Earlier this year, Best Buy partnered with CNET to expand advertisers鈥� reach among high-intent shoppers. This is a part of a larger trend where retail media networks (RMNs) team up with outside partners to expand their ad capabilities.

Search is undergoing a seismic shift. Google is still the go-to for most inquiries, but generative AI is changing how people search, and leading people to explore alternative search engines. Meanwhile, paid search dollars are moving to retail media networks as shoppers begin their searches on Amazon and other retailer sites. And Gen Z鈥檚 search habits look different from older generations, with the cohort flocking to social media sites like TikTok and using visual search and chatbots.

In 2024, retail media ad spend will grow 28.6%, coming to just under $60 billion, per our forecast. To reach that potential, retail media networks (RMNs) need to identify what attracts advertisers and set them up for success. Here鈥檚 how three consumer packaged goods (CPG) leaders are thinking about retail media.

On today's episode, we discuss what to make of Microsoft putting ads in its AI-powered Bing Chat platform, the biggest pitfalls of companies using generative AI, and publishers' concerns about AI chatbots cutting readership. "In Other News," we talk about how much retail media networks are actually boosting the US ad market and which car manufacturers are leading the US electric vehicle (EV) race. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Gadjo Sevilla and Max Willens.

On today's special podcast episode, we continue our monthly show where we discuss the biggest trends of the moment and the newest research, sprinkle in some analysis, and bundle it up into a quiz. Every month, three of our analysts representing their respective coverage area teams compete against each other. (We also encourage you to play along at home.) We keep a running score and will crown a winning team at the end of the year. Today, we cover retail media network investment and experimentation, the generative AI (genAI) bubble, and Google's dominance. Tune in to the discussion with this month's contestants: our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian, analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, and vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti.

Retail media鈥檚 growth will continue to be fueled by two complementary advertiser needs: the need for measurable sales, and the need for privacy-compliant data that can be used to reach consumers at the top or middle of the purchase funnel.

With most of retail media ad spending dedicated to search, retail media networks (RMNs) will likely lean into the channel. There鈥檚 little early evidence that tariffs will disrupt the channel鈥檚 current plans for genAI. Neither incumbents nor upstarts appear to be pausing or revising their plans to incorporate AI more fully into their products.

奥补濒尘补谤迟鈥檚 retail media network generated 11 billion impressions in Q1: The retailer is chipping away at Amazon鈥檚 dominance, despite the latter鈥檚 moves to boost non-endemic spend.

Saks launches retail media network amid slowing sales: The ecommerce retailer is billing its offering as a unique opportunity to connect with luxury shoppers.

"Retail media could have a key role to continue driving growth for advertisers which sell products through retail," said Jonathan Fasano, business development director at Walmart Connect Mexico and Central America, during a recent 蘑菇AV Summit on commerce media.

Our annual Trends to Watch report for Canada highlights expected developments in the country鈥檚 media and advertising market for 2025. Next year, we anticipate a shift in media buying will favor domestic publishers and retail media channels, while large platforms will contend with the new Digital Services Tax.

Latin America鈥檚 commerce media ecosystem is rapidly evolving. Financial, travel, and other nonretail players are now looking to monetize their own first-party data鈥攆ollowing the path retailers have already paved.

Commerce media is expanding in terms of numbers of players, but ad spend patterns remain the same.

Video ad spending continues to outpace overall digital ad spending and will power the fastest-growing ad-supported media.

Non-retail commerce media channels typically mean payments, travel, and intermediaries that overlap with retail. But more nontraditional commerce media networks have been popping up from places like Mohegan鈥檚 casinos, RE/MAX鈥檚 real estate websites, and Planet Fitness鈥� gyms.

Retailers stop viewing the store as "a single moment and start to take a step back to ask 'What's the lifetime value of investment, and what role does the store play in driving that maximum lifetime value?'" said Ethan Chernofsky, senior vice president of marketing at Placer.ai, at last week's 蘑菇AV's summit on Commerce Media Trends 2025.

On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss some of the moves commerce media players have made this year to stand out from the pack, why advertisers are investing in more or fewer media networks, and the main challenges for advertisers when it comes to working with media networks. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Analyst Arielle Feger, and Principal Analyst Sarah Marzano. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Commerce media is an underused channel. The biggest channels for targeting SMBs are social media (59.6%) and email (59.1%), the 蘑菇AV and Intuit study found. Commerce/retail media networks are less used (17.2%). Commerce media networks can help marketers overcome their biggest hindrance to reaching SMBs: the size and diversity of the market.

As retail spending slows down, consumers are increasingly using the same feeds that fuel impulse shopping to bond over the collective desire to curb their spending. This makes an influencer strategy embedded in value and relatability crucial.

Regulation will disrupt some digital players, while retail media and genAI adoption will create opportunities across advertising and commerce.

Retail media will set the pace for digital advertising growth in the coming years as more retailers invest in monetizing the channel and more advertising options become available to media buyers.

Nearly every major retailer (and many smaller ones) has already launched media networks, but it鈥檚 not just for retailers anymore. While networks beyond retail have already begun to launch, 2025 will see more financial institutions, payment networks, travel companies, fitness centers, and more launch or revamp their own media networks. And as commerce media expands, so do the places ads are being served.

Walmart Connect today announced new in-store and off-site ad inventory, omnichannel measurement tools, and upper-funnel offerings. The retail media network (RMN) is providing advertisers with more opportunities to connect with customers on app, online, and in-store, Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Connect, said in an interview with our analyst Sarah Marzano.