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Pacvue expands beyond retail media to offer retailers a holistic ecommerce solution: The goal is to provide some consolidation in a highly fragmented, competitive marketplace.

With the anticipated growth of Prime Day sales, retail media spending will balloon as Amazon retailers invest in marketplace ads to capture more attention during the event.

Retail media spans a broad and growing merchant list, from marketplaces (Amazon) to department stores (Macy鈥檚) to ride-sharing apps (Uber).

The Trade Desk (TTD) made waves with its Sellers and Publishers 500+ Marketplace last year. The solution, essentially a large inclusion list, narrows the open web down to a subset of websites and apps that TTD regularly vets and updates. In 2022, GroupM launched Premium Marketplace to provide clients with direct access to high-quality inventory.

2023 has been a rocky year for retail, with layoffs, inflation, and a potential recession dominating headlines. Despite all that, footwear sales are doing quite well. 鈥淧eople wear shoes. That鈥檚 as simple as that,鈥� said Romy Samuel, founder of digital sneaker marketplace Common Ace.

TikTok is rolling out its Shop feature to all 100 million US users (per our May forecast), using a tab on the home screen to drive users to the marketplace and allowing videos directly containing purchase links, in order to drive in-app ecommerce traffic.

Temu surpassed eBay to become the second-most-visited online marketplace worldwide as of September 2024鈥攂ehind only Amazon鈥攑er Similarweb. Temu employs a shipping model, whereby ownership of products remains with the seller until they reach the end consumer. While the seller primarily focuses on production, Temu shoulders the logistics and marketing.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss how Costco is getting on and the vision for the wholesale retailer in a crowded marketplace. Then, for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank the two things Costco can take to the next level and two things it could do to get the naysayers to come back. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian and analyst Zak Stambor.

GMV from third-party marketplaces during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend grew 44% YoY. GMV from travel increased 42% over the same period. Expanding beyond traditional retail categories is also paying off: Professional and legal services GMV surged 60% YoY. Affirm Card GMV jumped up 113% YoY. Affirm said redesigning its app to promote the card drove volume.

鈥淎I agents are now players in the 尘补谤办别迟辫濒补肠别,鈥� said Bourne. 鈥淭hey're making decisions, they're consuming content, and they're the audience now. So you really need to optimize your strategy for the AI agents, but also continue to optimize for humans as well.鈥�.

Our take: While Amazon鈥檚 ad prices are increasing, per our Industry KPI data provided by CommerceIQ, consistently high ROAS has enticed merchants to continue to spend on its marketplace. Amazon鈥檚 streaming and live sports content is turning into a high-margin media empire and becoming a major driver of its advertising expansion.

Shoppers are responding favorably to the value and convenience Amazon offers鈥攏ot to mention the array of brands, premium or otherwise, available on the marketplace. We expect Amazon to gain ecommerce share across nearly every beauty subcategory this year, which is likely to accelerate the number of brands that set up shop on the platform鈥攑articularly as growth becomes harder to come by. E.l.f.

Marketplaces such as Shein, Temu, and Vinted are boosting mobile shopping. They have focused on growing their mobile app user bases and improving the app experience, which is paying off in key Western European markets. In France, app usage for the top 10 marketplaces is growing four times faster than website traffic, per a June 2024 report by Similarweb.

While Xbox Series X|S and the PlayStation 5 offer many advertising opportunities on console dashboards, marketplaces, and connected TV (CTV) apps, Nintendo has been notoriously slow to integrate its systems with internet-connected capabilities.

With regulators quick to seize on Shein鈥檚 and Temu鈥檚 every misstep, the two will have to invest resources to police their marketplaces more effectively, which could limit growth. Looking ahead: Going forward, Chinese ecommerce platforms face a much more difficult path to growth.

Walmart expands third-party seller features as it tries to take on Amazon: The retailer is seeing early results from its marketplace initiatives, but its share of the market will remain at just 2.2% this year compared with Amazon鈥檚 72.4%.

Kohl鈥檚, Michaels, and others launch third-party marketplaces to boost shopper appeal: At the same time, Wish, Zalando, and Amazon are focusing on improving customer satisfaction and reducing returns.

H&M will sell more third-party brands to head off competition from Shein: The fast-fashion company is the latest in a long line of retailers to turn to marketplace sales for growth.

Amazon late last year launched its own low-cost marketplace, Haul, where products retail for $20 or less. It also cut its commissions in some key categories. At the same time, Amazon is on a relentless push to lean into its Prime advantage鈥攆ast delivery times鈥攖o keep shoppers clicking the buy button.

Paul Ballew, chief data and analytic officer for the NFL, said in a press release that the sports league 鈥淸supports] Nielsen鈥檚 efforts to modernize measurement so we can all benefit from accurate insights in an increasingly fragmented media 尘补谤办别迟辫濒补肠别,鈥� calling the certification 鈥渁 significant step.鈥�.

The net impact will depend on the extent and duration of the tariffs and how effectively marketplaces support their sellers during the transition. CTV. We expect CTV ad spend to range from $29 billion to $33 billion in 2025, with a moderate tariffs scenario of $31 billion.

So Temu is going to be piloting paid search ads for its marketplace. It's also going to start an app at marketplace with inventory, logistics, management and other tools. I think it's a big deal considering how the competition that Temu has already given Amazon, adding an ad component, I think just kind of really adds fuel to that fire.

While Google has taken steps to crack down on fake reviews, stricter oversight from the CMA and a recent ban on such activity from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could force it鈥� as well as Amazon, Walmart, and any online marketplace鈥攖o impose stricter safeguards to keep such fraudulent activity to a minimum.

Walmart鈥檚 US ecommerce sales jumped 20% YoY, fueled by its expanding marketplace assortment and investments in faster, more efficient delivery. Target鈥檚 digital comparable sales rose 8.7%, in part due to surging interest in same-day delivery from its Target Circle 360 members. Ecommerce now accounts for roughly 20% of Target鈥檚 total sales.

Temu's US marketplace sales will grow 59.0% this year, according to our May 2024 forecast, which does not include the impact of potential tariffs. Another high-profile absence from this year's ad offerings is the automotive industry; only Stellantis-owned brands Jeep and Ram will make an appearance. Kia, which has advertised in 14 of the last 15 Super Bowls, will sit this one out.