Sweater weather has arrived, meaning pumpkin spice-flavored everything will flood retail shelves. But consumers’ price consciousness could make it difficult for retailers to encourage spending on discretionary purchases. That’s why Amazon, Target, and Albertsons are expanding their private label brands, leaning on fun, seasonal flavors and small indulgences to get consumers to splurge beyond their normal groceries.

Consumers plan to return to malls this holiday season, shop more in-person: Mall visits are expected to rise 18%, which is good news for department stores—although Amazon, Walmart, and Target remain top destinations.

Temu is eating away at dollar stores’ market share: Dollar General and Dollar Tree face significant headwinds as their core customer base reduces spending and competition mounts.

Publicis acquires Mars United Commerce: The deal strengthens holding company’s ability to offer commerce media solutions.

GenAI could help boost the efficiency of customer service teams and give shoppers access to fast, personalized, 24/7 support. To make the most of the technology, retailers and brands need to understand the key use cases in a customer service setting—and stay mindful of the risks.

GenAI search could have a transformative impact on the shopping journey. To satisfy customers and stay competitive, retailers should focus on two essential innovations.

Amazon and Walmart are search advertising’s growth engines: The latter is a distant second to the former, accounting for nearly 4 in 10 non-Amazon retail media search ad dollars this year.

A truncated holiday spending period with fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the election will throw a curveball to retail sales this season, our analyst Sky Canaves said on an episode of the “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast. In-store retail will see healthy growth, consumers will continue holding back on splurges, and mobile will uplift overall ecommerce. Here are three trends we’re predicting for the upcoming holiday season.

When it comes to retail memberships, Amazon is the leader, boasting 97.2 million household Amazon Prime members across the US, nearly three-quarters of the country’s total households, per our forecast. Taking a page from Amazon’s playbook, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are using their own members-only sales events to build out their retail memberships.

Retailers faced no shortage of challenges in the first half of the year as elevated interest rates, the lingering effects of inflation, and a loosening labor market weighed on consumer spending. In this report, we’ll contextualize our coverage of retailers’ Q2 revenues across four key verticals: department stores, home, mass merchants, and off-price.

Both retailers used generative AI to improve employee productivity in Q2—Walmart leveraged the tech to improve its product catalog and Target used it to enhance in-store employee tools. Target’s curbside pickup service helped it grow digital comparable sales 8.7% YoY, while Walmart’s marketplace and sales of GLP-1 drugs contributed to its 4.2% comp sales growth YoY.

US retail and ecommerce sales will maintain stable growth over the next five years, with pockets of opportunity emerging from new digital consumers and mobile-first online shopping trends.

Target’s comparable sales rose for the first time in five quarters: While the retailer’s value-oriented focus hit the mark in Q2, Target took a “measured approach” with its outlook ahead.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

As ecommerce grows in back-to-school shopping (34.9% of total back-to school sales this year versus 33.5% in 2023), content creators are playing a pivotal role in how consumers find school supplies. This shift is driven by younger parents buying classroom supplies for K-12 children and college students outfitting their dorm rooms. Both groups favor online shopping for its convenience and the ability to compare prices, our analyst Sarah Marzano said in a recent edition of our “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast.

Small-format stores are gaining popularity among retailers trying to get closer to where consumers live and work. Some retailers, like Macy’s, are using small-format stores to reach consumers in more urban locations. But others, like Target, are going for a slightly different demographic—college students.

Urban Outfitters and Pacsun are tapping into Pinterest and in-person experiences to get students and families shopping, while Meijer, Walmart, and Target are focused on value. Those are just a few brands that made our Unofficial Most Interesting Retailers List, Back-to-School Edition, for July 2024.

Amazon, Walmart, and Stitch Fix lead retailers when it comes to AI implementation: But retailers of all sizes are leveraging the technology to drive sales and improve CX, according to a report provided exclusively to EMARKETER.