As retailers prepare for next year, they acknowledge that convenience has evolved from a value proposition to a structural shift in how all of retail operates. We asked leaders across retail media, digital identity, payments, mobility, and connected commerce, and they agreed that convenience will continue to change throughout the next year as expectations shift and AI eliminates friction.
Agencies are increasingly acting as commerce media guides, helping brands move past outdated structures, sort through measurement standards, and bring AI into their planning. While commerce media networks (CMNs) have expanded to capture more than just retail media dollars, the silos between brand, retail, and sales teams make integration a challenge.
"The retail media landscape is only becoming more crowded, but Target's guest insights are often cited as a key differentiator," said our analyst Sarah Marzano during EMARKETER's recent Commerce Media Summit.
2025 challenged many of retail’s long-held assumptions. What looked like familiar patterns often turned out to be something different entirely, and in the process, a few key trends were either missed or misread by brands trying to make sense of shifting shopper behavior. Here are three trends from 2025 that were either overlooked or misunderstood, and why they will matter in the year ahead.
Albertsons Media Collective has rolled out a new off-site feature that lets consumers add products, recipes, coupons, or offers directly to their Albertsons cart from media placements across the open web.
While commerce media networks expand, retailers can take advantage of the efficiencies and measurement capabilities that they can provide.Retail media networks alone are expected to claim one-fifth of US digital ad spending by 2029, according to EMARKETER’s September forecast.
US inflation eased more than expected in November, with headline CPI rising 2.7% and core inflation slowing to 2.6%, but many highly visible essentials—including electricity, insurance, beef, and coffee—continue to climb much faster than the overall index. These increases are weighing on sentiment as wage gains cool and more households struggle to cover rising costs, leading to softer financial confidence and growing paycheck-to-paycheck pressures. With forecasts pointing to weaker real spending and looming jumps in healthcare premiums, easing inflation does little to offset the reality that household budgets remain under significant strain.
Nearly half of US adults say TV and streaming drug commercials feel out of touch and downplay serious side effects.
56% of weekly podcast listeners say podcast hosts are the type of influencer that matters most to them, nearly triple the share who say the same about social media influencers, according to an October survey from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights.
NBCUniversal (NBCU) debuted AI-powered ad features ahead of the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in 2026, giving advertisers the opportunity to leverage AI for better results in live TV and video-on-demand properties. Campaigns running on NBCU properties now gain access to the massive benefits of utilizing AI for TV, CTV, and VOD advertising.
Omnichannel strategies are crucial to capture multigenerational shoppers in their product discovery and research journeys. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of US Gen Zers say social media is their main source for learning about new products, per Salsify, and about two-thirds (61%) of Gen Xers discover products while browsing in physical retail stores. To earn the attention and trust of multigenerational shoppers, build channel-specific messaging and invest in measurement tools that track cross-channel behavior to see how different audiences are finding, researching, and buying products across platforms.
Coursera’s $950 million all-stock acquisition of Udemy is a consolidation play rooted in survival, not expansion. The deal brings together two of the largest US-based online learning platforms as demand for online education cools amid cheaper AI-driven learning tools and employers pulling training in-house, per The Information. Online learning is becoming a gated, premium environment shaped by AI and consolidation. As Coursera and Udemy merge, brands should expect fewer sponsorship slots, tighter rules, and higher prices.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what Crayola is aiming to achieve with its “Campaign for Creativity,” how the brand guides children from digital creation to hands-on creative play, and what’s top of mind for the art supplies company as it heads into the holiday season. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, and Crayola Chief Marketing Officer Victoria Lozano.
Google is testing a new AI agent, CC, to change how the workday begins. Instead of another app or dashboard, CC delivers a daily email briefing that summarizes information pulled from Gmail, Calendar, and Drive. As AI agents begin ranking and summarizing messages, the inbox shrinks and attention gets scarcer. Marketers who rely on email will need to understand tools like CC and optimize for agents—not inboxes—as AI assistants decide what’s worth surfacing. Catchy subject lines will no longer be enough to earn attention.
Online return volumes dipped 2.5% YoY early in the holiday season, though momentum slowed after Cyber Week and a surge is still expected post-Christmas, consistent with retailers’ forecasts that returns will represent 15.8% of annual sales. To curb costly returns, merchants are improving product detail pages and adopting tools like virtual try-on, while many are also adding return fees—moves that risk dampening demand as shoppers grow wary of stricter policies. A smoother, more supportive returns experience remains critical, as most consumers hesitate to buy when returns seem difficult and reward retailers that make the process easy and fast.
Integral Ad Science is expanding far beyond verification with IAS Agent, a DSP-embedded AI assistant that analyzes live campaign data and autonomously optimizes safety, suitability, and contextual settings. Built on IAS’s multimodal dataset, the tool evaluates trillions of signals across text, video, audio, and imagery to refine targeting decisions faster than human workflows—early testers reported efficiency gains and reduced waste. IAS frames the product as a step toward agentic advertising, enabling real-time optimization, natural-language insights, and interoperability with other AI systems. The launch comes as private equity bets heavily on independent measurement players amid rising demand for precision and transparency.
LinkedIn is proving the power of its ad offerings, delivering promising results from both its Reserved Ads format and video ads. Recognizing LinkedIn’s ability to foster measurable ad results will prove valuable for B2B marketers looking to build credibility with other business professionals. Other features, like auto-targeting tools to reach key audiences, AI tools to create ads, and platform recommendations to maximize ROI contribute to LinkedIn’s ability to drive action.
Amazon is in early talks to invest up to $10 billion in OpenAI, three sources told The Information. If finalized, the deal would value OpenAI at more than $500 billion and intensify Amazon’s competition with Microsoft in AI cloud services. The investment, which follows November’s $38 billion deal between the companies, would bring OpenAI deeper into Amazon’s ecosystem to use Amazon’s Trainium chips to develop future AI products. Consolidation means faster model updates, tighter cloud integrations, and more reliable access to genAI tools. Choosing the right AI tools and cloud providers now becomes a turnkey solution.
On today’s EMARKETER Miniseries—A Blueprint to Better Measurement—we explore Amazon's plans for moving out of Beta and offering Omnichannel Metrics (OCM) more widely to advertisers, the top two challenges they face heading into the new year, and what is next for Amazon Ads in 2026, as it pertains to durables. EMARKETER Principal Analyst Sky Canaves speaks with Kolby Capelouto, Head of Sales for Durables at Amazon Ads. Listen everywhere you find podcasts, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.