Even ecommerce champion Amazon struggles when it tries to enter new channels. The company has stopped expansion of its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical grocery stores, and will close some existing stores, as it tries to find a better path to success. Another reflection of Amazon’s troubles: it fell from first place in dunnhumby’s latest ranking of grocery leaders.
While retail media has been an unexpected success, its sort-of opposite, social commerce, has never met expectations. This Simplicitydx survey explores why: the biggest problem is low trust in social platforms, which means people prefer to buy directly on brand sites. Social shopping still has a role to play in product discovery, although social won’t always receive credit if the sale is completed elsewhere.
Another data clean room no longer qualifies as news. But in case you’re keeping track, Acxiom just announced a cloud-based data clean room powered by Snowflake. Side note: Acxiom’s site makes it virtually impossible to reject cookies.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.