Amazon is set to abandon its experiment with checkout-free grocery stores. Apparently automated, the process actually required more than 1,000 remote “cashiers” in India to monitor video of checkouts. This was followed by reports that AWS plans to eliminate hundreds of positions both in its physical stores and across its sales, marketing and global services divisions.
Google parent Alphabet is said to be considering making an offer to acquire HubSpot. Anonymous sources told Reuters that Alphabet has met with Morgan Stanley advisers to discuss the possibility. HubSpot’s current market valuation is $32 billion.
Retail media buyers can now target ads based on banking transactions of 80 million Chase Bank customers. Nothing creepy about that. The launch of Chase Media Solutions follows Chase’s 2022 acquisition and integration of Figg, the card-linked marketing platform.
T-Mobile will allow advertisers to target more than 20,000 screens in 11,000 store locations. That’s a lot of screens, but how much foot traffic does the average T-Mobile store get? It’s also linking up with streaming media company Plex as a CTV partner.