2080����

Good afternoon,

Here’s the headlines for this week: 21 March 2025

CONSUMERS

• A “Buy Canadian” movement has emerged as Canadian consumers react to new U.S. tariffs and even a U.S. president’s musings of annexation, choosing to favor domestic products over American imports​.
• Canadian retailers are embracing the trend by prominently labeling and displaying local goods – for example, adding maple leaf “Made in Canada” markers in store aisles – and suggesting Canadian alternatives to U.S. brands on social media​.
• This shift is seen as a way to cushion Canada’s economy from potential drops in American demand, with hopes that a more locally focused consumer base can provide long-term economic benefits​.

TECH

• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission initially asked a judge to delay its trial against Amazon – involving allegations that Amazon used deceptive tactics to enroll users in Prime – citing “severe” staffing and budget shortfalls at the agency​.
• Shortly afterward, an FTC attorney walked back the request, admitting “I was wrong” about needing a postponement due to resource constraints and confirming the FTC has sufficient staff to proceed as scheduled​.
• The case will now move forward without the proposed two-month delay, signaling that the FTC can handle the Amazon litigation as planned despite its earlier plea about limited resources​.

• TikTok Shop rolled out new features that give sellers more control over returns and shipping – including the ability to set custom return windows anywhere from 14 up to 90 days for their products (with local law limits in mind)​.
• Sellers also gained expanded fulfillment tools, such as more shipping carrier options and the option to extend order handling times from 3 to 7 business days, allowing greater flexibility in managing deliveries​.
• TikTok says these updates, driven by merchant feedback, aim to improve the overall seller experience by providing more flexible after-sale policies and better performance insights, ultimately helping sellers optimize their TikTok shops​.

RETAILERS

• Facing economic uncertainty (like tariff pressures), Amazon and Walmart are doubling down on technology to stay ahead – both retail giants are making calculated moves in logistics and embracing artificial intelligence to boost efficiency and tap into new markets​.
• Walmart is aggressively expanding its logistics services (launching a new freight brokerage program and even adding dozens of fuel stations) to leverage its massive trucking fleet, while Amazon is eyeing an entry into the used car sales arena – examples of each pushing into the other’s territory as competition intensifies​.
• Both companies are also investing heavily in AI: Walmart just introduced a generative AI assistant called “Wally” to help its merchants with tasks like product sourcing and inventory decisions, and Amazon is likewise using AI to enhance customer engagement and automation, underlining how crucial AI has become in this rivalry​.

• Best Buy Canada is expanding its third-party online marketplace by partnering with a cross-border payments platform called PingPong, which will enable the retailer to bring in international sellers and pay them out in their local currencies​.
• With this move, Best Buy Canada can now handle transactions in over 100 different currencies, unlocking new global inventory and revenue streams as the company executes its international growth strategy for the marketplace​.
• The Canadian arm of Best Buy has run a marketplace since 2016 (using Mirakl’s platform), and this initiative comes just as Best Buy U.S. is preparing to relaunch its own online marketplace later in 2025 – highlighting a broader push by Best Buy to ramp up marketplace eCommerce in both countries​.

• Best Buy is launching a new program that allows influencers and content creators to build their own branded digital storefronts on BestBuy’s website – a concept similar to Amazon’s and Walmart’s influencer storefront programs that let creators curate products and earn commissions on sales​.
• CEO Corie Barry announced the initiative on Best Buy’s latest earnings call, explaining that tapping into the creator economy should drive more traffic and engagement by connecting social media audiences directly to shopping; the company expects these influencer-curated shops to boost online sales in an authentic way​
• The move comes as influencer marketing surges (projected to exceed $32 billion in industry spend by 2025)​, so Best Buy is aiming to capture that momentum – effectively converting influencers’ recommendations into purchases on BestBuy.com and keeping pace with rival retailers’ forays into social commerce​.

• Grocery giant Kroger has created a dedicated e-commerce business unit to unify all the teams involved in its online shopping operations, a move meant to accelerate Kroger’s online growth and further improve its digital customer experience​.
• The company promoted Yael Cosset – formerly Kroger’s Chief Information Officer (and the architect of its digital strategy) – to Executive VP & Chief Digital Officer to lead this new division, giving him oversight of all digital initiatives, technology, data analytics (via Kroger’s 84.51° unit), and online retail functions​.
• Kroger’s CEO Ron Sargent noted that bolstering e-commerce is a top priority, especially as the grocer has recently seen brisk growth in digital sales and improved profitability online; the dedicated unit is intended to build on that momentum and make it even easier for customers to shop for groceries digitally.

ADVERTISING

• A Gizmodo report reveals that Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun boasted in a recent video about his company’s data capabilities – after acquiring data brokers Epsilon and Lotame, Publicis claims it can reach 91% of adult internet users worldwide with highly targeted ads​.
• In the video, Sadoun demonstrates a proprietary software called “CoreAI” using a fictional consumer profile named “Lola” to illustrate the breadth of data collected: who she is and lives with, what content she watches and products she buys (both online and in stores), where and when she shops, and even why she makes certain purchases​.
• The system can predict individual behavior (for example, detecting that Lola might switch to cheaper brands due to rising prices and stagnant income) and automatically adjust ad targeting accordingly – a showcase of data-driven ad personalization at massive scale that has raised serious privacy concerns given its “almost everybody on the internet” reach​.

• Meta (Facebook) is encouraging advertisers to link their Google Analytics 4 (GA4) accounts with Meta’s ads platform, offering those who do so early access to new ad system updates – an effort aimed at improving conversion tracking and ad performance measurement in the post-cookie era​.
• By integrating GA4 data, Meta can show advertisers all of their web/app traffic sources in one place and help refine attribution models across platforms. In fact, Meta’s internal tests with over a thousand advertisers reported an average 5% increase in conversions when GA4 integration was used to inform Meta ad campaigns​.
• The hookup is done through Meta’s Events Manager (tying GA4’s event data to Meta’s Pixel/Conversion API data) and can be set up in minutes. While it promises more accurate cross-platform insight into customer actions, marketers are mindful of potential data privacy issues and the need to map events correctly for the integration to be effective.

MARKETING

• The rapid rise of retail media networks (ads on retailer platforms like Amazon, Walmart, etc.) is causing confusion over budget ownership – marketers and agencies aren’t sure who should control retail media spending internally, as it straddles the line between traditional performance (sales-driven) marketing and brand marketing​
• Retail media has grown so big that it’s expected to account for nearly 25% of all U.S. ad spend by 2028​. In turn, major retailers are pitching their media networks not just as channels for trade promotions, but as full-fledged advertising platforms worthy of brand awareness dollars – effectively blurring the distinction and seeking bigger commitments from advertisers’ brand budgets​.
• Advertisers are responding by mixing funding sources: some reports say about 10% of brands’ traditional marketing budgets are now being allocated to retail media, while others pull from in-store promo and shopper marketing funds to meet retailers’ ad investment demands.​ In practice, money is “coming from everywhere” to fuel retail media campaigns, making it tricky to delineate which department’s budget is being spent.

See you next week,

The 2080���� Team

‍

Sign up below to get Coffee & Commerce delivered to your inbox each week.