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Inflation drives high-income consumers to trade down鈥攁nd up: Affluent shoppers are spending more at Walmart and Aldi, but a strong dollar is keeping luxury demand robust.

Black Friday in October: Amazon鈥檚 sale has driven retailers such as Best Buy, Costco, Target, Walmart to launch their own October events that, in some cases, coincide with Prime Big Deal Days. Consumers have taken note: 33% of Numerator respondents shopped or planned to shop Walmart Holiday Deals, and 31% shopped or planned to shop Target Circle Week.

We noted the surge in offsite retail media spending as major players looked to expand their empires; in April, Walmart Connect announced several updates to offer offsite media to non-endemic brands. Speaking of non-endemic advertisers, that鈥檚 another part of the retail media expansion story. Players like Home Depot, Expedia, and Albertsons all made announcements in the space.

Coca-Cola鈥檚 steps dovetails with Walmart, Lowe鈥檚, and other retailers retreating from their DEI initiatives as conservative activists and shareholders put corporate diversity programs under the spotlight. Our take: Coca-Cola is making a bet that any criticism it faces from its more modest goals will quickly fade.

Our take: While several major retailers, including Amazon Go, Walmart, and 7-Eleven, have tried and to some extent failed to scale the contactless store, interest in the space accelerated in 2024, with a myriad of new players moving to capture their share of the retail tech market.

The recent decision by Walmart to shut down its health clinic business and Walgreens to scale back its primary care investments reflect retailers鈥� challenges of operating two very different business models. Plus, a recent Bain survey revealed that less than one-third of consumers are likely to visit a retail store or pharmacy for primary care needs beyond vaccinations and common cold symptoms.

Value is top of mind for grocery-shopping consumers: Aldi, Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Walmart will open more stores to attract cost-conscious shoppers.

And its popularity is only growing: The brand is attracting customers across 鈥減retty much every age and income cohort,鈥� per Amin, leading to increased distribution deals with Target and Walmart as well as a new partnership with Dollar General to increase its penetration with rural audiences.

Walmart makes a huge acquisition in hopes of taking on Amazon鈥檚 retail media dominance, while Amazon keeps churning out generative AI innovations. Plus, Target tries to steal share from Walmart鈥檚 prowess on attracting deal-seeking shoppers. Find out who else earned a spot in our Unofficial鈥� Most Interesting Retailers List, a monthly ranking revealed on an episode of the 鈥淏ehind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail鈥� podcast.

Leaning into value: Beyond private labels, Kroger has tried to beat back Walmart and others by leaning into value via loyalty discounts, personalized offers, and fuel rewards. The number of digital offer clips is up 5% this year, which has reportedly saved customers an additional 14%.

The platform is testing an integration that makes it easier for creators to add affiliate links from the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and Rakuten to their posts. That makes it easier for users to shop鈥攁nd for creators to earn commissions鈥攁nd could make TikTok a more valuable sales and traffic driver for brands. TikTok Shop is also hoping to win over holiday shoppers with its 鈥淏rand Palooza鈥� campaign.

Walmart, for example, convened a creator upfront in October. Predictions. Creators will move into the RMN spotlight. As they seek to burnish their incrementality tool kits, retailers will focus on creators for upper-funnel activation. Data collaboration tech will become table stakes. Retailers will leverage data collaboration to combine accurate sales tracking with the scale of the open web.

Our take: Popshelf鈥檚 focus on wealthier consumers could ease the pressure on Dollar General, which, like other dollar stores, is facing stiff competition from the likes of Temu, Walmart, and Target, not to mention a sharp pullback in discretionary purchases.

Pharmacies and convenience stores struggled as consumers shifted to lower-priced competitors like Walmart, Costco, and Ulta Beauty. Pharmacies鈥� margins also shrank under pressure from pharmacy benefit managers and waning demand for pandemic-era staples like tests and vaccines. Major chains like CVS (586 locations), Rite Aid (408), 7-Eleven (492), and Walgreens (259) all closed underperforming stores.

Amazon Fresh could get a refresh to conquer the grocery market, Finesse uses AI to reduce fashion waste, and Claire鈥檚 leans on content to engage Gen Zalphas. Meanwhile, Macy鈥檚 downsizes, e.l.f. Beauty aims to go viral, and Walmart makes strides in media. Here are six retailers that are most likely to makeover, reinvent, go viral, and more, as predicted by our analysts in a recent 鈥淩eimagining Retail鈥� podcast episode.

Amazon and Walmart adopt varying tactics to juice subscriber growth: Amazon is going after college students with its beefed-up music offering while Walmart doubles down on value.