The past month has seen a host of notable moves by retail brands. Here’s our “Unofficial Most Interesting Retailers List” for April 2024, a monthly ranking revealed on an episode of the “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast.
1. Walmart
To diversify advertisers, Walmart enhanced its retail media business, making Onsite Display placements available to marketplace sellers—its fastest-growing cohort of advertisers, per the company. Walmart also increased its in-store ad inventory, offering self-service buying for TV Wall ads and expanding demo stations.
In addition, the retailer announced plans to integrate Luminate Insights and Walmart Connect, enabling brands to make retail media decisions based on buying trends and consumer behavior. The feature will be available to Walmart Luminate Charter subscribers before the end of the year, in time to capture 2024 holiday sales data.
2. Temu
Temu’s newly opened US warehouses are helping it ship faster, allowing it to better compete with other major ecommerce players with local fulfillment centers such as Shein and Amazon.
“Temu is not going to win the delivery race... but any chance they have to increase customer satisfaction and keep customers loyal is a good opportunity for them,” our analyst Arielle Feger said.
3. The Home Depot
Home Depot rebranded its retail media network as Orange Apron Media. The retailer hopes to grow its existing 2,000 retail media advertisers by encouraging more non-endemic brands and launching a data clean room for improved performance tracking.
4. TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop is leveraging credit card transaction data to prove its effectiveness to brands.
For a long time, we've really been unsure about how TikTok Shop is actually performing, so the data helps give brands validation as to why they should be there, Feger said.
5. Lego
Lego teamed up with nonprofit KultureCity to have its US and Canada stores certified sensory inclusive. Stores offer sensory bags that include noise-reducing headphones, fidget aids, strobe-reduction glasses, and more to help make the in-store experience more enjoyable for neurodivergent shoppers and those with sensory needs.
In addition, releases designed for adults, such as the 3,745-piece Dungeons & Dragons set, help broaden Lego’s customer base.
6. Amazon
Amazon debuted a 24/7 shoppable programming through Amazon Live, a free ad-supported TV channel on Prime Video and Freevee. Viewers are able to shop in real time from shows led by brands such as Tastemade and The Bump, as well as stars from “Vanderpump Rules” and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” through an app, streamlining the discovery-to-checkout journey.
Previously, Amazon Live streams were only available through desktop, mobile, and Fire TV, yet it still garnered over one billion consumers in US and India, according to Amazon.
7. Coach
“[Coach] is resonating with a younger audience,” our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian said. In its Q2 2024 earnings, parent company Tapestry reported $1.5 billion in Coach revenue, marking a 6% YoY increase.
Coach’s goal of attracting the “timeless Gen-Z” consumer—young shoppers with a classic style who invest in ageless fashion—began in 2021, as reported by the Business of Fashion, when it began looking at customer data to discover which designs were most popular among young consumers.
8. Yeti
Yeti opened the doors to its first New York City store this month. This brick-and-mortar expansion is a good way to lean more into direct-to-consumer (D2C) avenues and increase margins in a period when D2C have struggled to increase sales following explosive pandemic growth, our analyst Blake Droesch said.
Listen to the full episode.
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