S5:E8 Prime Day Unveiled: Trends, Sales, and What Lies Ahead for Retail

Amazon Prime Day 2025 may be over, but its ripple effects are just beginning. In this episode, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Meghan Barden, Director of Global Retail Media at Rithum, to unpack the surprising data and shopper behaviors that emerged — and what they mean for retail and ecommerce leaders heading into the holiday shopping season.

You’ll discover:

•  📊 Prime Day outcomes that matter — from sales spikes to category standouts, and how they compare to past years

•  🛍 Why the timing right after July 4th may have shifted discretionary spending patterns

•  💡 Meghan’s expert take on how retailers can turn Prime Day insights into Q4 wins

•  🔮 The strategic moves brands should make now to capture Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and beyond

Whether you’re a retail strategist, ecommerce operator, or simply fascinated by the biggest shopping events of the year, this conversation delivers actionable insights to help you outpace the competition.

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About our Guest

Meghan Barden - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-barden/

Rithum - https://www.rithum.com

Meghan Barden is an accomplished retail media strategist with over 20 years of experience in marketing and client services in both retailer, brand and agency environments. Currently serving as the Director of Global Retail Media at Rithum, she leads the company's efforts in helping brands and retailers leverage first-party data to create personalized and impactful retail media campaigns. Her expertise spans various facets of retail media, including strategy development, media planning, and campaign optimization.

For more Amazon Prime Day analysis by Rithum, access the full report → https://explore.rithum.com/prime-day-guide-cont/prime-day-lessons-for-peak-shopping-season

00:00 Previews 

01:01 Show Intro 

10:09 Welcome Meghan Barden 

10:17 Overview of Prime Day and Rithum's Role 

12:20 Prime Day Anomalies and Trends 

16:15 Generational Shopping Behaviors 

19:20 Impact of Gen Z on Retail Strategies 

24:54 AI and Authenticity in Retail 

31:51 Preparing for Future Retail Events 

37:59 Final Thoughts 

39:11 Show Close

Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:

Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail Thought Leader, Top 50 Management Thought Leader, & Top 100 Digital Transformation Thought Leader, plus a Top Digital Voice for 2024. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and is the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.

Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.