Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Operations.

It's time for another episode of the Retail Round-Up, February edition!

Major shifts are happening in the world of e-commerce, and this episode explores the cutting-edge developments, innovations, and the impact they are having on brands, retailers, and customers alike.

Joining us today are resident experts Ross Walker, Director of Retail Media at Acadia, and Armin Alipahic, Operations Team Lead.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Ross, and Armin discuss:

• Amazon's New Direction:

• Amazon will direct customers to brand sites when products are unavailable on Amazon.

• Insights into potential motivations, benefits, and downsides for Amazon, brands, and consumers.

• Speculations on how this will impact Amazon's relationship with brands and their existing models.

• Ulta Beauty and Omnichannel Integration:

• Ulta's integration of in-store inventory with brand D2C sites using the Lucky platform.

• Examination of the implications for brands, customers, and potential for other retailers to adopt similar strategies.

• Sponsored Content in AI Platforms:

• Discussion around Rufus AI containing sponsored ads in its search results.

• Predictions on Amazon's strategy for monetizing Rufus and parallels drawn to traditional advertising platforms like Google.

• AI for Catalog Management:

• Amazon's use of AI for filling in missing product attributes and mapping spreadsheets to ease catalog management.

• The challenges and benefits this presents to brands, particularly those with large catalogs.

• Amazon's Performance Plus and Brand Plus:

• Analysis of these tools for optimizing advertising on and off Amazon's platform.

• Examination of their effectiveness, particularly in targeting new customers vs. retargeting existing ones.