Retail Trends: Stores sell ads, flipping cheap, virtual service restaurants + shopper insights

The RIW newsletter provides the essential weekly inspiration for every changemaker driving innovation in retail and along the customer experience journey. This week we're sharing ideas around making more money while shoppers shop with retail media networks, best ingredients for digital dining at VSRs, and getting cheap by retailing to the value driven.

Plus, a pulse check on the consumer with stats, stats, stats – and don't miss a special offer from our friends at Loop.tv!

Driving In-Store Revenue With Retail-as-Media
Advertising and shopping have both seen a huge shift towards digital domination, and the pandemic only served to accelerate that. Yet only recently did the two disciplines begin to merge in very interesting ways. Armed with robust troves of first-party data, retailers have begun to leverage their customer audiences and establish their own media networks. New research from PSFK shows that not only do these emerging retailer media networks give brands more control over content, but they also provide richer, more tangible insights about whether or not advertising has been successful, as well as deepen customer relationships through enhanced targeting and messaging. 

Target's Circle Program provides rich back-end for media strategy
Using loyalty-focused insights to supercharge in-house media solutions and drive greater personalization at scale for brands like LEGO, Starbucks, Hasbro, PepsiCo, and more by selling smarter to its own repeat shoppers is just one way Target is creating mutually beneficial solutions for both its customers and business partners. Target in-house media solutions

Marriott becomes first hospitality brand to launch a media network
Marriott, which operates over 30 brands internationally, is taking advantage of its unique positioning and scale to debut the hospitality industry’s first global omnichannel media network. The new solution will offer curated content to travelers and guests throughout every touchpoint of their Marriott-property travel journey, including in-room screens and televisions. Marriott omnichannel media network

Home Depot turns ecosystem touch points into vendor media platform 
Retail Media+ from the Home Depot is a full-service advertising and media network solution to help the brand’s third-party vendors, like Behr paint, Scott's Miracle-Gro, Boise Cascade, and more drive sales and promote products both online and in-store that are beneficial to Home Depot and its shoppers. Home Depot Retail Media+

Read More: PSFK's Guide to Making $$$ with Retail Media
Discover 5 strategies for utilizing retailer media networks, or creating your own, to deliver against better loyalty, advertising and consumer experience programs. Driving Revenue With Retail Media

A Summer Of Content Is In-Store! 

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Finding Value By Flipping The Cheap
As consumers cope with soaring inflation, rising rates, and other recent economic turbulence, the circular and repair-focused initiatives brands have been promoting over the past few years are now having their moment. Shoppers and families are trading down to cheaper items, and looking for value in repurposed goods as they try to weather this particular storm, which may just change the way we think about consumption. 

Shoppers are changing behavior due to rising cost of living
The average basket size of Tesco shoppers at checkout is shrinking, and those shopping baskets are filled with fewer name-brand products and more private label offerings. Staples which have seen large price increases, like pasta, bread, and more, represent the largest shift-down to own-brand. RG

Flipped furniture finds “second life” on social media marketplaces
The NY Times covers how, fueled by social media, furniture flipping has found new life as a way for people to both make a little money on the side and attractively decorate their homes while on a budget. Furniture listings on Facebook Marketplace have gone up by more than 40% this year, and refurbished furniture videos on TikTok are increasingly popular, racking up millions and millions of views. NY Times

Vodafone brings old phones back to life with one for one program
The new initiative, in partnership with Closing The Loop (CTL) aims to bring up to 1 million old cell phones back into circulation. For every new phone that Vodafone sells in Germany, CTL will recycle an old device in an emerging market country. CTL

Reseat gives old office furniture a new lease on life 
Reseat, which launched in 2020, isn’t in the business of making new furniture. Instead, the digital marketplace provides companies, designers, and furniture dealers a place to buy and sell secondhand office furniture by top manufacturers for more than 50% off the list price. Reseat’s clients include Oracle, LinkedIn, Rivian, Yelp, and more. Reseat