🎙️News Review with Armin Alispahic and Pat Petriello

DESCRIPTION

Welcome to another edition of The Retail Roundup: your monthly recap of the biggest headlines and developments in the retail world.

We have a packed slate today. Joining us to break down all the madness are our resident experts: Pat Petriello on the media side, and Armin Alispahic covering operations and organic trends.

Let's get into it!

Quote:

"Amazon does rule the Internet, but they cannot replicate over 10,000 brick-and-mortar stores that Walmart has."

Armin Alispahic

KEY TAKEAWAYS

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

• Amazon's AI Intermediary Play – Amazon is becoming the AI layer between shoppers and brands (Alexa/Rufus for consumers, licensing the same tech to other retailers via AWS). Search is shifting from keywords to semantic, question-based queries — brands need to optimize PDPs for AI, using specific, factual attributes instead of generic terms.

• Full Funnel Campaigns & Title Policy – Amazon's new AI-driven campaign type auto-manages budget across ad types, and titles over 75 characters now get auto-rewritten if brands don't act within 14 days. Great for accessibility, but risks homogenizing listings and losing key conversion triggers — human review still matters.

• Attribution Goes Free – AMC's paid tables are free through year-end, and a new "Attribution" toggle brings multi-touch data into standard reporting. With measurement now available to everyone, the edge shifts from having data to knowing how to act on it fast.

• Walmart's Open-Web Strategy – Rather than compete head-on with Amazon online, Walmart is pushing its first-party data onto the open web (e.g., via Google DV360/YouTube) and leaning on its 10,000+ physical stores for closed-loop attribution. Catalog hygiene remains a weak spot for its AI assistant, Sparky.

• Tighter Brand/Catalog Control – New Brand Registry reseller requirements and the removal of the "Contact Customer" review button both point to Amazon consolidating control over catalog integrity and the customer relationship. Brands should clean up reseller networks and clarify internal ownership now.

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

Today, we are getting into something every brand needs to hear - because what you think you know about your media performance might be complete fiction.

We're talking about the 2026 measurement crisis. The moment when the gap between what your dashboards say and what your account shows has become impossible to ignore.

And to help us make sense of it all, we have two incredible guests from the Acadia team with us: Sally Kazin, Head of Analytics, and Ross Walker, Director of Retail Media.

Let's dive in!

Quote:

The gap between the dashboard numbers and the ground truth has become impossible to ignore.

Sally Kazin

KEY TAKEAWAYS

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

• The growing "measurement crisis" in ecommerce, where platform-reported revenue often exceeds actual sales due to duplicated attribution claims across channels

• Transition from reliable observation-based tracking to a world of estimation and modeling, driven by privacy changes and a fragmented platform landscape

• The challenges posed by siloed data, platform biases, and engine inflation in retail media and traditional paid channels

• Widespread overreliance on ROAS as a North Star metric and the pitfalls of "ROAS jail" for both brands and CFOs

• The limitations and decline of Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), and why Acadia now deploys a three-pillar measurement framework

• The importance of glass box (transparent) models over black box or "off the shelf" solutions, balancing science and business art in measurement

• Pairing MMM with real-world incrementality tests for a self-correcting measurement loop

• How to communicate with CFOs and senior leadership about marketing impact, translating platform metrics into true business outcomes and incremental revenue

• The evolution of MMM: from slow, backward-looking models to AI-enabled, forward-looking, and more frequent scenario planning

• Practical questions for brands to gut-check their measurement strategy, such as verifying if summed platform-attributed revenue exceeds actual sales

• Common flags of broken retail media measurement, and the need to match ad spend and goals to brand objectives rather than vanity KPIs

Welcome to another edition of The Retail Roundup: your monthly recap of the biggest headlines and developments in the retail world.

As always, we have Armin Alispahic with us to dig into operations and organic industry trends. We're also thrilled to welcome Damiano Ciarrocchi back to the show. He'll be sharing his takes on all things media.

There are a lot of interesting updates to dig into today! Let's get into it!

"For a long time, the digital shelf and the physical shelf have been completely disconnected. And the biggest problem in online grocery that we know of is just having out-of-stock items."

-Armin Alispahic

KEY TAKEAWAYS

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

AI Corner: AI-Generated People Disclosure

• Amazon now requires disclosure for AI-generated photorealistic people in A+ Content.

• Brands should update creative workflows to include metadata tagging and audit existing assets for compliance.

Amazon DSP: Omnichannel Metrics

• Amazon DSP now attributes sales across retailers like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot.

• This gives brands a clearer view of cross-retailer impact and marks a major step toward true omnichannel measurement.

Amazon Marketplace Operations

• Buy Box eligibility: More sellers can now compete, but performance still determines who wins.

• Returnless resolutions: Brands can automate refunds for low-value items to reduce costs, but should monitor rules carefully to prevent abuse.

Instacart Updates

• Immersive Feed: Vertical video ads create new opportunities for product discovery beyond search.

• Arpalus acquisition: AI-powered shelf scanning promises better inventory visibility and fewer out-of-stock frustrations.

Walmart Connect

• Walmart acquired Vibe.co to make Connected TV advertising more accessible for brands.

• Negative keyword targeting is finally rolling out for Sponsored Products, giving advertisers much-needed campaign control.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Connect with Acadia's Retail Media Team Lead, Damiano Ciarrocchi

Connect with Acadia's Operations Team Lead, Armin Alispahic

Connect with our host, Julie Spear

Connect with our host, Jordan Ripley

Learn more about Acadia