From live commerce to the evolution of retail media, 2024 will be a year of opportunity for retail marketers.
Peter Hamilton, Roku’s senior director of ad innovation, recently spoke at NRF 2024: Retail's Big Show in New York, sharing insights on emerging technologies and consumer behaviors. Hamilton, speaking on a panel alongside marketing leaders from HSN and Fanatics Live, highlighted three main themes driving retail in 2024 and beyond.
1. The rise of live commerce
Shopping experiences are undergoing a digital transformation, driven by innovations in video and TV streaming. From the launch of Alibaba’s Taobao Live in 2016 to the rise of influencer-led shopping events, consumers are showing new interest in real-time purchasing via streaming interfaces. To give a sense of the opportunity, China was projected to generate $647 billion in live commerce sales last year.¹
At NRF, Hamilton noted that live commerce on social is already taking off in the U.S.² and that live commerce on TV is the natural next step. To help bring about this future, Roku has improved the television commerce experience for viewers, making it easier to connect their TVs to existing accounts with partners like Walmart, DoorDash, and Shopify. These moves have removed friction from the purchase process, paving the way for a future where consumers can easily participate in live commerce events on TV.
Hamilton added that advertisers who want to use these improvements can do so today, thanks to a low barrier to entry.
“You don’t need to spend $250,000 on your video spot,” said Hamilton. “Instead, make a modest investment, A/B test on our digital platform, retarget people who clicked before, and work on optimization.”
2. Community building is critical
Community engagement is crucial for sustained marketing success. Rob Robillard, chief merchandising officer at HSN, said the company considers its hosts to be community builders rather than salespeople. This focus on community has led to a customer base where 95% are repeat buyers. Similarly, Chris Lamontagne, SVP platform at Fanatics Live, said the brand is intentional about engaging with tight-knit communities, like trading card enthusiasts or fans of a specific sports team.
“I absolutely love this idea of going deeper with a certain set of viewers,” said Hamilton. “The idea of mass scale has been flipped on its head. Now brands want to go 10 times deeper with superfans.”
Hamilton added that social-like experiences can offer a guide to driving performance in shoppable TV ads. When an actor or spokesperson breaks the fourth wall and tells viewers to press OK on their remote, response rates jump considerably.
“We are really encouraging retailers, brands, and DTC companies to bring what works on platforms like TikTok and YouTube to television,” said Hamilton. “Use the power of the message from an influencer to speak directly to the audience.”
3. Retail media networks are evolving, with help from shoppable TV ads
It should come as no surprise that retail media will shape the commerce landscape in 2024. Insider Intelligence estimates that retail media CTV ad spend will jump from $813 million in 2023 to more than $5 billion by 2027.³
At NRF, Marissa Jarrat, chief marketing & sustainability officer at 7-Eleven, said the company’s Gulp Media division now has data on one in four Americans and 12 million daily shoppers. In another session, Sneha Narahalli, head of product & UX at Sephora, said that the beauty brand’s new retail media network collects first-party data from 36 million people in its Beauty Insider loyalty program and uses information from beauty quizzes to help amplify that data set.
In the future, expect in-store media and shoppable video to take larger roles. In fact, Insider Intelligence reports that in-store retail media ad spend will reach $240 million in 2023 and more than triple by 2027.⁴ Meanwhile, ad agency professionals identified shoppable video content as the top trend driving the next frontier of retail media — topping other initiatives such as personalization and omnichannel audience tracking.⁵
That comes as no surprise to Hamilton, who has seen Roku work with partners like Kroger Precision Marketing to activate data from Kroger’s 60 million households and 2,800+ grocery store locations on TV streaming.⁶ These partnerships allow advertisers to build high-performing audiences and directly attribute conversions from Roku advertising.
“Retail media works and the results are tangible,” said Hamilton. “When you add shoppable TV ad experiences, which are proven to be more engaging and boost video performance, expect the results to be even better.”
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¹ New York Times: The Companies Trying to Make Live Shopping a Thing in the U.S.
² McKinsey: Ready for prime time? The state of live commerce.
³ eMarketer: Why retail media is the future of TV advertising, August 2023
⁴ eMarketer: 5 charts on the current and future state of retail media
⁵ eMarketer: 5 charts on the current and future state of retail media
⁶ Roku Advertising: Retail media meets TV streaming: How Roku and Kroger Precision Marketing have multiplied their strengths
