\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Walmart Eyes Local Products as National Consumer Mood Sours appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Walmart\u00a0is reportedly expanding its local product lineup to attract an extremely pinched American consumer.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAccording to a\u00a0report\u00a0Thursday (April 30) from Bloomberg News, this effort is happening in markets such as Florida, where Walmart stores have begun stocking more Cuban-inspired coffee and beans from a local producer. In other states, the company is offering local brands of condiments like mustard and mayonnaise.\nThe report adds that although regionally sourced items are nothing new, Walmart is aiming to stretch beyond its current assortment and prioritizing this work based on customer response.\nA spokesperson for the retail giant told Bloomberg Walmart is melding together\u00a0technology and merchant expertise to understand which products local customers value, and then quickly getting them on shelves.\nBloomberg notes there\u2019s a balancing act in play: Local products can draw in more customers, but the vendors behind these items are typically smaller and can face more supply chain issues than national brands.\nThe report also points out retailers are feeling pressured, as\u00a0rising gas prices\u00a0and declining consumer sentiment makes consumers more cautious about spending.\nIn fact, consumer sentiment is now at a historically bad place because of the price of fuel. Last week, the\u00a0University of Michigan\u2019s Index of Consumer Sentiment\u00a0fell to the\u00a0lowest level\u00a0recorded in its nearly 75-year history due to gas prices.\nThe connection between the cost of gas and consumer sentiment was seen earlier in the month, when gas prices softened after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the U.S-Iran war, followed by a modest uptick in consumer sentiment.\nAs for Walmart, research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that the company and rival Amazon are now\u00a0courting the same shoppers.\n\u201cThe data shows that Amazon still leads in the fun, non-essential stuff, while Walmart dominates in necessities,\u201d PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.\nFor example, Amazon\u00a0captured 35%\u00a0of consumer spending on sporting goods, hobby items, music and books, while Walmart enjoys 21% of food and beverage spend. However, both retailers are pushing into the other\u2019s territory while also serving as \u201ceach other\u2019s best teachers,\u201d the report added.\n\u201cWhat\u2019s changing is how aggressively both retailers are moving beyond those traditional lanes,\u201d Doug Straton, chief marketing officer at Bazaarvoice (and former chief digital officer of Hershey), said in an interview with PYMNTS.\n\u201cWalmart is expanding its digital and\u00a0marketplace capabilities\u00a0to compete in more discovery-driven categories, while Amazon is pushing further into everyday essentials and repeat purchases.\u201d\n\r\n\r\nThe post Walmart Eyes Local Products as National Consumer Mood Sours appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-30T13:43:19-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-30T13:43:19-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Walmart-basket1.jpg", "tags": [ "Consumer Spending", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "walmart", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3692565", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/bigcommerce-bets-on-agentic-commerce-with-expanded-paypal-pact/", "title": "BigCommerce Bets on Agentic Commerce With Expanded PayPal Pact", "content_html": "BigCommerce\u00a0is integrating\u00a0PayPal\u2019s Store Sync offering into its app marketplace and channel manager.
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post BigCommerce Bets on Agentic Commerce With Expanded PayPal Pact appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "BigCommerce\u00a0is integrating\u00a0PayPal\u2019s Store Sync offering into its app marketplace and channel manager.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe new integration,\u00a0announced\u00a0Wednesday (April 29), is designed to let BigCommerce merchants connect their product catalogs, inventory and order management to \u201cAI surfaces.\u201d\n\u201cAI is fundamentally changing how people discover and buy products. Merchants need to meet shoppers in those moments and make it easy to move from discovery to purchase or risk being left out of the journey,\u201d said\u00a0Sharon Gee, senior vice president of product for AI at Commerce, Big Commerce\u2019s parent company.\n\u201cWith PayPal Store Sync, merchants can instantly connect their catalog to\u00a0AI-powered shopping\u00a0experiences and the PayPal consumer network, ensuring they\u2019re not just present, but positioned to convert in the environments where commerce is evolving.\u201d\nPayPal Store Sync is a catalog and order management solution that is designed to link merchant storefronts with emerging artificial intelligence (AI) shopping channels.\nAn integration enabled by PayPal makes product data like pricing, images, descriptions, reviews and inventory instantly accessible to AI platforms, \u201cwhere consumers\u00a0increasingly begin\u00a0their shopping journeys,\u201d Commerce added in a news release.\nThe release adds that the integration makes Commerce merchants \u201cdiscoverable and purchasable\u201d on an expanding network of AI-powered shopping surfaces, such as\u00a0Microsoft Copilot,\u00a0Meta\u00a0and\u00a0Perplexity.\nAs PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in a column earlier this year, the behavioral shift Commerce describes \u2014 with consumers\u00a0beginning their shopping journeys\u00a0via AI platforms \u2014 has gone mainstream.\nResearch by PYMNTS Intelligence earlier this year found that\u00a041% of consumers\u00a0have already used dedicated AI platforms to discover new products.\n\u201cMore striking is that a third say they have fully replaced their prior methods. They are not layering AI on top of old habits,\u201d the column said.\nThe experience fueling this shift is \u201cgenuinely different from traditional search,\u201d Webster added. Rather than through pages of links and sponsored listings, consumers get a structured answer that details the trade-offs between rival products.\nThat answer can be refined through conversation until it aligns with the actual buying decision, something keyword searches could never provide with any level of precision.\n\u201cBut then the consumer leaves the conversation and goes somewhere else to complete the purchase,\u201d Webster wrote.\n\u201cThe question that matters now is not whether\u00a0agentic commerce\u00a0will eventually close that gap. It is who becomes a casualty on the agentic highway, and who benefits. And how.\u201d\n\r\n\r\nThe post BigCommerce Bets on Agentic Commerce With Expanded PayPal Pact appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-29T14:51:09-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T22:55:18-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/BigCommerce.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "B2B", "B2B Payments", "Bigcommerce", "Commerce", "ecommerce", "News", "PayPal", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "What's Hot", "What's Hot In B2B" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3682173", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/pgs-tech-bet-starts-showing-up-in-sales/", "title": "P&G\u2019s Tech Bet Starts Showing Up in Sales", "content_html": "Procter & Gamble has spent years building its technology infrastructure. Its Q1 earnings call shows it is now deploying it.
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post P&G\u2019s Tech Bet Starts Showing Up in Sales appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Procter & Gamble has spent years building its technology infrastructure. Its Q1 earnings call shows it is now deploying it.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe company posted its strongest broad-based quarter in recent memory, with every product category and every region gaining simultaneously. CEO Shailesh Jejurikar described it as solid acceleration, calling out broad-based growth as the defining characteristic of the quarter. The result reflected not just improved products but a structural shift in how the company is deploying data, automation and consumer insight together at scale.\nP&G is scaling four capability layers across its business: data analytics tools for frontline teams, AI-powered content creation and distribution for marketing, a Molecular Discovery Suite for product innovation, and manufacturing automation including unattended shift operations now live across nine categories.\nThe unattended shift model is the clearest signal of how the operating model has changed. Factory teams previously running overnight shifts are being upskilled while automated systems run the line. CFO Andre Schulten described the program as proven and now being accelerated, with the goal of pulling forward the company\u2019s longer-term automation vision in response to current cost pressures.\n\u201cIt took years to build these underlying platforms and capabilities, and we are now in full scaling mode across the company,\u201d Schulten said. \u201cWe will close the loop and we believe this will create a new S curve for growth value creation centered around our consumers.\u201d\nThe consumer-facing impact is already measurable. Germany\u2019s Pantene tripled total consumer reach while cutting media spend by a fifth, deploying social media, influencer partnerships and AI-powered content tools. Content value share rose in Germany year over year. The same data infrastructure is now compressing supplier diversification and reformulation work in response to Middle East disruptions from years into weeks.\nWhat Else Stood Out on the Call\n\nThe Tide liquid upgrade, the biggest reformulation in 25 years on one of P&G\u2019s largest businesses, is delivering mid-teens growth by giving consumers a better product at the same price. Schulten called it the clearest proof that the innovation model works.\nBaby Care is gaining share in most global regions. The U.S. remains the exception. Schulten committed incremental investment and said the playbook is clear. China, where Baby Care is growing double digits with birth rates declining and the overall market negative, is the proof point.\nP&G recorded a significant after-tax gain from the dissolution of its Glad joint venture with Clorox, which closed in January after the agreement expired. Clorox purchased P&G\u2019s minority interest at fair market value.\nThe company raised its dividend for the seventieth consecutive year, continuing a streak that stretches back to its incorporation in 1890. P&G has now paid a dividend every year for over a century and a third.\nGreater China grew organic sales in a market where volume is still negative across most channels. The only growth is online and Douyin. P&G said its brands are winning in both.\n\nTopline Growth and Financials\nP&G reported net sales of $21.2 billion for the third quarter, up 7% versus prior year, with organic sales up 3% driven by 2 points of volume and 1 point of pricing. Beauty led with 7% organic growth. Grooming grew 1%. Health Care rose 2%. Fabric and Home Care grew 3%. Baby, Feminine and Family Care grew 3%.\nNorth America organic sales grew 4%, volume up 3 points. Europe rose 2%, Enterprise Markets up 6%. Greater China grew 3%. Latin America grew 5%, with Mexico and Brazil each up high single digits. Asia Pacific, Middle East Africa Enterprise grew 4%.\n \n\r\n\r\nThe post P&G\u2019s Tech Bet Starts Showing Up in Sales appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-26T18:29:10-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-26T18:29:10-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/PG-earnings-1.jpg", "tags": [ "consumer packaged goods", "CPG", "Earnings", "News", "P&G", "PYMNTS News", "Retail" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3679924", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/walmart-touts-people-and-ai-in-annual-report/", "title": "Walmart Touts People and AI in Annual Report", "content_html": "Artificial intelligence-powered tools are contributing to Walmart\u2019s efforts to become its customers\u2019 primary retail destination, the company said in its annual report released Thursday (April 23).
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Walmart Touts People and AI in Annual Report appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Artificial intelligence-powered tools are contributing to Walmart\u2019s efforts to become its customers\u2019 primary retail destination, the company said in its annual report released Thursday (April 23).\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThese tools enhance customers\u2019 shopping experience, associates\u2019 productivity, and the company\u2019s efficiency across supply chain, operations, management, talent recruitment and talent development, according to the report.\n\u201cWe are at a pivotal moment, not just for our company, but for the industry, as artificial intelligence fundamentally reshapes how customers shop and how associates work,\u201d Walmart President and CEO John Furner said in the annual report. \u201cWe are harnessing its power to enhance our business, guided by our foundational values of service, excellence, respect and integrity.\u201d\nIn a letter to shareholders released Thursday in conjunction with the annual report, Furner said Walmart is providing associates with technology and information that helps them better serve customers. Walmart-owned Sam\u2019s Club said in September 2025 that it was giving frontline managers AI tools to help them make decisions faster and free them from repetitive tasks.\n\u201cOur associates, powered by AI, are delivering faster and more accurately than ever all around the world,\u201d Furner said.\nWalmart highlighted in its annual report the companywide AI learning pathways and certifications it offers its associates. The retailer announced in September 2025 that it was preparing to offer its employees free access to an AI certification program from OpenAI. In his letter to shareholders, Furner also spotlighted the retailer\u2019s efforts to provide opportunities for associates to learn new skills.\n\u201cWhether it is one of our new programs to certify our associates as AI proficient, obtain a commercial driver\u2019s license to become a Walmart fleet driver, manage a store, or develop their own solutions using our vibe coding platform, we create opportunities to advance their careers,\u201d Furner said.\nThe retailer said in the annual report that it is reshaping associates\u2019 roles to emphasize uniquely human strengths, identifying areas where AI can automate repetitive tasks, and making its workforce digitally skilled and AI-enabled.\n\u201cThis includes preparing associates for new roles, technologies and ways of working, as well as deploying digital tools that support associate effectiveness, engagement and performance,\u201d Walmart said in the annual report.\nWalmart\u2019s use of AI to enhance customer experiences was highlighted by Furner in his letter to shareholders in the form of the retailer\u2019s AI agent, Sparky. The retailer introduced Sparky in its app in June 2025, saying the AI assistant helps customers find products, answers questions and makes recommendations.\n\u201cOur AI agent, Sparky, is helping customers save time, create solutions, and find the things they want and need at everyday low prices, creating a future for Walmart that is high-speed, convenient and personalized,\u201d Furner said in the letter.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Walmart Touts People and AI in Annual Report appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-24T13:38:46-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-24T13:38:46-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Walmart-AI-2.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "artificial intelligence", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "walmart", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3676990", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/amazon-and-walmart-race-to-capture-retails-decision-layer-first/", "title": "Amazon and Walmart Push AI Deeper Into the Shopping Aisle", "content_html": "Winning in retail has a new goal line: the logic that drives consumer choice itself.
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon and Walmart Push AI Deeper Into the Shopping Aisle appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Winning in retail has a new goal line: the logic that drives consumer choice itself.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAnd while it can be viewed, in one sense, as an extension of the traditional retail context for proximity \u2014 first physical, then digital and now increasingly cognitive \u2014 the emerging battleground is being shaped by the impact of artificial intelligence on customer interfaces.\nAmazon and Walmart, for example, are already racing to move beyond the limits of who has the best products or prices to compete over who can best understand and respond to the choices consumers make.\nThe new end zone for retail innovation is being fought across the \u201cdecision layer\u201d of AI commerce. The emerging retail decision layer is not a single product or feature. It is an evolving system of recommendation engines, conversational agents, predictive pricing and fulfillment orchestration that collectively determines what consumers see, consider and ultimately buy.\nIn this new paradigm, winning is less about stocking shelves or optimizing search results, and more about owning the emergent layer that sits between intent and purchase.\nFor Walmart and Amazon, the stakes are existential. If third-party AI assistants or platform-agnostic agents become a primary customer interface for shopping, the retailer could risk becoming a commoditized infrastructure layer.\nRead also: Amazon and Walmart Want More Than Your Prescription\nThe Rise of the Decision Layer\nHistorically, retail competition revolved around assortment, price and convenience. Online platforms like Amazon shifted the balance toward search and discovery, using algorithms to guide users through vast inventories. But the rise of generative AI and conversational interfaces is compressing that journey. Instead of browsing pages of results, consumers increasingly expect a single, context-aware recommendation \u2014 or even a fully executed purchase \u2014 based on minimal input.\nPYMNTS Intelligence\u2019s Prompt Economy work shows how\u00a0far along\u00a0this shift already is. Nearly 70% of consumers say they are interested in using artificial intelligence agents to simplify shopping tasks; more than half would like an autonomous agent to monitor and do their weekly shopping for them, or look through personal interactions with a friend to identify and purchase a gift.\nWalmart\u2019s recent push into AI can be seen as representing a calculated effort to leapfrog traditional eCommerce limitations and redefine its role in the customer journey. The company has been experimenting with generative AI tools that allow users to describe needs in natural language, such as \u201cplan a week of healthy meals under $100,\u201d and receive curated shopping lists that can be purchased in a single click.\nCrucially, Walmart\u2019s advantage lies in its hybrid model. With thousands of physical stores functioning as fulfillment hubs, the company can integrate real-time inventory data into its AI systems, enabling more accurate recommendations and faster delivery. This tight coupling of digital intelligence and physical infrastructure may allow Walmart to compete not just on price, but on certainty, knowing that what is recommended is available and can be delivered quickly.\nRead more: Mid-Tier Retailers Caught Between Amazon and Walmart\nAmazon, by contrast, is extending its long-standing dominance in algorithmic retail into a more autonomous future. The company has been layering generative AI capabilities into its platform, from enhanced product summaries to conversational shopping assistants that can guide users through complex decisions.\nBut Amazon\u2019s real strength lies in its end-to-end control of the commerce stack. From product discovery to payment to last-mile delivery, Amazon has built a vertically integrated system that can be optimized holistically. This allows it to experiment with machine-led commerce models where the system not only recommends products but also dynamically adjusts pricing, bundles items, and schedules delivery based on predicted demand and user behavior.\nAmazon\u2019s investments in logistics, including same-day delivery and automated warehouses, feed into this system, enabling faster and more reliable fulfillment that reinforces customer trust in machine-generated decisions.\nSee also: Small Businesses Stop Chasing Amazon on Delivery Speed\nFulfillment as a Determinant of Choice\nIn the context of the decision layer, fulfillment is not an afterthought but a key input. AI systems must account for delivery times, shipping costs and inventory constraints when generating recommendations. A product that is slightly more expensive but available for immediate delivery may be favored over a cheaper alternative with a longer lead time.\nSimilarly, as the decision layer evolves, pricing is no longer a static attribute but a dynamic signal that can influence and be influenced by AI systems. The system must balance cost, quality, availability and delivery speed to arrive at the \u201cbest\u201d option for the user. This requires integrating pricing data with other variables in a way that is transparent enough to build trust, yet sophisticated enough to maximize margins.\nFor consumers, the shift happening across retail may promise greater convenience and personalization. For retailers, it can raise new questions about control, differentiation, and trust. And for Walmart and Amazon, it could represent the next frontier in a long-running competition \u2014 one that will be decided not just by which company has the best products or prices, but by which one can best understand and shape the choices consumers make.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon and Walmart Push AI Deeper Into the Shopping Aisle appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-23T16:35:30-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-23T20:18:16-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-Walmart-retail-decision.png", "tags": [ "AI", "Amazon", "Consumer Spending", "ecommerce", "Featured News", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "walmart" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3670748", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/home-depot-targets-pros-to-spark-new-growth/", "title": "Home Depot Targets Pros to Spark New Growth", "content_html": "In a home improvement market that has been flat, The Home Depot is looking to grow by gaining share among professional contractors and builders, the Financial Times reported Tuesday (April 21).
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Home Depot Targets Pros to Spark New Growth appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "In a home improvement market that has been flat, The Home Depot is looking to grow by gaining share among professional contractors and builders, the Financial Times reported Tuesday (April 21).\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe home improvement retailer, which has traditionally served do-it-yourselfers, has made \u201cWin the pro\u201d a mantra, according to the report.\nHome Depot is pursuing this initiative at a time when the home improvement market has been slowed by high interest rates and by remodeling costs that have leapt 45% since 2019.\n\u201cWith housing turnover as low as it is, totally flat with no growth in new construction, our growth has to come from share capture right now,\u201d Home Depot Chair, President and CEO Ted Decker told the FT.\nProfessional customers accounted for $90 billion of Home Depot\u2019s $165 billion in sales last year, but the company is targeting a bigger share of the pro market that totals $700 billion, according to the report.\nThe firm is working to capture more of the pro business by trucking products to construction sites and by acquiring wholesale distribution companies, per the report.\nPYMNTS reported in February that the rapid expansion of Home Depot\u2019s professional business was the defining narrative of the company\u2019s 2025 results.\nThe report said this shift was not merely a cyclical tilt toward contractors during a soft consumer environment, but a structural repositioning of the company\u2019s identity. While Home Depot historically thrived on a balanced mix of DIY homeowners and professional tradespeople, it has increasingly targeted the pros whose spending patterns are more durable because they operate on longer project cycles, contractual backlogs and needs-based repairs.\nThe Home Depot announced Wednesday (April 15) that it aims to strengthen its same-day and next-day fulfillment strategy with its acquisition of SIMPL Automation, a company that uses advanced engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help distribution facilities operate faster and more efficiently.\nIn earlier acquisitions, Home Depot gained a foothold in roofing, landscaping and specialty building products with its integration of SRS Distribution; expanded its capabilities in drywall, ceilings and steel framing with its purchase of GMS; and added heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) products by entering into an agreement to buy Mingledorff\u2019s.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Home Depot Targets Pros to Spark New Growth appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-21T14:20:03-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-21T14:20:03-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Home-Depot.jpg", "tags": [ "contractors", "Home Depot", "home improvement", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3661478", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/qvc-files-chapter-11-to-slash-debt-and-pursue-growth/", "title": "QVC Files Chapter 11 to Slash Debt and Pursue Growth", "content_html": "Live social shopping company QVC Group has begun voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings to implement a comprehensive prepackaged financial restructuring plan.
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post QVC Files Chapter 11 to Slash Debt and Pursue Growth appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Live social shopping company QVC Group has begun voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings to implement a comprehensive prepackaged financial restructuring plan.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe plan is outlined in a Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA) the company reached with most of its lenders and will \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d the company\u2019s debt, strengthen its financial position and enable it to pursue long-term growth and profitability, QVC Group said in a Thursday (April 16) press release.\nSome of QVC Group\u2019s U.S. subsidiaries are included in the Chapter 11 proceedings, but its international operations are not, according to the release.\nAll QVC Group brands are operating as usual; QVC, HSN and Cornerstone Brands continue to serve customers across all channels and platforms; and all vendors, suppliers and other general unsecured creditors of the filing entities will be paid in full for all goods and services, the release said. The financial restructuring process includes no planned layoffs or furloughs, it added.\n\u201cQVC Group is uniquely positioned to compete and win in live social shopping, and we are seeing early momentum in our WIN Growth Strategy,\u201d QVC Group President and CEO David Rawlinson said in the release.\nThe company has become a top seller on TikTok Shop U.S., expanded its business on streaming and other platforms, consolidated its HSN and QVC operations, struck new deals with social and media partners, and rebalanced sourcing to account for tariffs, Rawlinson said.\n\u201cWith the support of our lenders and a more appropriate capital structure, we believe we can deliver on our WIN Growth Strategy,\u201d Rawlinson said.\nIt was reported Feb. 10 that QVC Group had held confidential talks with creditors to restructure its debt in bankruptcy. The company had been struggling with declining viewership, a $6.6 billion debt load and tax liability.\nThe company said in a Feb. 20 press release that it changed the timing of the release of its fourth-quarter financial results, which had been scheduled for Feb. 26, and would report them \u201cwithin the timeframe specified as a non-accelerated filer under SEC guidelines.\u201d\nPYMNTS reported in February 2025 that QVC Group was addressing challenges presented by a cautious consumer environment and rising competition by reducing debt and expanding its digital presence by focusing on the burgeoning trend of social commerce.\n\r\n\r\nThe post QVC Files Chapter 11 to Slash Debt and Pursue Growth appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-17T08:59:12-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-17T08:59:12-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/QVC-Group-Earnings.jpg", "tags": [ "bankruptcy", "News", "PYMNTS News", "QVC", "QVC Group", "Retail", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3659600", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/ai-traffic-outperforms-paid-search-for-us-retailers-adobe-says/", "title": "AI Traffic Outperforms Paid Search for US Retailers, Adobe Says", "content_html": "Artificial intelligence (AI) traffic to U.S. retail websites is now converting better than non-AI traffic such as paid search and email marketing, Adobe said Thursday (April 16).
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post AI Traffic Outperforms Paid Search for US Retailers, Adobe Says appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Artificial intelligence (AI) traffic to U.S. retail websites is now converting better than non-AI traffic such as paid search and email marketing, Adobe said Thursday (April 16).\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nIn March, AI traffic converted 42% better than non-AI traffic, marking a \u201cmajor reversal\u201d from a year earlier, when AI traffic converted 38% worse, Vivek Pandya, director of Adobe Digital Insights, said in a Thursday blog post.\n\u201cRising consumer trust has played a factor, with Adobe\u2019s survey showing that 66% of respondents believe AI tools provide accurate results,\u201d Pandya said. \u201cThis is giving shoppers confidence and driving more transaction activity.\u201d\nConversion is a measure of visits to a website that result in purchases, according to the post.\nTwo related metrics are also higher for AI traffic. Adobe found that in March, individuals who landed on a retail site from an AI source spent 48% more time on the website and browsed 13% more pages than those who landed from a non-AI source.\nThe PYMNTS Intelligence report \u201cHow AI Becomes the Place Consumers Start Everything,\u201d which was published in December 2025, found that dedicated AI environments are beginning to replace traditional discovery.\n\u201cWinning attention increasingly depends on whether a brand\u2019s offers, policies and product truths can be interpreted and recommended inside conversational environments,\u201d the report said.\nAdobe also announced in its Thursday blog post that the amount of traffic from AI sources to U.S. retail sites saw year-over-year growth of 269% in March and 393% in the three months from January through March.\nThe company found that 39% of consumers said they have used AI for online shopping and that 85% of those consumers said the technology improved their shopping experience.\n\u201cThese figures highlight the durable value that AI is delivering in the eCommerce space, shortening the time it takes for consumers to find what they need or locate relevant discounts,\u201d Pandya said in the post.\nAdobe also released new data in the post showing that 66% of the individual product pages on retail websites can be read by large language models (LLMs), meaning that the other 34% of sites have not been optimized for LLMs.\n\u201cRetailers have thousands of SKUs, and our data shows that much of the content is currently invisible to LLMs,\u201d Pandya said in the post.\n\nFor all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily\u00a0AI\u00a0Newsletter.\n\n\r\n\r\nThe post AI Traffic Outperforms Paid Search for US Retailers, Adobe Says appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-16T16:10:51-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-16T16:10:51-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/eCommerce.jpg", "tags": [ "Adobe", "AI", "ecommerce", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3659078", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/amazon-walmarts-glp-1-land-grab-is-bigger-than-weight-loss/", "title": "Amazon and Walmart Want More Than Your Prescription", "content_html": "The retail battle is bleeding over into healthcare. It has been for a while, as healthcare and pharma firms increasingly recognize the benefits of physical retail\u2019s distribution capabilities.
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon and Walmart Want More Than Your Prescription appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "The retail battle is bleeding over into healthcare. It has been for a while, as healthcare and pharma firms increasingly recognize the benefits of physical retail\u2019s distribution capabilities.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nBut recent headlines from both Amazon and Walmart underscore that as digital distribution starts to equal the benefits of brick-and-mortar locations, a new category is emerging, one that might be called \u201ccontinuous care commerce.\u201d\nAmazon Pharmacy said it will offer Eli Lilly\u2019s newly approved oral GLP-1 treatment Foundayo with real-time availability, transparent pricing, automatic manufacturer coupons and same-day delivery in nearly 3,000 cities and towns, expanding to 4,500 by year-end.\nWalmart, meanwhile, has expanded its Better Care Services platform to support customers who are taking or considering GLP-1 drugs. The retailer is combining virtual care, nutrition services, digital tools and access to its nearly 4,600 pharmacies, while also offering same-day delivery in as fast as an hour in many markets and free delivery for Walmart+ members. The platform now connects customers to a group of third-party providers spanning fitness, dietitian services, AI-supported coaching and telehealth-based obesity care.\nThis new category of continuous care commerce sits at the intersection of retail, healthcare and subscription services, and it is being defined by ongoing engagement rather than episodic transactions. The GLP-1 drug is merely the entry point for Amazon and Walmart.\nSee also: Amazon and Walmart Deepen Healthcare Push With Prescription Delivery and Telehealth Expansion\u00a0\nFrom Prescriptions to Platforms\nOn the surface, both GLP-1 announcements are about the same consumer opportunity: meeting demand for high-profile weight-loss therapies, including Lilly\u2019s new oral option. But the operating models of the two retailers are different.\nAmazon is leaning into speed, inventory visibility and digital convenience. Its message is that pharmacy should work more like modern eCommerce \u2014 customers should know whether a drug is in stock, what it will cost and how quickly it can arrive. Amazon is also pairing home delivery with plans for pharmacist-supported kiosks at select One Medical locations, tightening the handoff between diagnosis, prescription and fulfillment.\nWalmart\u2019s strategy is broader and more omnichannel. Its announcement treats medication access as only one piece of a more fragmented weight-management journey that also includes provider access, nutrition support, behavior change and insurance navigation.\nThat is why Walmart is using Better Care Services as an orchestration layer, bringing together services such as Aaptiv, Berry Street, Curai Health, MyCare by Twin Health and Wheel alongside pharmacy fulfillment, a redesigned GLP-1 destination on Walmart.com and nutrition guidance through its Nutrition Hub.\nAt a high-level view, it\u2019s becoming apparent to observers that Amazon and Walmart are not just competing to fill prescriptions, they are competing to own more of the digital healthcare journey. GLP-1 medications, which often require long-term use and behavioral adjustments, are uniquely suited to this emerging strategy. Patients need not only prescriptions but also guidance on diet, exercise and side-effect management.\nThis can create recurring touchpoints and revenue opportunities across multiple domains such as telehealth visits, nutritional products, fitness services and even grocery purchases aligned with treatment plans.\nIn\u00a0\u201cThe New Checkout: Crimped Consumers Lean Into Online Retail and Digital Wallets,\u201d\u00a0PYMNTS Intelligence finds that financial pressure is reshaping shopping behavior in ways that go beyond broad spending trends, with high-stress online retail shoppers\u00a034% less likely\u00a0to buy from Amazon than low-stress shoppers.\nSee also:\u00a0Retailers Focus on Data and Payments as Shoppers Pull Back\u00a0\nThe Rise of Continuous Care Commerce\nThe winning formula in this new landscape may not be about dispensing the most prescriptions or offering the lowest price. The ultimate prize that Amazon and Walmart are chasing is one that sits closer to becoming the default platform through which patients experience care.\nFor Amazon, that could mean embedding healthcare into its broader ecosystem of Prime services, devices and data. For Walmart, it could mean leveraging its physical footprint and everyday low-price positioning to become the most accessible healthcare destination in the country.\nSame-day delivery of prescription drugs, in-store kiosks that dispense medication minutes after a consultation and integrated platforms that guide patients through complex treatment journeys were once disparate innovations. Now they are coalescing into a coherent model.\nFor payments, banking and FinTech executives, the significance goes beyond healthcare.\nGLP-1s are creating a new commerce stack around recurring prescriptions, insurance adjudication, cash-pay pricing, coupon automation, membership benefits and adjacent spending on food, fitness and clinical services.\nAmazon\u2019s play is to compress time-to-therapy and digitize the transaction. Walmart\u2019s is to bundle fulfillment with surrounding services and store-based accessibility. Both are turning pharmacy into a strategic platform business, not a back-of-store function. The contest now is over who can remove friction most effectively \u2014 from prescription and payment to delivery, adherence and follow-on care.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon and Walmart Want More Than Your Prescription appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-16T14:27:58-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-16T22:47:32-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-Walmart-weight-loss.jpeg", "tags": [ "Amazon", "Featured News", "Healthcare", "News", "pharmaceuticals", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "walmart", "Weight Loss" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3649918", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/why-the-offers-economy-is-broken/", "title": "Why the Offers Economy Is Broken", "content_html": "Picture a woman standing in the checkout line at her local grocery store, frantically thumbing through her phone looking for a promo code she was sure she had saved somewhere. Maybe it was one of the times you were standing behind her.\u00a0 The cashier waited. The line waited, though not very patiently. She eventually gave up, paid full price and walked away annoyed. But not at herself. At the store.
\r\n\t\t\r\n\t
\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Karen](\"https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/2025-KLW-LinkedIn-Banner-1920x240-1.jpg\")
The post Why the Offers Economy Is Broken appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Picture a woman standing in the checkout line at her local grocery store, frantically thumbing through her phone looking for a promo code she was sure she had saved somewhere. Maybe it was one of the times you were standing behind her.\u00a0 The cashier waited. The line waited, though not very patiently. She eventually gave up, paid full price and walked away annoyed. But not at herself. At the store.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThat scene plays out millions of times a day across grocery stores, retail shops, restaurant apps and eCommerce checkout flows. A deal is out there. A consumer wants it. But the engine to connect them sputters and fails. The store collects the data point on an unredeemed offer and moves on. The brand absorbs the wasted promotional spend and chalks it up to the cost of doing business. The consumer, tired by all the jitter-jive associated with the three or four steps required to find and then redeem a promo code or an offer, eventually stops trying.\n\u201cSo what,\u201d some merchants and brands might say. The customer still shopped at the store, still bought the product and, bonus, paid full price. What\u2019s so wrong with that picture?\nHere\u2019s what\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 Every one of those unredeemed offers isn\u2019t just a missed connection. It\u2019s a missed connection with a customer who may shop somewhere else next time.\nThe consumer who never saw the offer and paid full price probably wondered whether they missed out on a deal somewhere else for the same thing. The brand spent the promotional dollar and got nothing back. The merchant lost the chance to win a basket that might have looked different, even bigger, with a customer who might be more loyal had the right incentive arrived at the right moment.\nNew data from PYMNTS Intelligence finds that 50% of restaurant diners and nearly half of retail shoppers noticed no offer during their most recent visit. The offer was there but they couldn\u2019t find it, didn\u2019t see it. That\u2019s not a rounding error in the redemption data. These are the customers brands most want to reach and are most consistently failing to convert.\n\nA new PYMNTS Intelligence report produced in collaboration with FIS surveyed 2,754 consumers across grocery, restaurant and retail, putting hard numbers to a problem the industry has been tolerating for years. The findings aren\u2019t a gentle critique. They describe an offers economy that\u2019s out of step with the consumers it was built to serve, extracting data and attention at the top of the funnel while failing to deliver value where it matters most. At the bottom of the funnel, when it\u2019s time to close the deal.\nWhat the data reveals is that the breakdown in the offers economy isn\u2019t about coupon mechanics or loyalty app design. It\u2019s about whether the promotional dollars that brands, merchants and issuers collectively spend are achieving the one thing offers are meant to do. Change behavior.\nPYMNTS Intelligence data shows they can, and sometimes they do. But the $42 billion gap in the offers economy points to a structural deficiency that has grown too large to ignore.\nThe right framework for understanding this structural breakdown is FIT: Friction, Inertia and Time. I\u2019ve been writing about these forces for years, drawing on data from dozens of platform inefficiencies to develop it. What I\u2019ve found is that each force operates independently. Together, they\u2019ve created an offers economy that consumes enormous promotional investment while delivering outcomes that fall far short of what new technology, new models and new ways of thinking about offers now make possible.\nRead More: Using the FIT Framework in a\u00a0Digital 3.0 World\nThe Wanamaker Problem, Still Unsolved\nThe early department store pioneer John Wanamaker famously said that half of his advertising money was wasted, but he didn\u2019t know which half. That was in the early part of the 1900s, when paper and pen were the most innovative tools available to track those outcomes.\nOne hundred and twenty-six years later, that dilemma defines the failure of the 2026 offers economy, even as offers have gotten richer and more plentiful and the technology available to serve them is now extraordinarily sophisticated.\nAmong the consumers who did find an offer, only 13% online and 10% in-store experienced the automatic application of the discount at checkout. The other 87% to 90% had to put a lot of elbow grease into redeeming them, clearing an average of more than two active hurdles just to use a deal they were already aware of, the PYMNTS Intelligence data found.\nAnd when consumers who saw an offer but said \u201cno thanks\u201d were asked why, 40% said the offer wasn\u2019t relevant. Not the obstacle course between discovery and checkout. Irrelevance. The offer had already captured their attention and in many cases their personal data. But returned a deal they didn\u2019t want.\nRead More: Personalized Offers Are Powerful \u2014 But Too Often Off-Base\nThis disconnect is commercially more serious than a leaky funnel.\nThe $42 billion sitting uncaptured in the gap between promotional dollars spent and consumer value delivered is the economic impact of a system that isn\u2019t living up to its potential.\nSeven in ten consumers who noticed an offer changed what they bought or how much they bought when the offer actually reached them.\nSo, every dollar disappearing into the gap between an offer that existed and a consumer who never found it is more than wasted spend. It\u2019s a lost opportunity to change behavior, win a brand switch, build a basket or earn a payment method preference.\nThe outcomes the offers economy is supposed to produce.\nMaking the Offers Economy More FIT\nMy two cents is that the friction in the current offers system isn\u2019t accidental. It\u2019s a deliberate design choice.\nThink about your own experience in finding and redeeming offers. The offers ecosystem was built to use the lure of a discount as a mechanism for data capture at the top of the funnel. Sign up for the email. Create the account. Opt into the text notifications. The consumer is asked to \u201cpay\u201d in personal information and future attention before they have any basis for trusting that what comes back will be relevant or worth the exchange.\nWhen 40% of non-redemptions happen because consumers find them irrelevant, it means the data capture is often happening without the personalization payoff that was supposed to justify it. The brand got the email address. The consumer got nothing they wanted.\nThe \u201cI love it/I hate it\u201d ubiquitous promo code is the most visible symptom of this dysfunction.\nA brand distributes codes across email campaigns, coupon aggregator sites and promotional partnerships, loses control of who redeems them and under what conditions, captures no meaningful attribution data from the transaction and builds no relationship with the consumer who found the deal on a third-party site and who will return to that site next time rather than to the brand or merchant. The code is not a marketing tool. It is a markdown without meaningful attribution.\nThat dysfunction persists not because merchants and brands can\u2019t see it, but because inertia has made it too comfortable to ignore. And, ironically, so durable.\nConsumers have adapted to the broken system rather than rejecting it. They use secondary email addresses for promotional signups. They abandon carts and wait for the recovery email that almost always arrives with a better offer. They have learned the game and play it, which creates a false signal for merchants and brands who look at redemption rates and email list growth and conclude that the system is working.\nWhat the metrics don\u2019t capture is the 27% of shoppers who pay no attention to offers at all because the current offers ecosystem hasn\u2019t given them a reason to engage. Those consumers aren\u2019t lost. They\u2019re waiting for an offers experience worth their attention and their loyalty. The longer inertia holds the current system in place, the more the third force, time, works against everyone.\n\nRead More: Embedded Offers: The Billion-Dollar Opportunity Inside Recent Consumer Spending\nThe dominant offer discovery channels \u2014 the merchant apps, checkout screens and in-store signage \u2014 all require the consumer to already be inside the purchase flow. The offer arrives after they\u2019ve already finished their shopping. It creates no opportunity to influence what goes in the basket, consider an alternative product or increase spend.\nThe generational data makes the time pressure across merchants and brands more real. Gen Z is the most likely to shut the door entirely on offers, and therefore brands and stores, when presented with manual steps and promo code hunts.\nRead More: The Five Rules of Engagement for Gen Z Spending and Payments\nNearly one in five Gen Z (19%) shoppers who saw an offer and didn\u2019t use it cited too many steps as the reason, compared to one percent of boomers. For this generation, friction is not an inconvenience. It\u2019s a reason to shop with another merchant or stick with the brand they already know rather than try something new.\n\nWhat a Different System Changes\nThe\u00a0 case for a better offers architecture starts with understanding, and then embedding offers, into the customer journey at the start, and not at the end.\nNearly nine in ten consumers say they want to see every relevant discount before they decide what goes in their cart. Before they decide they\u2019re finished shopping and want to call it a day.\n\nAn embedded smart offer delivers it at the moment of intent. That shift does more than improve the user experience. It changes the purchase decision itself.\nAn offer that finds the consumer rather than waiting to be found doesn\u2019t require effort, trust in a coupon aggregator or memory of a promo code under pressure at checkout. It arrives attached to the product in their consideration set, delivered through the card they already use, built on their actual purchase history rather than a demographic bucket.\nThe data finds that when offers do reach consumers, seven in ten change what they buy. Seven in ten change how much they buy. The goal is to make finding offers the default rather than the exception.\n\nRead More: The $42 Billion Checkout Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight\nOne-to-one personalization is what separates this model from every prior iteration of card-linked offers. The card credential carries transaction history across merchants and categories at a level of granularity that no email list or loyalty program can approach.\nIt knows not just that a consumer shops at a particular grocery chain but which brands they buy consistently, which they have tried once and abandoned, which categories they trade up in and which they treat as commodities.\nA dynamic offer built on that data is much more than a discount. It is a precisely timed intervention in a known purchase pattern, served to defend a brand relationship showing signs of fatigue, to introduce a product at the moment the consumer is most likely to try something new, or to reward the specific behavior the brand wants to reinforce.\nRead More: AI Pushes Personalization From Guesswork to Growth\nAccording to PYMNTS Intelligence data, four in ten consumers say a form of smart, embedded real-time savings would be highly influential in making a payment method that supports it their default. Seventy-seven percent say it would be at least somewhat influential. The card that delivers embedded smart offers seems influential in winning in the wallet.\n\nNew Economics for Merchants and Brands\nThe attribution crisis at the center of the offers economy is as consequential as the consumer experience problem but gets far less attention.\nBrands spread promotional budgets across email, coupons and loyalty programs and get back data that is too weak and too delayed to guide the next decision. Money goes out and redemption rates come back, but whether an offer drove new behavior or simply discounted a purchase that would have happened anyway is largely unknowable.\nIt is the Wanamaker problem, 126 years later, still unsolved.\nUsing the card credential as the delivery layer could address this at its root. The card is present at every transaction, which means a brand funding an offer at this layer knows exactly what was purchased, where, by whom and whether the behavior was incremental, such as a trial, a basket expansion or a brand switch.\nThe promotional dollar no longer buys impressions. It buys outcomes. Return on investment is not inferred. It is measured, attributed and immediately actionable.\nFor merchants, this changes the economics in a meaningful way.\nBrand-funded offers become a source of incremental revenue rather than a cost center. For merchants, this reframes offers from an expense to manage into an asset that drives acquisition and retention.\nThe result is a reallocation of promotional spend away from impression-based marketing with uncertain outcomes and toward incentives tied to specific products, merchants and behaviors. A fundamental shift in how the offers economy works.\nThe Card\u2019s Untapped Commercial Position\nFor issuers, this creates something new. It is a commercially meaningful position at the center of the offers economy that no ad network, email platform or coupon aggregator can replicate.\nIt is grounded in trust, verified transaction data and full visibility across the purchase journey. The question is whether issuers recognize the opportunity and move with the urgency it demands.\nPYMNTS Intelligence data suggests the consumer is already there. Among those most willing to engage with embedded and personalized offers, 75% are willing to share data with banks and 78% with retailers.\nThese consumers are high frequency and high value. They skew toward millennials and bridge millennials and have established financial relationships.\nThis is the audience brands want to reach, and they\u2019re ready to let the card be the platform that connects them.\nWhy Agentic Commerce Shortens the Window\nThe case for a better offers economy stands on its own in the current environment. But agentic commerce makes the window for building it shorter than most issuers and merchants currently appreciate.\nAI-powered agents already assist consumers with purchase decisions. The next generation won\u2019t assist. They\u2019ll execute. A consumer sets preferences and constraints and the agent handles the research, the selection and the transaction. In that environment, the offers ecosystem as currently constructed isn\u2019t just inefficient. It\u2019s irrelevant.\nRead More: What Happens to Stores When AI Agents Do the Shopping?\nAn AI agent doesn\u2019t hunt for promo codes. It doesn\u2019t sign up for email lists. It doesn\u2019t activate loyalty IDs. If an offer can\u2019t be accessed programmatically through a credentialed interface the agent can query and apply without intervention, the offer doesn\u2019t exist for that transaction. The promotional dollars behind it simply don\u2019t connect.\nA tokenized smart credential is best positioned to survive this transition. An offer embedded at the card credential layer doesn\u2019t need the consumer or the agent to do anything. It\u2019s queried, surfaced, applied and attributed automatically. The agent selects the payment credential that delivers the most value at the point of purchase. The card with the richest offer layer wins the transaction by default, without ever competing for attention at a checkout screen.\nRead More: Demystifying AI\u2019s Capabilities for Use in Payments\nThe card that hasn\u2019t built this capability will not lose that competition gradually. It will lose it at scale, as agent-mediated commerce moves from a niche behavior to a default one over time.\nThe Offers Economy Bet Worth Making\nThe argument for a better offers economy ultimately rests on a behavioral claim the PYMNTS Intelligence report makes with data-driven clarity.\nOffers change what people buy, how much they buy and which payment method they use to buy it.\nAccording to the data, these aren\u2019t incremental improvements. They\u2019re substantial shifts in commercial outcomes driven entirely by the presence of a relevant, timely, frictionless offer.\nThe current offers economy captures only a fraction of this behavioral potential because it was designed around data extraction rather than value delivery, and because the friction it introduces at every stage causes the majority of consumers to never encounter the offer at all or to abandon it before redemption.\nAn embedded smart offers model inverts this logic entirely. The offer finds the consumer. It\u2019s relevant because it\u2019s built on verified transaction data rather than demographic stereotypes.\nIt\u2019s applied automatically, so the behavioral effect does not depend on the consumer remembering to act at the right moment or clearing two, three or more hurdles to redeem it, if they see it in the first place.\nAnd it creates a data loop that allows brands to observe outcomes directly and improve targeting with each iteration.\nThe consumers most ready to engage with this model represent more than half the U.S. adult population.\nThe brands most likely to fund it are the ones watching their promotional budgets produce diminishing returns in channels that can\u2019t demonstrate attribution.\nThe merchants most likely to benefit are the ones that need new sources of promotional revenue that don\u2019t require them to sacrifice already thinning margins.\nThe issuers most likely to build it are the ones that understand the card credential is no longer just a payment instrument. It\u2019s foundational for building a relationship with their customer.\n \nUntil NEXT time.\nJoin the 21,000 subscribers who\u2019ve already said yes to what\u2019s NEXT.\n\n \n\r\n\r\nThe post Why the Offers Economy Is Broken appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-15T06:53:51-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-15T06:53:14-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Karen Webster", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/karen-webster/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/82cde720c07270077111addc8197f8d7eecb8bea90d0cdc2a6bad5576898483d?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Karen Webster", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/karen-webster/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/82cde720c07270077111addc8197f8d7eecb8bea90d0cdc2a6bad5576898483d?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-Web-Hero-Image-KLW-NEXT-1200x780-04142.jpg", "tags": [ "agentic commerce", "AI", "artificial intelligence", "Card Linked Offers", "Karen Webster", "KLW Commentary", "Main Feature", "News", "next newsletter", "offers economy", "promotions", "PYMNTS News", "Retail" ] } ] }