Digiday+ Research: Amazon’s importance to marketers’ holiday strategies grows this year

That’s according to a Digiday+ Research survey conducted among nearly 70 brand, retailer and agency professionals in Q3.

Nearly half of marketers will use Amazon as a sales channel during the holidays this year: 46% of brand, retailer and agency pros told Digiday that Amazon will be part of their holiday strategy in 2024. And about half of marketers also said this year that Amazon will grow more important to their businesses during the holidays this year: 49% said the retail giant will be more important to their sales as shoppers make holiday purchases in 2024.

This is a significant change over last year, when just a third of brand, retailer and agency pros (33%) told Digiday that Amazon would grow more important to their holiday sales. And this year, not one respondent to Digiday’s survey said that Amazon would lose importance to their businesses during the holiday season in 2024. (Last year 7% of respondents to Digiday’s survey said Amazon would grow less important during the holidays.)

Retail media in general is going strong into the last stretch of the year. Digiday’s survey found that more than half of marketers use retail media (including Amazon) as a marketing channel: 54% of brand, retailer and agency pros said this year that their companies or clients currently use retail media. And nearly a third of marketers told Digiday that retail media is one of the top marketing channels when it comes to spending and driving success: 30% of brands, retailers and agencies said both that retail media accounts for a high portion of their companies’ or clients’ marketing budgets and that they’re confident that the channel drives marketing success.

But it all does come back to Amazon, which continues to dominate the space: More than three-quarters of brand, retailer and agency pros (77%) told Digiday this year that their companies and clients currently use Amazon as a retail media channel. Walmart holds a strong footing in the space, with 53% saying they use that retail media channel, but that’s still 24 percentage points behind Amazon.

After Walmart, Target’s Roundel platform is used by just over a quarter of marketers (27%). From Amazon’s 77% to Target’s 27% is a very big discrepancy for the top three retail media networks — a very notable difference.

Interestingly, Digiday’s survey found that marketers’ use of retail media channels (and where Amazon specifically stands among them) is reflected almost exactly in their budgets. Seventy-seven percent of brand, retailer and agency pros said that they spend at least a very small portion of their marketing budgets on Amazon — the same percentage of marketers who said they use the platform. Walmart saw the same effect: 50% of brands, retailers and agencies said they spend at least a very small portion of their marketing budgets on Walmart, which is almost equal to the 53% of marketers who said they use Walmart as a retail media marketing channel.

Target’s representation in marketers ad spend on retail media platforms, however, was much more significant than its overall use among marketers — another interesting finding. Forty percent of brand, retailer and agency pros said they spend at least a small portion of their marketing budgets on Target’s Roundel platform, compared with the 27% of marketers who said they use Target’s retail media network as a marketing channel.