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Hey, CPT guys, listeners, PVSB here. And we want to take a minute to tell you about something that Sree and I are genuinely proud to be a part of. And that's the Cornell OmniCommerce Leadership Program, an immersive on campus executive education experience at Cornell University in beautiful Ithaca, New York, happening July 27th through the 31st. This isn't a webinar. This isn't another online certificate you do in your pajamas. This is five days on the Cornell campus surrounded by senior executives from retail, CPG and ad tech service providers all wrestling with the same questions you are. How do I win the omnishopper? How do I navigate retail media? What does agentic commerce mean for my business? The faculty lineup is extraordinary. We're talking Cornell professors alongside practitioners from Mars, Snacking, Nestle, Walmart, Ajo delhez, Fetch Dollar General, Monster Energy, Bayer Consumer Health, and yes, sri. And I will be right there in the room with you. You walk away with a Cornell SC Johnson College of Business certificate, 36 professional development hours, and more importantly, a concrete Omni Commerce roadmap you can bring back to your organization on day one. Seats are very limited. The program is built for VPs, directors and senior leaders who are serious about getting ahead of where commerce is going.
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Visit the link in our show notes
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to learn more and request information. Search online for Cornell OmniCommerce leadership or find the direct link@cpguys.com we'll see you in Ithaca this July.
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Now let's get into Today's episode. It's June 30, 2026, and this is the Commerce riff brought to you by the CPG guys. 10 minutes of news stories that matter in commerce. This week we're back after a short hiatus. We took more while away working Cannes Lions down in the south of France. I'm your host, pvsp. I'm joined as always by Papa Entourage, as we came to call him on Lacquisette. The father of pop stars, co founders of Think Blue Consulting. He is the man known as Sree. Sree.
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What's up? Happy to be back from what I would call arguably was a very long week at Ken and we accomplished quite a bit, you and me. I think the news on the street is the CPG guys own the crosshair. So congratulations to you Suzanne, all our sponsors. I want to say thank you for the awesome partnership.
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Let's not forget our friends friends Nicole and Dom. They were big helps to us as well in the background. Great to have Nicole on stage and Dom helping US haul ice and do other things right. All right, let's kick things off with how AI influenced the annual Prime Day sales this year. During this year's four day Amazon Prime Day sales event, consumers were more likely to search for products using AI and consumers who were steered to retail sites by AI were more likely to make a purchase, according to Prime Day data released today by Adobe. Adobe, which analyzed digital transactions on US Retail sites during the four prime days, saw a market shift this year in the ability of AI powered chat and browsers to drive sales. Shoppers who use AI to find product information and deals had a 40% better conversion or purchase rate than non AI channels such as paid search, email and social media. That is in sharp contrast to last year's prime event, where conversion from AI directed traffic was 23% worse than other channels. While AI still generates a modest volume of online traffic compared to other channels, the new figure figures show AI is shortening the time it takes for consumers to confidently get the information they need, Adobe reported. AI powered chat services and browsers have cemented their role in the online shopping experience, providing utility for shoppers who value the speed and convenience, Vivek Pandya, lead analyst Adobe Digital Insights, said when releasing Adobe's report on the first day of Prime Day. But Pandya noted a big problem for retailers I.e. sizable portions of retailers websites, up to 46% in some cases are not readable. My my Mach machines.
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That is horrible.
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That problem, Pandya said, limits their visibility across AI surfaces and will push brands to invest in more AI friendly content such as tutorials, how to guides, customer service pages and more. Prime Day also highlights the importance of retailers being able to meet the increased demands of a sales event like Prime Day and to deliver the correct items in the promised timeline. Sometimes that has become more important in the age of AI, omar Khari, CEO of E commerce and supply chain platform Logic Broker, said. Quote the same connected data infrastructure that allows retailers to manage inventory, suppliers, orders and fulfillment in real time during Prime Day is what makes products discoverable and trustworthy in the AI driven commerce, k said. Yet many retailers remain too focused on how to get recommended by AI when the bigger question is whether they've earned the trust to keep being recommended at all. Adobe's been tracking the growth of AI directed traffic to retail sites for more than a year. During the first five months of the year through May, AI traffic to US retailer sites increased by 235% year over year. During the Prime Day period June 23to26, AI director traffic was up 89% year over year. Sree over to you.
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Of course, the very next topic, Peter, has to be the details of the Prime Day numbers. So I'm going to get into that, but I want to thank our partners@hotwire.com for efficiently sending me and Peter the details of the numbers literally a few days after Prime Day has been executed. So again, I'll call out hotwire.com and say thank you Adobe released final figures for the prime day event recapping June 23 to 26 of 2026 profiling consumer spend and trends across US retailers Adobe's report provides the most comprehensive view into US e commerce by analyzing direct transactions online, covering 1 trillion visits that happened to US retail websites and 100 million SKUs 18 product categories. US retailers of 26.4 billion whopping dollars in online spend from June 23 to June 26, representing a 9.3% year over year growth comp 2025 trending even above Adobe's initial forecast which was 9%. This is changing the shape of the summer shopping season, which is beginning to rival the holiday period as a comparisons point. Consumers spent $32.45 billion across Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2025, all encompassing what we call the holiday season. Mobile continues to be the dominant transaction channel, driving 54.2% of the online sales versus desktop during the Prime Day event, which represents a $14.2 billion of overall spend an all time high numbers are wild Peter. Competitive discounts drove online demand as shoppers have been conditioned to wait for big promotional phrase buy on products they've had
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the eyes on, and Amazon makes it
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easy by save for later. Consumers found great deals that are on
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par with last year's Prime Day event, with discounts for electronics speaking at 24% of listed price greater than by 1% versus year ago. Strong discounts were seen in apparel at 24%, toys at 20%, televisions at 19%, appliances 16%, furniture at 16, computers at 13 and sporting at 10. Some consumers also opted for greater payment flexibility during this event. Buy now, pay later orders accumulated for 6.6% of online orders amounting $2.1 billion during the same period, also representing a 9.5% growth year over year. There are more details. Strong discounts though many shoppers should trade up to higher ticket items, all categories tracked by Adobe. They share the most expensive goods increased by 19% compared to average levels year to date. In electronics they share the most expensive goods rose by 51%. Consumers also traded up in categories such as toys up 37%. Appliance 30% personal care products 27% furniture 24% sporting goods 24% apparel 11%. I think we can clearly say prime day is here and it's going to grow year over year. At the category level, online sales were Driven by electronics, up 120% versus average daily sales in June 2026. Appliance 9%. Home improvement in tools 70%. Home and garden 65% furniture and bedding up 55%. At the product level, let's get into some details. Health and wellness Online purchases smartwatches were up 120%. Exercise equipment up 85%. Active wear 50%. For kids back to school shopping remain the sales driver with uptick scene across kids apparel at 140%. Backpacks 115% Lunchboxes 105 car seats 140% these numbers are just staggering purchases for the home. Consumers took advantage of deals to refresh their living spaces. Online purchase the bedroom Bathroom linens were up 130%. Mattresses up 80%. Bedroom furniture 45%. Bathroom furniture 65%. Bathroom fixtures 55%. Cookware 75%. Kitchen 50%. Kitchen and dining furniture 40%. Kitchen fixtures 35. On everyday essential personal hygiene products like oral care, shampoo, antiperspirant glove 125%. And even household goods were up 60%. Such as trash bags, detergent, paper products. Summer travel as some consumers prepare for the upcoming travel season, online purchases were up in areas like luggage up 95%. Car seats up 140%, noise canceling headphones up 155%. Portable charges up 70%. Travel size toiletries up 70% and portable fans 55%. Peter, this is Alibaba Singles day in the making. It's been brewing for years. This year the numbers were whopping any merchant, especially the grocery ones who do not understand the relevance of Prime Day. I'm sorry I'm going to use the word you taught me. Luddites get on the bandwagon. You don't have a choice.
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Yeah, that's a lot of data you shared, sri. We'll try and put a link to the report in the liner notes of this episode so people can see it on their own. All right, from our friends at Retail Dive, Ask Cannes Lions attendees what was top of mind of the show and Safe Money is on. Artificial intelligence is the answer. Part of that is doing some of the festival attention grabbing new entrants. But platforms and publishers nearly across the board are eager to demonstrate that their bets on the space, including in agentic AI, are moving from the realm of hype into reality. Amazon this week unveiled a new ad format, Alexa plus Agentic Ads, that underlines the focus on leveraging AI to deliver more tangible outcomes for brands. Customers that are served an ad can strike up a voice chat, weigh different buying options and can Pete complete their transaction without having to leave the Alexa interface. In a demo shown by Amazon, a woman who is interested in getting concert tickets to see Jill Scott refines her search by noting the occasion as her mom's birthday and that she's open to paying more for premium seating options. She eventually finds front row seats on Ticketmaster, all via voice commands. Papa John's and the Orchard, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, are early partners on Alex plus agentic ads, which are currently running in beta on Amazon's Echo show devices. Alexa plus became publicly available earlier this year following a beta period in 2025. Toward the end of last year, Amazon confirmed a TechCrunch that more than 1 million people had access to the generative AI assistant. According to information shared by Amazon, Lex is used in tens of millions of homes. Amazon plans to bring the format to Fire TV as well, where it will live in the carousel like feature rotator experience on the home screen. While the testing period is in early days, executives emphasize they don't view Alexa gentic ads as limited experiment or theoretical use. But we have ad products that are live today. This isn't something we're talking about or saying we're working on it, said Charlotte Mains, Amazon's VP of device content and advertising, in an interview Wednesday. Alexa plus agentic ads do not require rigid phrases to know when to complete an action, according to Mains, and can pick up on subtler cues. Amazon sees the conversational nature of the technology as a way to eventually realize more personalized, relevant ads, echoing where other AI platforms believe they can deliver value to brands. Papa John's case, Alexa may remember customers favorite topping from a prior conversation surface those as recommendation for repeat orders. This is literally the first thing so many more opportunities for innovation because Alexa plus just as all the agentic AI assistance is new, said Mains. My job is to make sure that as customer engagement grows, advertisers can participate in those high intent conversations. Cannes lions may also make for a crowded AI playing field, but Amazon sees an advantage over upstarts thank to thanks to the same assets that have powered its advertising division into a 70 billion powerhouse. Those include an ad robust demand side platform, established measurement capabilities and a rich transaction level data. Advertisers can be as involved or not involved as they want in terms of creative team on how they generate these assets, but we offer a plug and play solutions, said Mains. We do have foundations so we are able to offer a lot of data on how creative performs historically. Sree close it out would you?
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That's for sure. Peter AI dominated the conversations at Amazon certainly did. So let's close this week to some other highlights from Cannes lines for the large retail media networks. Remember, Amazon just executed its annual upfront event, so I'm going to talk to what Walmart Connect, Kroger Christian Marketing and Albertsons Media Collective bought through the event. Walmart Connect and Vizio showcase the next evolution of commerce media, advancing a creativity powered commerce strategy that helps brands move beyond traditional advertising to deliver fully integrated shoppable experience on the biggest screen in the home. Its focus to on turning cultural moments into actual measurable growth. At the core of this approach is Lightbox Creative Solutions. Walmart connects in house Creative Solutions Studio. It develops immersive omnichannel experiences that connect inspiration to purchase through interactive and store activations, Social first storytelling and premium connected TV experience video. Vizio now part of that Walmart ecosystem. Walmart Connect and extend Brands reach to the largest screen in the home all right. Kroger Precision Marketing is the latest retail media network to introduce an advertising collab with TikTok, enabling advertisers to reach Kroger shoppers directly within the TechTalk advertising platform. The capability makes it easy for brands to activate trusted retail signals on Monetary's most influential discovery environments. Advertisers will now be able to reach relevant audiences using TikTok's self service advertising platform as well. The New collaboration comes to the Creator Economy the new collaboration comes as a creator economy continues to reshape how consumers discover products. From nano influencers to celebrities, creator driven content is fueling product discovery and influencing purchasing discussions across categories. For CPG brands, Influencer First Media plans are an increasingly important way to earn trust, deepen relevance and grow sales across the board with consumers. Albertson's Media Collective is a third I have they unveiled the industry's first branded entertainment model and I personally love this one. It was co developed with none other than P and G. They opened a new lane for brands inside its retail media network and pioneered a category for the industry episodic scripted branded entertainment co created with Retail Shopper Intelligence and distributed across the Albertsons Media Collective platform. Procter and Gamble is a strategic co development partner for the inaugural work for this model and its LECO stockholders. The result is a shift in what retail media can be not a place to run an ad after it's made, or a place where content is curated and distributed. Retail collaboration with Albert's Media Collective is further investing in amplifying the Costa Cruz of Project Old and social media channels. Over to you, Peter. Wrap us up.
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Well, that is a wrap on this week's Commerce Rift. Before we go, make sure you've caught our most recent episode of the CPGI's featuring Matt Foley, VP of Marketing for brand Oreos, talking about the collab with bts. Tomorrow's episode is with Kiri Masters, our own fun behind the scenes picture of what happened at Cannes Lions. If any of this sparks a thought drop in the comments, we read them. If you're not already following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, now is the time. That's all we got. Take care.
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own and their appearance on the program
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does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPGuys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPTGuys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.