News Briefs

Best Buy Canada has chosen cross-border payment service PingPong to expand the retailer's online marketplace capabilities. Leveraging PingPong’s API extends the marketplace to international sellers and facilitates payouts in more than 100 currencies. 

“Our new partnership with PingPong is a key part of our international growth strategy,” Sherry Zah, vice president of Best Buy Canada’s marketplace business, said in a media release.

Best Buy Canada joins marketplaces such as Wish and Wayfair in leveraging PingPong's international payments capabilities. The partnership will increase Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), reduce operational overheads, and enhance both the seller and buyer experience.

As Best Buy Canada expands its online marketplace, the U.S. arm is readying to launch its own third-party marketplace in mid-2025. Both the Canadian and new U.S. marketplaces are built on the Mirakl platform.

Koddi, a retail and commerce media technology company, has partnered with Checkatrade, a platform that connects U.K. homeowners with tradespeople, to enhance its advertising program. 

Leveraging Koddi’s commerce media technologies, the Checkatrade platform will offer tradespeople data-driven advertising solutions to help them attract potential clients with greater precision and optimize their spend, according to a media release. 

New enhancements also include personalized pricing strategies, enabling trade category-specific floor and ceiling prices designed to adapt to industry dynamics.

Additionally, Koddi’s score-based ad placements will help tradespeople reach relevant homeowners to maximize their visibility and ad effectiveness.

Checkatrade’s tradespeople will also gain access to performance insights, including metrics such as share of voice, time to live and performance by job category and location. These tools enable tradespeople to monitor and optimize their campaigns in real time.

Checkatrade has a network of more than 50,000 vetted trade businesses. 

“Our decision to partner with Koddi came down to a few key factors: product strength and team expertise,” Gabriella Overeem-Yee, managing director of innovation at Checkatrade, said in the release. “Koddi’s program management approach and high-calibre team provided confidence in ongoing support, particularly during the early stages of adoption.”

“The sheer volume of traffic on Checkatrade makes ad relevance essential to cut through the noise and stand out,” added Paul Dahill, managing director of EMEA sales at Koddi. “We focused on enhancing targeting, optimization and relevance to help tradespeople connect with more potential customers, gain deeper insights into their advertising performance and ultimately win more projects.”

Ahold Delhaize USA’s (ADUSA) retail media arm is enhancing the way shoppers engage with products at the point of purchase. 

AD Retail Media has partnered with Inmar Intelligence, a technology and media solution provider, to add digital incentives to in-store advertising for CPG partners at Food Lion, The Giant Company, Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop stores, according to a media release. 

The ad solutions build on ADUSA’s recent partnership with Inmar to improve personalization and the omnichannel experience by enhancing its digital coupons. Inmar replaced Neptune Retail Solutions (formerly Quotient) as the retail group’s exclusive digital coupon provider.

Leveraging Inmar’s technology, this new collaboration will combine category-relevant creative strategies and the ability to reach shoppers during influential moments in their shopping journey. The partners believe that providing shoppers an immediate and compelling reason to act will help brands capture shoppers’ attention and drive engagement at the shelf.

Additionally, Inmar’s measurement tools will provide CPG companies with insights to measure the impact of their in-store advertising investment on shopper outcomes.

“In-store advertising continues to be a vital component of our retail media strategy, enabling our CPG partners to effectively engage customers with relevant product information,” Bobby Watts, senior vice president of AD Retail Media, said in the release.

“By integrating in-store advertising with incentives, we are creating a seamless path to purchase that not only enhances visibility but also drives shopper action,” added Rob Weisberg, president & EVP, martech solutions, Inmar. “This collaboration with AD Retail Media empowers CPG brands to engage customers with relevant promotions at key decision-making moments, ultimately strengthening brand connections and delivering measurable results.”

The Fresh Market opened its first-ever Spirits & Wine store on March 7. 

The specialty grocer’s new adult beverages concept is located directly next door to The Fresh Market’s Ponte Vedra, Florida, grocery location. 

The store spans more than 7,000 square feet of retail space, stocking a wide selection of premium spirits, wines and craft beer as well as assorted mixers, snacks and glassware. Shoppers can also have a glass of wine from the in-store bar while they shop.

The Fresh Market calls the BevAlc experience “different from traditional liquor stores” as it offers a premium assortment, including organic wine, regional craft beer, imported charcuterie, sparkling wine, “top-shelf” liquors and a selection of international wines, per the retailer’s website.

Additionally, the store’s comprehensive wine selection ranges from European to domestic offerings as well as chilled beverage coolers.

“The opening of our Spirits & Wine store is an incredible opportunity to expand on our popular beverage program,” The Fresh Market CEO, Brian Johnson, said in a media release. “Our guests already trust us to provide the highest quality ingredients and finest flavors from around the world. Now, with our Spirits & Wine store, they can enjoy the same impeccable hospitality paired with our new, top-shelf beverage offerings to help make their shopping experience extraordinary.”

Chewy has upgraded its Chewy Ads retailer media network to help brands better engage with its most loyal shoppers. 

Sponsored ads are a key component of the pet retailer’s growth strategy, Chewy CFO David Reeder shared at a Morgan Stanley investors conference last week, noting that their previous third-party system for vendor content and collateral was inefficient. The retailer developed new self-service software internally last year, and the newest enhancements were made available to brands in February. 

The platform now serves over 20 million shoppers, with 80% of sales stemming from Chewy’s Autoship fulfillment subscribers, according to the company.  

Frank Mulcahy, head of Chewy Ads, described Autoship to P2PI as an “integral” part of the retailer’s business. One in three clicks on Chewy Ads results in a purchase, while 45% of ad-attributed purchases lead to recurring Autoship orders, per Chewy. 

Related: Gain a high-level view of the full omnichannel landscape

Among the upgrades include new self-service capabilities, and API partnerships and direct integrations with Flywheel, Skai, CommerceIQ and Pacvue. It also uses Chewy’s proprietary Lifetime Value sales metrics, which tracks Autoship purchases a shopper makes after interacting with an ad to let brands view current and forecasted sales.

Brands can place ads for sponsored products, brands and videos across desktop, mobile and the Chewy app. They can also target placements on offsite search and social platforms, including Meta and Google, and the company is actively expanding into additional digital channels to further enhance reach and performance, said Mulcahy. 

Half of customers who engage with Chewy Ads are new to the advertised brand, according to the company. Shoppers with pets are also highly brand loyal when it comes to food and consumables, particularly those who use Autoship, Mulcahy added. 

The Hershey Co. has named a new chief customer officer: Tiffany Menyhart, who will lead the company’s U.S. confection sales team.

Menyhart joins Hershey from Kraft Heinz, where she spent nearly five years managing strategic accounts and growth channels as area VP. Prior to that, she was the VP of U.S. category leadership at Mars Wrigley — a role in which she developed a category development strategy across all channels while accelerating category growth across the $7 billion U.S. confectionary business, according to LinkedIn. 

Her background includes diving into trends and analytics to develop merchandising strategies that drive conversion of incremental, basket-building products and transforming and upskilling teams. She was hired for her track record in driving growth and transformation and elevating retail partner relationships.

Andrew Archambault, president of U.S. confection at Hershey, said Menyhart’s extensive experience across confection and snacking categories will help the company focus on the customer while meeting the needs of retail partners and consumers. 

Archambault recently joined the company, tasked with overseeing brands such as Reese's and Jolly Rancher. He took over for Michael Del Pozzo, who departed the company on Dec. 12 after just a few months in the role. 

Menyhart's is the latest leadership announcement amid a series of moves following news that CEO Michele Buck would be retiring effective June 30, 2026.