News Briefs

GumGum, a contextual intelligence company that uses artificial intelligence to analyze content and determine consumer trends, revealed Black Friday shopper trends based on analysis of hundreds of thousands of digital web pages during the month of November.

As the holiday season kicked off, Black Friday remained a critical moment for brands to capture consumer attention. GumGum’s contextual analysis highlighted the trends that shaped Black Friday 2024, from Amazon's dominance to surprising players in the grocery space, per a media release shared with P2PI. 

Key findings include:

• Amazon dominated Black Friday conversations with 43.6 million mentions from Nov. 1-27 — far outpacing Walmart (5.9 million) and Target (3.7 million).
• Mentions of Black Friday surged from 2.1 million in October to 2.8 million in November.
• Affordable fashion brands like H&M (975,000 mentions) and Target (3.7 million mentions) leaned heavily into Black Friday messaging, while luxury brands like Dior and Chanel fell behind.
• Tech/electronics brands dominated search traffic, led by Samsung (7.9 million mentions) and LG (3.4 million). High-profile products such as the Samsung Galaxy were key drivers.
• Black Friday isn’t just about shopping anymore — “it’s evolved into a holiday ritual,” GumGum said. Retailers like Kroger (814,000 mentions) and Aldi (3.1 million mentions) leaned into Thanksgiving dinner promotions, reflecting the event’s growing ties to family and festivities.

Commerce media company Criteo, which has insight into $1 trillion of annual e-commerce sales, shared Black Friday and Cyber Monday data with P2PI. The data looks at trends from the first 12 hours of Cyber Monday (midnight to noon ET) and compares sales results from that period to those from 2023. 

Perhaps most notably, Cyber Monday outshined Black Friday. While online transactions in the U.S. saw only a 2% year-over-year (YoY) increase on Black Friday, Cyber Monday showed significantly stronger performance. During the first hours of the day, online transactions surged by 14% YoY, with unit sales experiencing double-digit growth across multiple verticals, including:

• Luggage and bags: 41% 
• Animals and pet supplies: +33% 
• Apparel and accessories: +33%
• Cameras and optics: +23% 
• Sporting goods : +22% 

“This year’s Black Friday results point to a strong holiday sales season, with consumers eager to spend on products despite a turbulent economic environment,” Criteo’s executive managing director for the Americas, Sherry Smith, told P2PI. “This heightened interest is a positive signal for brands and retailers that are looking to boost sales before the end of the year, and now is the time to continue the momentum by reaching consumers with personalized messaging wherever and whenever they shop — whether it's online, mobile, on social media or in-person. As AI investments surge, brands and retailers are poised to embrace AI-driven strategies — such as creative innovation and predictive commerce marketing — to eliminate guesswork, capitalize on growing consumer interest, and cultivate lasting customer loyalty in the year ahead.”

Best Buy is rolling out dedicated merchandising space for Breville kitchen products in nearly 50 stores nationwide for the holiday season. 

The move is to provide shoppers a visible and easy access point to small appliances as they are a “popular choice on [holiday] wish lists,” the retailer said in a corporate blog post. The space will feature unboxed appliances and product information cards displayed above boxed items for purchase. 

The lineup of Breville products merchandised in the space will include: 

• Barista Touch Impress & Oracle Jet espresso machines.
• Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro machines.
• The Juice Fountain Cold XL juicers.

“Whether you’re searching for the ideal gift for a loved one or just looking to make holiday hosting easier, these spaces showcase a lineup of different small appliances that bring the cafe and kitchen magic to your home,” the retailer said.  

Additionally, Best Buy said its Blue Shirt experts/associates are available to help shoppers explore a variety of Breville products that can “elevate your kitchen experience.” 

Salsify, a product experience platform, has named David Forlizzi as its new chief financial officer. Forlizzi takes over for Mary Jefts, who is stepping down after more than seven years. She is one of the longest-serving executives outside of the company’s founders.  

“[Jefts] has been a cornerstone of Salsify’s journey from the early days when we were under $10 million in revenue,” Piyush Chaudhari, CEO of Salsify, said in a media release. “Her leadership helped build the strong financial infrastructure we stand on today.” 

Forlizzi will be responsible for overseeing Salsify’s global financial and IT business functions, driving productivity and bolstering a finance and IT team that will play a key role in supporting the company’s success.

“Now, [Forlizzi] joins us at an exciting new chapter,” Chaudhari added. “His financial expertise and strategic vision are precisely what we need to scale further in this next phase of growth. With his leadership, we’re well-positioned to build on our success, tap into new market opportunities that build value for our customers and reinforce Salsify’s role as the leader in the rapidly advancing [product experience management (PXM)] space.”

Forlizzi brings more than two decades of experience in financial leadership roles at both private and publicly traded technology companies to Salsify. Most recently, he served as CFO at Veracode, where he led the financial strategy to support expansion and its position in the cybersecurity SaaS space. Before Veracode, he served 11 years as CFO at Infovista, a global software and services company. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, advising technology companies across Boston and Europe, on growth strategies and financial discipline, per the release.

“I am excited to join Salsify at such a pivotal time in the company’s growth journey,” Forlizzi said. “I’m looking forward to contributing to Salsify’s next chapter of growth, building strong relationships with the Salsify team, customers and investors, while driving financial and operational excellence across the organization.”

Forlizzi is also a certified public accountant and a graduate of Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Science degree in accountancy. 

Salsify currently has more than $200 million in cash and no debt, according to the company. In 2023, 70,000 Salsify PXM users across 140 countries completed 365 million automated workflow tasks, publishing 740 million products across 950 destinations worldwide. Salsify said the move was bolstered by a $38 million investment in research and development and an expanded global customer success team.

CVS Media Exchange (CMX), CVS Health’s retailer media network, recently introduced the CMX Private Marketplace, giving marketers a more direct way to access and roll out enhanced Sponsored Product campaigns. 

[Also Read: CVS Media Exchange Launches Self-Serve Offering]

As highlighted on CMX’s website, the new Private Marketplace offers brands:

• An enhanced Sponsored Product experience that strategically places brands to help guide consumers as they’re considering purchases in high-intent areas of CVS.com. According to CMX, this solution expands targeting capabilities to reach customers beyond a brand’s category — whether in-grid, within results or on product detail pages.
• Access to 14- and 30-day lookback windows, allowing brands to see offline sales insights at the SKU level for a campaign. By combining Sponsored Product and Dynamic Ranking, marketers can also unlock “more sought-after top slots for better brand visibility.” 
• Assistance building, monitoring and optimizing campaigns so brands can launch in “as little as two business days.”

Redner's Markets, an employee-owned regional grocery chain with 44 stores across Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, has partnered with in-store retail media platform Grocery TV (GTV). 

Redner's will leverage GTV's in-house technology stack to power screens at the entrance and front end of stores. The retailer will also use GTV's Content Management System (CMS) to deliver relevant content to shoppers, including promotions for services such as Redner's Ready, its online ordering and curbside pickup option, and HealthCents, a nutrition program led by Redner's corporate dietitian, Meredith McGrath.

The screens will offer brand advertising opportunities in addition to retailer content.

"We're always looking for ways to improve our stores and better serve our customers," Gary Redner, chief operating officer at Redner's Markets, said in a media release. "Partnering with Grocery TV allows us to modernize our stores and highlight the broad range of services that our customers can access."

"We're excited to partner with Redner's to support their vision of improving the customer experience, while unlocking incremental revenue for their business," added Don Oelke, co-founder and COO at Grocery TV.

With the addition of Redner's Markets, GTV's network has surpassed 5,000 stores. Redner's joins more than 100 grocery retailers that partner with GTV.