Products

EMARKETER delivers leading-edge research to clients in a variety of forms, including full-length reports and data visualizations to equip you with actionable takeaways for better business decisions.
PRO+
New data sets, deeper insights, and flexible data visualizations.
Learn More
Reports
In-depth analysis, benchmarks and shorter spotlights on digital trends.
Learn More
Forecasts
Interactive projections with 10k+ metrics on market trends, & consumer behavior.
Learn More
Charts
Proprietary data and over 3,000 third-party sources about the most important topics.
Learn More
Industry KPIs
Industry benchmarks for the most important KPIs in digital marketing, advertising, retail and ecommerce.
Learn More
Briefings
Client-only email newsletters with analysis and takeaways from the daily news.
Learn More
Analyst Access Program
Exclusive time with the thought leaders who craft our research.
Learn More

About EMARKETER

Our goal is to unlock digital opportunities for our clients with the world’s most trusted forecasts, analysis, and benchmarks. Spanning five core coverage areas and dozens of industries, our research on digital transformation is exhaustive.
Our Story
Learn more about our mission and how EMARKETER came to be.
Learn More
Methodology
Rigorous proprietary data vetting strips biases and produces superior insights.
Learn More
Our People
Take a look into our corporate culture and view our open roles.
Join the Team
Contact Us
Speak to a member of our team to learn more about EMARKETER.
Contact Us
Newsroom
See our latest press releases, news articles or download our press kit.
Learn More
Advertising & Sponsorship Opportunities
Reach an engaged audience of decision-makers.
Learn More
Events
Browse our upcoming and past events, recent podcasts, and other featured resources.
Learn More
Podcasts
Tune in to EMARKETER's daily, weekly, and monthly podcasts.
Learn More

Retail Industry Digital Ad Budgets Will Stay Just Above Water This Year

The US retail industry will remain the largest spender on digital advertising across all verticals, despite a huge deceleration in its digital ad spending growth and a difficult year for retail sales overall.

Nearly every industry in the US will experience dramatic slowdowns—and even contractions, for some—in digital ad spend this year. But thanks to its accelerated embrace of ecommerce, retail will slightly outperform the industry average. We estimate that retail digital ad spend will increase by 3.1% in 2020—to $28.23 billion—compared with US digital ad spend overall, which will grow by 1.7%.

Retail digital ad spend had been growing at a healthy clip from 2017 to 2019. Prior to the pandemic, we had forecast a strong 2020, with 16.9% growth and over $33 billion in spending. Even with our updated estimate of $28.23 billion in spending (roughly $5 billion less than previously forecast), retail digital ads will still make up 21.0% of the digital ad market this year. This is a notch down from retail’s highest share in recent years but still enough to keep it in the top position.

We expect ad spending to rebound by 25.7% in 2021, due to pent-up demand, and to reach $35.48 billion.

Retail will spend $8.61 billion more on digital ads this year than its next-closest vertical, financial services, and nearly $25 billion more than the lowest-spending industry, travel. By next year, retail will have extended its lead in digital ad spend, even as most other industries are recovering fairly well.

Given that retail is the largest spender, it follows that its growth rate drives that of digital ad spend overall. In fact, retail’s 3.1% boost in 2020 is as close to digital ad spend’s 1.7% total growth as any. Nonetheless, retail will be among the harder-hit verticals this year. While its digital ad spending will remain in positive territory—unlike that of travel, auto, media and entertainment—retail will still struggle mightily compared with industries, like telecom and consumer electronics, whose products and services have been more in demand during the pandemic.