This Month Above the Fold - who pays for faster fulfillment, California's case against Amazon, and Amazon's brand-agnostic Sponsored Prompts

How to plan for the next 5 years of retail disruption

Disruption is a familiar force in retail, yet many brands still struggle to plan ahead. In this conversation, Emma and Doug Koontz, Senior Director of retail Insights, unpack Flywheel Retail Insights’ annual Future Retail Disruption report and what it means for brands planning for 2026 and beyond. From value-seeking behavior, affordable wellness, and private label pressure to AI’s role in making conversational commerce the norm and retail media’s evolution into a full-funnel commerce engine, Doug explains the forces reshaping retail and how brands can prepare for what comes next without losing sight of the fundamentals. Download the report here. [https://www.flywheeldigital.com/guides/future-retail-disruption-report]

How Clorox is building toward 1:1, personalized marketing in a multi-retailer world

Today’s shoppers bounce between retailers, channels, and missions, but they still expect brands to understand what they need. In this episode, Emma sits down with Tiffany Tan, Head of eComm Growth Accelerator at Clorox, to talk about how Clorox is striving toward 1:1, personalized marketing, the data and clean room foundations behind it, and how AI can help scale personalization in a real, practical way. You’ll hear how Clorox thinks about high‑value shoppers, what it takes to move from broad targeting to more tailored experiences, and how Tiffany is planning for a future where creative, audiences, and measurement all work together to serve real people, not segments on a slide. As mentioned in the episode, you can listen to "How brands can own the AI search revolution" here. [https://www.flywheeldigital.com/podcast/from-powerless-to-proactive-how-brands-can-own-the-ai-search-revolution-w-mike-odonnell]

This Month Above the Fold - who pays for faster fulfillment, California's case against Amazon, and Amazon's brand-agnostic Sponsored Prompts

In this month’s episode, Emma and Danny Hoffman, Senior Director of Global Retail Strategy, break down three commerce topics brands should have on their radar right now. Listen in for insights on who is absorbing the cost of ever-faster fulfillment, what California’s case against Amazon could mean for brands and consumers, and why Amazon’s move to brand-agnostic Sponsored Prompts signals a bigger shift in how shoppers search and how brands show up in AI-assisted discovery.

Turning partnerships into cultural moments that sell

Partnership marketing has shifted from a nice-to-have to a real growth lever for brands looking to cut through the noise. In this episode, Keke Strayhan, Head of Partnerships at Flywheel, breaks down what makes a partnership actually work, why authenticity and strategy matter more than hype, and how brands of all sizes can use partnerships to reach new audiences, build cultural relevance, and drive sales.

This Month Above the Fold - Joybuy launches in Europe, the changing upper funnel landscape, and where retail media spend will go in an AI search-driven future

In this month's episode, Emma and Danny Hoffman (Senior Director, Global Retail Strategy) break down three commerce topics brands should have on their radar right now: what Joybuy’s launch in Europe could mean for competition and for brands, why more advertising dollars may keep moving toward retailer DSPs instead of other media environments, and how AI is starting to change the way shoppers discover products and how brands show up.