Kiri Masters is an independent commentator, speaker, advisor, and podcast host covering the retail media industry.
Blog
This article was originally published to my Forbes column on May 8th. You can read the original article here. Fidji Simo, Instacart’s CEO since August 2021, said yesterday she’ll move to OpenAI later this year to run its consumer products. Her departure comes after transforming Instacart from a
Blog
Last week I ran a poll on LinkedIn asking how brands plan to participate in Prime Day 2025 compared to previous years. The results paint an interesting picture: * Going Bigger: 12.50% * About the same: 35.7% * Scaling back: 37.5% * Skipping it: 14.29% That means over half (51.
RMBC
Today, I'm sharing "The Back-Channel" - a grab-bag of snippets from conversations with industry insiders that I've had in the past week or so. The point is to identify updates on the big themes that are happening in the industry, just as if we
Blog
"We're not dabbling here" said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on the company's earnings call on Thursday. That's an understatement. Jassy pointed to a 'thousand plus AI applications' that are being baked at Amazon right now. As he put it: "
Blog
Until 1914, any vessel moving between the Atlantic and Pacific had to brave the 13,000-kilometre journey around Cape Horn. The Panama Canal completely rewired world trade by letting ships cut straight through a tightly governed corridor—with Panama collecting the tolls. Today, retailers sit on a trove of first-party
Blog
Amazon announced its Q1 2025 earnings last Thursday. Here's my hot take on a few winners and losers, from within the earnings call and in recent discussions with brands and solution providers. When the dust settled on Amazon's Q1 earnings, the headline numbers looked solid – Amazon
RMN Profile
Remember the kid at school who was super cool, because they just didn't give a rats? When all the other kids were trying so hard to fit in and have the latest and greatest brands to wear, making excrutiating decisions over weekend plans. But the cool kid just
Blog
Today, I'm sharing "The Back-Channel" - an anonymized grab-bag of snippets from conversations with industry insiders that I've had in the past week. The point is to identify updates on the big themes that are happening in the industry, just like if we were
Blog
The article was originally published for my column for Forbes on April 23rd, 2025. Amazon is expanding its new low-cost "haul" store at a pivotal moment for cross-border e-commerce. Six months after launching as a mobile-only beta, the retail giant has extended Amazon Haul to desktop consumers while
Blog
In the classic board game Risk, players maneuver armies across continents, form strategic alliances, and attempt to control territory. Today, a similar high-stakes game is unfolding in the digital realm as tech giants position their AI shopping agents to capture the most valuable territory of all: consumer purchasing decisions. The
Episode
Watch Episode Here Listen to Episode Here Show Notes In today's episode, I explore how major tech companies are positioning themselves in a high-stakes battle for control of consumer purchasing decisions through AI shopping agents. Like a global game of Risk, tech giants are maneuvering to capture the
Episode
Watch Episode Here Listen to Episode Here Show Notes In this insightful episode, Kiri Masters breaks down the growing importance of offsite retail media, which extends retailers' advertising capabilities beyond their own digital properties. She explains how this approach allows brands to leverage retailers' rich first-party customer data