Beyond the Basket - 03/04/26

Friday 3rd April | #70 | Join Free

Good morning. This week we've been digging into retail media, how it's changing where and how shoppers discover products, and why it might deserve more of your ad budget than you're currently giving it. The deep dive is below.

Also in the basket today:

One for next issue: What tools are you actually using to run your ecommerce business right now? Platforms, apps, spreadsheets, whatever's genuinely in your stack that you find invaluable. Hit reply and let us know. We’ll feature the most interesting ones next issue.

— Mike

Retail media networks are ad platforms run by retailers using their own shopper data. Think Amazon Ads, Tesco Media & Insight Platform, Sainsbury’s Nectar360, or Boots Media Group.

Instead of targeting people based on browsing behaviour, these platforms target shoppers based on actual purchase history. In a post-cookie marketing landscape, that difference is pushing more brands to shift budget.

The scale of the shift
Retail media is now one of the fastest growing segments of digital advertising.

Across the UK and Europe, retailers are racing to monetise loyalty card data. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and Carrefour are all building media networks that sell targeted access to millions of shoppers.

Why it works: Traditional ad platforms infer intent. Retailers see actual purchases. That gives them two major advantages:

Retailers also control multiple parts of the shopping journey. A single campaign might include sponsored search placements, ads in retailer apps, targeted loyalty promotions, and in-store media such as digital screens or aisle displays.

For brands, that means reaching the same shopper online, on their phone, and in the store, all tied back to purchase data.

Your move : Look at the search results where your products appear on marketplaces. If sponsored listings dominate the top of the page, retail media is already shaping visibility in your category. Even a small test budget on your top products can reveal whether paid placements could influence your rankings and sales.

TLDR: The UK government has announced plans for new rules requiring subscription businesses to send renewal reminders, offer easy online cancellation, and provide clearer sign-up information, with the changes expected to save consumers £400m a year.

Why it Matters: With around 155 million active subscriptions in the UK, this is a material compliance change for any business running a recurring revenue model, requiring online cancellation exits, pre-renewal reminders, and honest trial-to-paid disclosures. The rules tighten the screws on practices that have become surprisingly common, and businesses that get ahead of them are also likely to see retention improve.

Your Move: Running a subscription business? Audit your subscription sign-up and cancellation flows now, if your cancellation process is harder than your sign-up, you'll need to fix that before these rules come into force.

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TLDR: From 15 April, eBay sellers will be able to add video to their Promoted Listings with a priority strategy, with clips up to 45 seconds long showing directly in search results and top placements.

Why it Matters: This is eBay leaning harder into the social commerce playbook, video has been driving conversion on TikTok Shop and Instagram for years, and eBay is now bringing it to its ad product. The key hook for sellers: there's no extra charge, it runs on existing cost-per-click pricing, and if a placement doesn't support video it simply falls back to the listing image.

Your Move: If you already have listing videos, upload them to your Promoted Listings campaign after 15 April, it's zero additional cost and could meaningfully lift click-through on competitive search terms.

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TLDR: New analysis of 70 million email marketing messages by platform esbconnect finds UK consumers are engaging far more selectively with digital content, but converting at significantly higher rates when they do.

Why it Matters: The data, drawn from 67 million messages, 200,000 clicks and 17,584 qualified leads, shows a clear shift away from volume metrics like opens and clicks, towards intent signals like direct site visits after receiving an email. Home improvement and finance categories are leading the surge, suggesting consumers are being more selective with digital content, but converting high rates when they do. A mindset driven by cost-of-living pressures and economic anxiety. As esbconnect's CEO put it, the internet is moving from a discovery economy to an intent economy.

Your Move: Pull your last three months of email data and compare click-through rates against post-click revenue, if your clicks are declining but revenue per click is rising, you may be in better shape than your dashboard suggests. Think quality leads over quantity.

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TLDR: A new survey by Fidelity Fulfilment finds that 87% of ecommerce businesses are planning to change their primary manufacturing locations over the next three years, driven by geopolitical instability and supply chain disruption.

Why it Matters: This data suggests the supply chain conversation is moving beyond contingency planning. Many ecommerce brands that rely heavily on Asian manufacturing are now actively exploring alternative production locations or secondary suppliers as geopolitical risk and disruption remain ongoing concerns.

Your Move: Map your top five supplier dependencies and identify which are most exposed to single-country or single-region risk, even a partial shift to a backup supplier now reduces your exposure significantly if increased disruption hits.

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TLDR: Primark created a fictional premium fashion label called Kim Parr and invited guests to a luxury townhouse launch event. Attendees admired the “designer” pieces, only to discover they were actually from Primark’s new spring collection.

Why it Matters: The experiment was designed to strip away brand bias and test whether people judged the clothes differently without the Primark name attached. For marketers, it highlights how much perceived value comes from context and presentation, not just the product itself.

Your Move: Test how much of your product perception comes from framing. Try presenting the same product with two different positioning treatments, for example “Premium Edition” versus standard. You may find the story around the product changes how people value it.

Read More>

Curated deep dives, longer reads and analysis shaping the future of ecommerce and digital marketing.

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5 Ways to Sell on TikTok Shop
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