Nathan Decker

BREAKING: Amazon + Roku just lit up the largest authenticated CTV footprint in the U.S. Why you should care: 1️⃣ Roku’s inventory gap is gone. Amazon DSP now monetizes 81 M+ active accounts, turning Roku OS into a growth engine. 2️⃣ Amazon outgrows its own hardware. Instant access to ~80 % of U.S. CTV households super‑charges a $50 B ads business, finally giving YouTube real competition. 3️⃣ A new walled garden forms. Early pilots show 3× ROAS with ‑30 % ad frequency—pressure that independent DSPs like The Trade Desk feel today. Our Spine deep‑dive surfaces 3 board‑level questions every rival CEO needs answered before Q4 2025. Full analysis ➜ https://lnkd.in/g9JwjiCQ Does this alliance create a two‑horse race—or the endgame for open programmatic? #AdTech #CTV #StreamingWars #Roku #Amazon #DigitalAdvertising #Strategy

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If your brand’s Amazon channel is clean, but your Walmart listings are wild, you’re not in control. You’re seeing the symptom, not the source. You’re one seller away from a price war that spills across every channel. Most brands treat marketplaces like separate battles, Amazon gets all the attention, Walmart gets handled “later.” But that’s not control. That’s containment. The truth is, what happens on one platform doesn’t stay there. Amazon sellers pop up on Walmart. Feed syncs spread bad data. Algorithms follow the lowest price, not the right one. If you’re a 1P vendor, that loop can crush your margins fast. In CPG, per-ounce price matching can create weeks of downstream chaos. These are systemic issues. And they only get solved with systemic visibility. Control means consistency. The same truth everywhere your brand shows up. Not just compliance on Amazon, but connected enforcement across every channel. Because when you’re not clean everywhere, you’re just one slip-up away from a mess that hits right before, or right after a promo, when it hurts most. That creates a painful hangover effect... Focusing on one marketplace isn’t control; it’s tunnel vision. Consumers are searching everywhere now: Google, LLMs, and every platform in between. Your brand needs to show up consistently wherever the search starts. Your brand has to show up consistently wherever the search starts. Because channel control isn’t about managing a single marketplace...it’s about mastering the entire ecosystem of where your brand lives. #ThornCrest #BrandProtection #ChannelControl

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The future of auto is not AI-first or price-first. It’s people-first, or it’s already broken. I sit with dealers, vendors, media teams every week. Dashboards glow. Tools stack up. Margins squeeze. Yet one pattern keeps showing up. Stores with the strongest brand gravity care deeper. About people who work there. About people who buy there. Not fake care on a poster. Daily care. In meetings. On the floor. In the lane. You feel it when you walk in. Leaders who: → Know names, not only numbers → Protect culture, not only grosses → Fix broken process, not only broken cars Teams who: → Tell the truth, even when profit takes a hit → Own mistakes, then repair trust → Serve families, not “ups” Tech plays a huge role in that future. CRMs, AI, data, video, modern retail tools. All powerful. All needed. Yet tech stays in second place. First place goes to how people feel: → When they work in your store → When they walk your showroom → When they hit “submit” on a form at midnight Care compounds. Over months. Over years. The unfair advantage in retail auto is not another plug-in. The unfair advantage is a store that cares so deeply, no tool can fake it. That is the future of automotive I want to help build.

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I don't see enough on industry-specific considerations within Experimentation and AB testing. Regarding tooling and data. Running experiments in DTC is wildly different from doing it in Retail. Let alone SaaS, media, or finance. For example, here are some considerations by industry I've started to think through: 𝗘-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 & 𝗗𝗧𝗖 • Do you have tracking to understand the margin effects of different merchandising playbooks? • Can your experimentation platform handle high traffic spikes (e.g. Black Friday) without slowing down? • Are you testing across the entire conversion funnel (home page, product detail, cart, checkout)? • Are your online and offline tests coordinated across omnichannel experiences? • Running personalization at scale? You’ll need tooling that can handle real-time targeting and large data volumes. • How do you maintain customer trust when showing different variants (e.g. pricing, policies)? • Where is your subscription option in your hierarchy of priorities? How do you balance transaction CVR vs subs and is this represented in test plans and analyses?    𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 & 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗻 • Does your user base support statistically significant test results (especially in B2B)? How do you 'lower your denominator' well, e.g., can you trigger bucketing on scroll or interaction? • Do experiments need to be consistent at the account-level, not just user-level? • Are you testing onboarding flows, feature adoption, or upsell paths? • Can your testing setup integrate with billing systems to safely trial different plans or prices? • Do your sales/support teams know about active experiments, especially for beta features? • Are you measuring long-term outcomes like retention or churn? Can your platform track cohorts over weeks/months? 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 & 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 • What metrics actually matter? Clicks and bounce rate are easy—but are you also tracking scroll depth, video plays, and engagement? • Are you segmenting experiments between subscribers vs. anonymous users? • Testing paywalls or subscription flows? One bad variant could lock out users or tank conversion. • Will your tests impact ad layout or impressions? Make sure AdOps is looped in. • Running recommendation engine tests? Can you track downstream impact (e.g. more sessions, filter bubbles)? • What are the CMAB playbooks and how are these maintained alongside AB testing flywheels? • How do you handle breaking news or viral spikes—pause experiments, or let them skew the data?    The experimentation strategy—and your tooling—should reflect your industry’s constraints, risks, and opportunities. I’m building a diagnostic tool to help teams audit their experimentation stack by capability, industry, and business goal. Its the next evolution of our Maturity Audit. Drop a comment or DM if you'd like early access. I'd love to get some feedback

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One of the biggest revenue killers on PDPs isn’t price. It’s ambiguity. In the Revenue Friction Roadmap for this client, one issue kept surfacing: Shoppers couldn’t quickly tell how much product they were actually getting. The number of servings was: • Hidden behind a tab • Not visible on page load • Forcing mental math at the exact moment we wanted confidence That uncertainty showed up as hesitation. So we tested a simple clarity fix: • Added “1 Month Supply” directly into the product title • Displayed price per serving near the total price. No new incentives. No copy overhaul. Just made the answer obvious. What changed: • Cart adds: +3.7% • Transactions: +3% • Subscriptions: +8.8% The impact: +$36,400/month ~$436,800/year The insight isn’t surprising, yet it’s often ignored: If customers have to work to understand quantity or value, trust erodes. When clarity shows up early, confidence follows. This didn’t make the product better. It made the decision easier. That’s revenue-focused UX.

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Kroger Centralizes Retail Media Under 84.51° to Boost Advertiser Value Kroger is consolidating its retail media and data science units to unlock more value for advertisers. The company announced that Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) will now operate entirely under its 84.51° data science division, bringing media and analytics together under one roof. What’s changing 🔸KPM, previously a standalone entity, is now fully integrated into 84.51° 🔸The move is meant to improve how advertisers access targeting, measurement, and campaign insights 🔸This consolidation aims to strengthen closed-loop performance visibility, a key selling point in retail media 🔸Kroger plans to increase investment in AI-driven audience segmentation and predictive analytics Why this matters for brands 🔹Retail media is getting more sophisticated Brands will benefit from deeper insights, more accurate targeting, and cleaner attribution when advertising on Kroger platforms 🔹Data and ad strategy are no longer separate This integration sets a standard for other retailers to follow as media networks mature and advertiser expectations rise 🔹More pressure on smaller marketplaces As giants like Kroger improve their retail media stack, emerging platforms will need to match targeting precision and measurement capabilities to stay competitive The takeaway: Retail media is moving from test and learn to scaled performance. Kroger’s play to fuse media and data into a single operation signals where the market is heading. For brands, this means better tools, clearer results, and a growing expectation to allocate more budget into retailer ecosystems that offer measurable return. ⬇️ Tap the link to read more about this update! https://lnkd.in/dQsA5s5Q

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3x conversions. 4x ROAS. 15% drop in CPCs. All from one move: unlocking AMC. Marshall earlier this year received access to Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). Amazon only extends AMC capabilities to select partners and I’m proud to announce that Marshall is one of them. Tools like this help give our brands insights they’d otherwise not have access to on their own.  AMC isn’t just another dashboard. It’s an elite powerhouse that unlocks the full purchase journey for Amazon shoppers. With insights from both organic and paid touch points, AMC allows us to build custom audiences and utilize advanced analytics to supercharge our brand's ad strategy. We’re already putting it to work.  In a recent case study, we were able to use AMC to unlock brand audience data. We worked with a brand that was looking to re-target shoppers that added branded ASINs to their cart within a T-14 day window, but did not purchase. Marshall was able to leverage the AMZ audience data to direct ads towards this audience. Key outcomes: That group converted 3x more often, ROAS increased 4x, CPCs dropped by 15%. We’re turning hidden shopper behaviors into growth strategies straight from the source. More to come as we continue building at the edge of what’s possible with AMC. –  Shoot me a DM if you want to see what AMC would unlock for your brand. 

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5 Killer Reports your Agency is not doing for you. Ok, ok. Maybe they are. Or maybe they aren’t and you need to ask. Either way, there is a lot of data available that brands do not take advantage of. Amazon, Instacart, and various Retail Media Networks. There is a lot of data and analysis you aren’t likely using. Here are 5 Useful Reports or Data Breakdowns most brands aren’t using: 𝟭. 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗣𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀. - Shows retail buyers where your sales are consolidated in the US. - Great for Buyers at Club or National Chains. - Hint: You have to build these. 𝟮. 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀. - Detailed unit economics, by SKU. - Includes COGS, landed costs, and all Amazon fees. - Reveals unit margin and enables pricing recs. 𝟯. 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀. - Tells you what customers buy with your product. - Enables bundles, complementary product sponsoring, and even collabs. 𝟰. 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 (𝗩𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆) 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻. - Effective for buyer convos or budgeting. - If you know door count and # of SKU’s, you can budget cost and estimate ad-sales. - If you don’t have the above, you can estimate by percentage of case cost. - Varies widely by tools available and also by RM network. 𝟱. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗻a𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀. - What is available varies by Retail Media Networks. - Usually completed by RM account managers. 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀: Many Retail Media Networks have data available through premium programs such as Walmart Illuminate or an Instacart Data Agreement. Make sure you know what’s out there. If we are your agency, and you need one of these, just ask. If you need an agency who can do these things… I know a guy. What reports do you generate for your clients? What reporting do you wish you had from the digital channels you’re using? ——— 🔹We drive velocity in Target, Kroger, Whole Foods, Albertsons, Costco, Walmart, Sprouts, and More. 🔹We grow Amazon Sales. 🔹DM me or book an appointment for help. #ecommerce #retailmedia #retailgrowth #retailvelocity #cpg #cpgbrands #instacart #futureofretail #retailtech #shoppermarketing #Amazonconsulting #Amazon #AmazonGrowth #Grocery #GroceryTech #DoorDash

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Retail media is where everyone wants to spend money right now. The problem I keep seeing is the data we get back. Too often it’s aggregate, messy, or missing the one thing that would make it usable for real measurement. I was recently in conversation with a retail media lead in one of the major retailers who described the same loop I see over and over: clients ask for too much, too little or the wrong thing, teams send ad hoc requests, and retailers end up the middle person. If you don’t give the data in the right format, or at least the minimum viable format, your data will be distorted by the client and then distorted again by the MMM agency. The result is a single bucketed view that tells you nothing useful. That matters because most retail media needs regional granularity, and most of the models work regionally. If you hand me national-level impressions and a lump-sum spend, there is very little we can do. With the right level of detail, that same data could prove where a tactic works, where it doesn’t, and help build a playbook for planning and measurement. Without it, the spend just shrinks into the background. There’s a straightforward path forward: follow what the major platforms did. Start small and agile, test a prototype with your biggest clients, iterate, then scale the data spec. Give measurement a minimum standard to work from. Treat the data as a product, not a bag of numbers. A few practical things: • Insist on regional and campaign-level granularity (not just roll-ups). • Provide timestamps, placement-level detail and the relevant labels so we can link to outcomes. • Test prototypes with a small group, then broaden the spec as you learn. We can make retail media measurable and strategic, but only if the industry stops accepting poor data as normal. Right now, poor data generates generic measurement that does not unlock decisions. Fix the inputs and you unlock far better outputs. If you work in retail media or measurement, tell me the biggest data headache you face. I want to hear how you’re solving it.

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Need in-store traffic? CTV isn’t just about brand awareness, it puts shoppers on your lot and in your aisles. The secret? The right data. Targeted, location-driven campaigns have delivered as much as 13% more foot traffic and up to 15x ROAS for dealers, retailers and restaurants, according to recent studies by Coast Technology LLC, Brightline and Strategus. Attribution technology now ties actual viewers to real-world visits, so you know exactly which ads move consumers from “watching” to “walking in” CTV + high-quality audience data = measurable retail growth. Learn more https://lnkd.in/g6h8edyt

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When Nordstrom and NuORDER deepen their partnership, you just know the spreadsheets are shaking. The goal? Turn messy wholesale chaos into clean, connected product data heaven. NuORDER by Lightspeed will now power even more of Nordstrom’s buying backbone, syncing every SKU, size curve, fabric note, and image in one shared catalog. It’s data therapy for retailers. For brands, this means less “Can you resend that Excel?” and more “We bought it, it’s live, and it actually matches your PIM.” What’s changing behind the scenes: 👗 50+ data points per SKU will now flow automatically to buyers 📦 Assortments will be confirmed faster with fewer manual steps 🧵 Style performance, margin data, and stock status will feed AI forecasting 📸 Content standards will tighten to ensure PDP-grade images from day one Nordstrom’s message is pretty clear: if your data is clean, you’ll get visibility and speed. If not, prepare to watch others jump ahead. Luxury wholesale used to run on handshakes and coffee. Now it runs on metadata and machine learning. Somewhere, a fashion buyer just sighed with relief. #RetailTech #Marketplace #Wholesale #Nordstrom #Lightspeed #NuORDER #ecommerce

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There's finally clarity on Texas SB 140 and SMS marketing. When SB 140 went into effect on September 1, many ecommerce brands worried they’d suddenly need to register, post bonds, and treat SMS the same way as old-school telemarketing. The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance, with support from Postscript, went to bat on this — and the Texas Attorney General has now confirmed: Consent-based SMS marketing isn’t reached by SB 140. That means if your program is built the right way — clear opt-in, auditable consent, proper opt-out handling — 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝘅𝗮𝘀. This applies to any brand running compliant, consent-based SMS. This is a win for the entire ecommerce community — and credit to EIA and Postscript for pushing to get the clarity. Still, there’s some reason for caution: - This only protects you if your consent practices are airtight. If you can’t prove how a subscriber opted in, you’re exposed. - Plaintiffs can still sue under the Texas DTPA or TCPA if they believe consent wasn’t valid. The AG’s interpretation doesn’t shield you from that. The takeaway: If you operate an ecommerce brand and SMS is truly opt-in, you’re in the clear under SB 140.

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