Commerce Archives | AdExchanger

Hershey’s Undergoes A Brand Update As It Rethinks Paid, Earned And Owned Media

James Hercher — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:40:28 +0000

The Hershey Company requires practically no advertising. The brand sits right at the warm, gooey center of everyone’s subconscious. That’s how Hershey’s bars can sell on American store shelves for 125 years, in the same boring candy bar wrapper – dull gray letters on a field of brown – without much emphasis on paid media […]

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Getting Lost In The Protocols At NRF’s Big Show 2026

James Hercher — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:48:59 +0000

Retail’s Big Show, the NRF’s annual flagship event in New York City earlier this week, is where you go for a sense of what’s happening within retail writ large, beyond the data-driven advertising corner of the universe we normally focus on. This was only my second Big Show, so I can’t judge much in terms […]

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New Startup Pinch AI Tackles The Growing Problem Of Ecommerce Return Scams

James Hercher — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 15:27:50 +0000

If Q4 is the holiday shopping season, then Q1 might be the season of returns, or, more specifically, the season of return fraud. Retailers and ecommerce merchants are seeing a growing trend of returns and fulfillment scams that drain profit margins after big sales. This fraud was the impetus for Thursday’s launch of Pinch AI, […]

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CPG Data Seller SPINS Moves Into Media With MikMak Acquisition

James Hercher — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:30:54 +0000

The commerce media puzzle is coming together. On Wednesday, retail and CPG data company SPINS added a new piece with its acquisition of MikMak, a click-to-buy ad tech and analytics startup that helps optimize their commerce media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The two companies first began talking about a potential partnership last […]

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Why Cookware Brand Hexclad Produces All Of Its Own Content

James Hercher — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:10:09 +0000

The direct-to-consumer cookware company HexClad was founded in 2016, and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay joined as investor-ambassador in 2021. HexClad surfed a huge wave of new business in 2020 and 2021, as many people began cooking more at home. By 2023, the company had matured to the point that execs decided “we really need to […]

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Why The Amazon Native AquaSonic Landed A Walmart Deal – And Never Was A Social Brand

James Hercher — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 18:15:37 +0000

This week, the AdExchanger Commerce Media Newsletter took a look at AquaSonic an oral care manufacturer and – in my humble opinion – an emblematic case study for digital-native consumer brands. AquaSonic, founded in 2017, picked up early traction by offering a far more affordable electric toothbrush and accessory kit than was available at the […]

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Shopify Launches A Product Network That Will Natively Integrate Items From Across Merchants

James Hercher — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:30:24 +0000

Shopify launched its latest advertising business line on Wednesday, called the Shopify Product Network. The Product Network shows items from across participating merchants where? Shop App? even if it that item isn’t carried by the store any given person is browsing. For example, someone buying home supplies from a Shopify merchant’s site might search for […]

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How America’s Biggest Retailers Are Rethinking Their Businesses And Their Stores

James Hercher — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:03:26 +0000

America’s biggest department stores are changing, and changing fast. In the past quarter, for instance, Target has piloted a new store model in Chicago, where it’s begun segmenting some stores into more backroom operations and fulfillment for online orders, while high-foot-traffic locations will prioritize in-person shopper engagement and on-shelf inventory availability. The company plans a […]

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Amazon Ads Is All In On Simplicity

James Hercher — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:14:45 +0000

Amazon Ads, the company’s demand-side ad tech business, hosts its annual industry show, called unBoxed, in Nashville this week. The event can be boiled down to one word: simplicity. Some version of the word “simple” is ubiquitous at the show this year. “Simplifying Advertising through Innovation” is the literal headline for the day-one keynote from […]

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Understanding The Evolutionary Prowess Of The Web’s Top Supplement Brand

James Hercher — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 06:53:54 +0000

Perhaps you know the supplement brand AG1. Or maybe you know it by its original name, Athletic Greens. Regardless, the company is one of the great ecommerce adapt-and-survivors of the past 15 years. AG1 was founded in 2010 and was practically unique as a one-SKU, single-checkout ecommerce brand. In other words, it made only one […]

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