In 2022, Ally Financial started ramping up its sponsorship of women’s sports. That turned out to be an extraordinarily well-timed investment. Over the past three years, interest in women’s sports has skyrocketed. All the while, Ally’s logo appeared on basketball courts, soccer fields and athletes’ uniforms. And as the sports grew in popularity, so did the auto lender and digital-only bank. “I look at it as wins all around,” said Andrea Brimmer, Ally’s chief marketing and public relations officer. “It’s allowed us to carve out a really unique space and to have a really disruptive and loud voice on a much smaller overall spend.” As Ally poured money into women’s sports, the bank gained significant cachet. In 2024, the value of Ally’s brand grew by 31%, according to the consulting firm Brand Finance. In 2023, when many Americans lost faith in lenders amid the regional banking crisis, Ally was one of the few banks whose public reputation improved. To the extent that this progress was attributable to the bank’s investment in female athletics, Ally got a bargain. Women’s sports have historically garnered far less sponsorship money than men’s sports — the NBA took in $1.6 billion last season, while the WNBA received $76 million — so a little spending on the “W” leagues goes a long way. As a target for a bank’s marketing spending, women’s sports hold a number of advantages. The first is that there are so many games, leagues, teams and athletes to choose from — at almost any budget. Another advantage is the sheer size of the audience. So by sponsoring those games, brands like Ally can tap into some very powerful associations.
SearchStax’s generative AI feature delivers instant, natural language summaries at the top of onsite search results pages with each response grounded in the website’s indexed content and including source citations
SearchStax announced the release of Smart Answers for Site Search, a generative AI feature that delivers instant, natural language summaries at the top of onsite search results pages. Pulled from the customer’s own content index, Smart Answers gives website visitors faster access to accurate information, modernizing how people search, engage, and discover content on websites. With Smart Answers, visitors can type natural language questions into the search bar and receive a direct, AI-generated answer that appears instantly above website search results, similar to Google AI Overviews. Each response is grounded in the website’s indexed content and includes source citations. Users can also provide feedback to fine-tune the experience. For marketing teams and website experience owners, Smart Answers levels up their onsite search without the burden of heavy code changes or development projects. Smart Answers provides a developer-ready widget for easy implementation, with customizable UI to match your brand. Smart Answers determines if the search request requires a generative response and then synthesizes information from your content that has been indexed in SearchStax Site Search, delivering easy-to-digest answers to web visitors’ questions. Key Benefits of Smart Answers: Faster access to information with AI-summarized responses; Trusted answers based on your own website content; Natural language support, encouraging questions over keywords; Higher engagement and satisfaction by matching modern user expectations; Effortless modernization of your search experience without needing to re-architect your site
Walmart provides business customers with pay by invoice; eligible customers can apply for a business line of credit with 30-day net terms that is fully integrated into the omnichannel Walmart Business environment
Walmart is letting SMBs and non-profits apply for credit to make payments. Walmart Business offers a broad assortment of more than 100,000 items with categorization and navigation tailored to organizational shoppers, is rolling out the TreviPay Pay by Invoice solution. This represents the retailer’s first business-to-business omnichannel payment capability and offers corporate and non-profit customers a business line of credit that provides flexible net terms and enables them to defer payment and receive detailed invoices to help monitor spending. Eligible customers can apply for a business line of credit with 30-day net terms that is fully integrated into the omnichannel Walmart Business environment. Walmart also recently rolled out Walmart Business Print, which enables organizational customers to design and place an order and then choose items with no-to-low minimum quantities to be shipped directly to them or picked up in-store. In addition, the discounter offers Walmart Business customers access to Clover business management solutions.
Icon Business Bank’s integration with ZimpleMoney to enable businesses to offer private financing across multiple loan types with automated ledgering, integrated payments, borrower portals and detailed reporting
Icon Business Bank announced a strategic partnership with ZimpleMoney to simplify private party financing for customers. This collaboration gives Icon Business Bank customers access to advanced loan servicing technology that streamlines the management of private loans, leases, and installment payments. Powered by ZimpleMoney’s cloud-based platform and open APIs, businesses can now offer private financing to their customers, creating new revenue streams while improving cash flow management. ZimpleMoney’s platform features multiple loan types, automated ledgering, integrated payments, borrower portals and detailed reporting—all designed to simplify the complexities of private financing and enhance trust between borrowers and lenders. It provides a compliant, professional framework that brings transparency and efficiency to every step of the process. With this offering, Icon Business Bank continues to lead with innovation by offering tools that align with today’s business environment and provide access to more modern solutions.
Icon Business Bank’s integration with ZimpleMoney to enable businesses to offer private financing across multiple loan types with automated ledgering, integrated payments, borrower portals and detailed reporting
Icon Business Bank announced a strategic partnership with ZimpleMoney to simplify private party financing for customers. This collaboration gives Icon Business Bank customers access to advanced loan servicing technology that streamlines the management of private loans, leases, and installment payments. Powered by ZimpleMoney’s cloud-based platform and open APIs, businesses can now offer private financing to their customers, creating new revenue streams while improving cash flow management. ZimpleMoney’s platform features multiple loan types, automated ledgering, integrated payments, borrower portals and detailed reporting—all designed to simplify the complexities of private financing and enhance trust between borrowers and lenders. It provides a compliant, professional framework that brings transparency and efficiency to every step of the process. With this offering, Icon Business Bank continues to lead with innovation by offering tools that align with today’s business environment and provide access to more modern solutions.
Gen Z creators are choosing affiliate tools as preferred monetization models over subscription and gated content models due to their flexibility, repeatable income and transparency
A new report from Collective Voice, reveals a generational shift in how creators approach monetization. 92% of creators, across all generations, view content creation as a professional pursuit rather than a side hustle, stating that affiliate is the core of how they will build their business. Gen Z is ushering in a new era of business-first creators who prioritize speed, simplicity, and affiliate tools to monetize quickly, rather than relying on traditional brand deals, subscription models, or co-creation models. Clair Sidman, vice president of Marketing at Collective Voice said “Gen Z starts their creator journey with baked-in expectations around earning potential. They’re choosing affiliate models because they offer flexible, repeatable income without waiting for brand deals.” Content Creation Is a Career: 92% of creators, across all generations, view content creation as a professional pursuit rather than a side hustle, stating that affiliate is the core of how they will build their business. Affiliate as Main Income Stream: Approximately 64% of creators use shoppable content to supplement their income, while fewer than 30% rely on it as their primary revenue source. Diverging Affiliate Strategies: While Millennials seek to diversify their revenue streams through multiple sources, including merchandise, subscriptions, and ad revenue, Gen Z creators tend to focus more narrowly on native affiliate payout referrals and seamless product integrations. Skeptical of Paywalls: Gen Z creators overwhelmingly prefer affiliate tools with flexibility and transparency over subscription and gated content models.
Prime Day 2025 is seeing a shift from impulse electronics to practical essentials driven by tighter budgets and rising skepticism over perceived value
Prime Day 2025 is seeing a shift from impulse electronics to practical essentials, signaling consumers are buying smarter. According to early reports, spending at the start of Prime Day Tuesday (July 8) was down 14%. PYMNTS Intelligence data reveal spending may have dropped not due to a lack of interest in the event, but because of tighter budgets and rising skepticism over perceived value. Flash deals on electronics, once the hallmark of Prime Day, underperformed per Tuesday sales data, while essentials like home goods, pet care, and household appliances fared better. It’s a shift from impulse to pragmatism. Prime Day’s spending contexts are also a reflection of subtle but seismic changes in how consumers pay. The old model — credit card plus shipping address — is fading. Instead, new habits are being formed around wallets, embedded finance and more payments innovations. BNPL orders for Amazon’s Prime Day, for example, were up 13.6% year over year for Tuesday’s shopping event. Amazon Prime Day 2025 was still a massive success by any traditional measure. But beneath the surface, a critical shift is underway, powered by AI innovation, payments optimization and changing consumer behavior. Adobe said that during Amazon’s Prime Day sales event, it expects the amount of traffic to all U.S. retailers that comes from generative AI chat services and browsers to leap 3,200% year over year.
Kroger customers with loyalty card can grab printed flyer near the entrance of stores and scan a barcode on the flyer at checkout to download all the digital coupons at once without the need for app or internet
The Kroger Co. is giving its loyal shoppers easier access to digital deals. The national supermarket chain recently started adding paper flyers mirroring its weekly digital deals near the entrances of its stores. Kroger customers with a loyalty card can grab a printed handout when they enter the store to find out about the weekly digital deals. Then at checkout, shoppers scan a barcode on the flyer to download all of the digital coupons at once. Each coupon can be used up to five times in a single transaction. Using the printed flyer means that shoppers don’t have to go online or use the Kroger app to download each individual coupon. The Northeastern supermarket chain Stop & Shop also recently issued a brand-wide rollout of its innovative Savings Station. The in-store kiosk allows customers to quickly and easily activate all weekly circular digital coupons, as well as personalized offers – no smartphone, internet access or computer required. These in-store efforts from Kroger and Stop & Shop are finally helping to address digital discrimination in grocery. Seniors who aren’t tech-savvy and low-income families without smartphones could wind up paying higher prices, since they can’t easily access grocers’ digital deals.
American Eagle taps Snapchat to promote its more than 800 retail stores as back-to-school shopping destinations using the Snap Map location-sharing feature
American Eagle is teaming up with Snapchat to highlight its stores as back-to-school shopping destinations. Starting Wednesday, July 9, the specialty apparel retailer, a banner of American Eagle Outfitters Inc., is including more than 800 retail stores across the United States as Promoted Places on the Snap Map location-sharing feature. When Snapchat users check out the American Eagle Promoted Places on Snap Map, they can learn more about the location, read content from American Eagle, creators and other users, and click to shop on the American Eagle website for a seamless online shopping experience. American Eagle is also launching an augmented reality try-on Lens (virtual animations overlaid on a Snapchat photo) for jeans available in the Snapchat Lens carousel and the retailer’s public profile. American Eagle is the first specialty fashion retailer to leverage Promoted Places for promotional purposes, responding to data indicating more than 95% of Snapchat’s 400 million-plus global users are planning to shop in-store for back-to-school this year. The retailer initially partnered with Snapchat to offer a shoppable AR Lens showcasing select styles from a specially curated inaugural 200-piece resale collection offered in conjunction with ThredUp.
Study finds Silent Generation and Boomer consumers prefer supermarkets as their top destination for food shopping while Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X prefer other formats as Walmart, ALDI, dollar stores and club stores
According to the latest study from The Feedback Group, supermarkets continue to be popular with older demographics, but are less compelling to younger shoppers. Asked about their most recent food shopping visit, Silent Generation and Boomer consumers chose supermarkets as their top destination. However, Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X prefer such other formats as Walmart, ALDI, dollar stores and club stores. Notably, supermarkets plummeted from the second-most shopped channel among Millennials and Gen X in 2024 to near the bottom this year. “A generational reshuffling is underway, with younger shoppers gravitating more toward other food formats, leaving supermarkets to re-evaluate how they engage this critical audience to remain relevant,” observed Brian Numainville, principal at The Feedback Group. Supermarket satisfaction remained high overall (4.39 on a five-point scale), with older shoppers and younger shoppers reporting higher satisfaction than middle generations. Shoppers using cashier-assisted lanes report higher satisfaction (4.45) versus self-checkout users (4.29), underscoring the continued worth of human interaction. Shoppers who couldn’t find all of the items they wanted rated their satisfaction considerably lower (3.99) than those who were able to find everything (4.47). Digital circular use once more surpassed print, with 52% of shoppers now using a digital ad, up from 48% last year. In-store mobile use continued to be strong, with one-third of shoppers using phones for such tasks as finding specials and accessing loyalty programs. In spite of robust social media use (88%), just 25% of shoppers are connected to their primary supermarket on any platform, which the research spotlighted as an area of opportunity, especially among younger consumers.