Amazon Strikes Deal with Largest UK Publisher; Google Must Address Competition Concerns with Cookie Deprecation; Low Growth for UK Retail Sector

On today’s ExchangeWire digest: Amazon Strikes Deal with Largest UK Publisher; Google Must Address Competition Concerns with Cookie Deprecation; Low Growth for UK Retail Sector

In the midst of the cookie crumble, Amazon has struck a deal with Reach, the UK’s largest publisher, to obtain customer data for targeted online advertising. The partnership is designed to compensate for the loss of third party cookies; Reach will share its contextual first party data, and Amazon will use the information to sell more targeted ads on the publisher’s sites. It’s a time of experimentation for publishers, as they look for ways to harvest more data from readers. 

However, Google will not be able to proceed with third party cookie deprecation on Chrome unless it resolves the concerns raised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In order to meet its deprecation timeline, the tech giant will need to do more to address the issues raised around its Privacy Sandbox solution. Concerns raised by the CMA include Google continuing to benefit from user activity while limiting its competitors’ access to the same data, and Google’s ability to control the inclusion of ad tech rivals which could advantage its own services. Publishers and advertisers being less able to identify fraudulent activity is also a worry.  

Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis and bleak weather have cast a cloud over the UK retail sector. Total retail sales across the UK increased by only 1.2% year-on-year for the first month of 2024, compared to the 4.2% growth in January the previous year. Health and beauty products were best performing, while clothes and footwear sales made disappointing profits.  

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