Euromonitor International

That people are shopping faster, they're seeing fewer items, they're firmer in their decision-making.

And I think that because of this 4F idea, it really tied together with Michelle Evans from Euromonitor and from Aaron Cheris from Bain, who are really talking then more about how categories were affected and interrupted and kind of disintermediation of your retail.

And then Aaron also, I think you're going to talk about this in a second, but I'm stealing it because I loved it so much.

But Aaron talked about this great idea This great agent in Brazil, Magalu, I think was the name of it.

And consumers are increasingly looking to chatbots for skincare and makeup recommendations.

Apparently, beauty inquiries account for almost half of generative AI retail referral traffic, according to market research firm Euromonitor.

For more, we're joined by fashion tech journalist and consultant Megan McDowell, who's been following this trend.

Beauty is very well suited to the types of conversations that these very smart chatbots allow.

And so I think the key point is that good value is increasingly about overall the return the consumer feels they're getting, whether that's functional, emotional, or experiential, rather than the lowest possible price.

You know, one of, um, Euromonitor's trends for this year was reframing frugality.

People want to feel they've made a smart choice, whether that might be buying private label instead, it might be finding a dupe or paying a premium for a product that clearly justifies its price.

So value is really about the, uh, emotional return on purchase.

Let me put numbers on the retail concentration, because they're starker than most people realize.

Euromonitor's most recent data has Superpharm holding 53% of the value share in health and beauty specialists in Israel.

It's not.

Let's put rough numbers on it.

The underlying sector continues to expand.

A 2026 forecast from RxMexico and Euromonitor projects average annual growth of 6.5% through 2028. with market sales rising from $9.6 billion in 2025 to $11.6 billion.

The combination of market scale, purchase frequency, and physical reach makes pharmacy a demanding proof point for the next phase of retail media.

The first networks that can demonstrate incremental results against a randomized holdout or another credible counterfactual, with methodology and uncertainty disclosed, will do more than defend their budgets.