U.S. measured media ad spend 2014-2018, by category

Between 2017 and 2018, measured media spending in the U.S. retail sector increased from roughly 11 to 15 billion U.S. dollars. All of the top five spending categories invested more than 10 billion U.S. dollars each on U.S. media that year.

Advertising in the retail industry

Spending almost 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, Amazon was by far the leading retailer in the United States, in terms of ad spend. That year, other major retailers, such as Walmart and Macy’s, spent roughly 2.6 and 1.36 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

Macy’s: one of America’s leading retail companies

Macy’s Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1858, with its headquarters in Ohio, United States. The company’s net sales worldwide amounted to almost 25 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, an amount which was roughly the same one year earlier. As of 2018, Macy's employed around 130 thousand people. The company's employee peak, however, was in 2012 when the company had roughly 176 thousand people working for them.