DoorDash Builds Its Retail Mall; ChatGPT Ads Still Can't Count

Macy's fashion and beauty products will be available for purchase directly in the DoorDash app, The Wall Street Journal reports, turning a delivery arrangement that ran quietly through Macy's own site and app for several years into a consumer-facing partnership.

The department store joins Timberland, Vans, Victoria's Secret, Steve Madden and Anthropologie in DoorDash's growing network of apparel and beauty retailers fulfilling orders quickly from their stores — effectively a mall repurposed as a distributed delivery hub.

The business underneath those partnerships is retail media. DoorDash gains more merchandise, shoppers and signals to monetize. Retailers get another route to demand plus access to DoorDash's delivery and advertising infrastructure. The relationship can stay quiet or go public depending on what each side needs.

Retail partnerships rarely stay as tidy as press releases suggest. Target ended its formal relationship with Instacart after acquiring Shipt in 2018, yet shoppers can still order Target products through Instacart for same-day delivery. Criteo has retained business with retailers including Walmart even after those retailers publicly moved away from its platform. The vendor may lose the marquee role, but not necessarily the account.

For practitioners, the Macy's-DoorDash deal signals where incremental retail media budgets may flow next: apparel and beauty brands that once lacked a same-day delivery story now have one, with ad inventory attached.

ChatGPT ads hit a measurement gap

Nearly eight months after ChatGPT first launched ads, measurement remains unresolved. OpenAI rolled out a suite of measurement solutions in May, including its own CAPI, but the platform does not appear to track all conversions and engagement accurately.

Digital marketing agency Accuracast found OpenAI seems to be underreporting conversions. The platform reported 100 clicks during a period when Accuracast's own measurement tools reported 20, according to Digiday. OpenAI could not explain the discrepancy.

Other agencies, including Jellyfish, and tech platforms such as AdRoll say they have not seen click discrepancies — but that does not mean they are satisfied. Swedish digital agency Web Guide Partner flagged how long insights take to arrive: 24 to 36 hours versus just a few on Google.

The friction is not only speed. Many advertisers have not turned on conversion tracking at all, because doing so requires agreeing to OpenAI's tracking terms. Some legal teams worry about potential liability and how customer data might be used. For advertisers weighing ChatGPT inventory, the practical takeaway is simple: validate platform-reported numbers against your own measurement before scaling spend.

Taxpayer-funded Trump ads hit TV networks

The Trump administration has spent nearly $2.9 million so far to run three different spots ahead of next month's midterm elections, according to ad intelligence firm AdImpact. The ads ran on TV networks including Fox News, CBS, MS Now and CNN, Variety reports. A White House spokesperson described the ads — in which the president vows to battle socialism and touts his policy agenda — as public service announcements.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr says he sees no issue with the placements. Some MS Now staff are surprised and peeved that the liberal-leaning network is running pro-Trump commercials, Status reports, though others argue the ads did not violate the standards of MS Now parent Versant, which explicitly accept "divergent points of view" on politics. The timing is awkward given Trump's crackdown on MS Now's coverage — but only a few months have passed since Versant spun off from Comcast to bolster monetization, and networks need revenue.

Quick hits

• Just 6% of marketers say they are getting a big payoff from AI, according to Business Insider.
• Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos says the platform "is not growing as fast as [he wants] it to," per Hollywood Reporter.
• Shopping platform Swap Commerce acquired Vizby, a Shopify-native service that helps brands show up in AI search responses.
• OpenX appointed ex-Roku exec John Rogers as SVP of global publisher development.

Expect DoorDash to keep converting quiet delivery deals into storefront-style partnerships as it chases Amazon-style commerce signals, and watch whether OpenAI closes its reporting gap before more advertisers commit real budget.