Spring Right Now Report
The Right Now Report gives you the high-level updates and insights you need without the unnecessary clutter. We’re looking at how AI is reshaping online shopping, the surge of nostalgia messaging and the latest on the TikTok deal.
How AI Is Reshaping Online Shopping
AI-driven traffic in retail jumped 693% year over year in November and December, according to Adobe. Across the 2025 holiday season, AI referrals didn’t just bring more visitors; they brought better-engaged visitors. Consumers referred through AI spent longer on sites, viewed more pages and converted at higher rates than traffic from traditional sources. AI referrals converted 54% more on Thanksgiving and 38% more on Black Friday than non-AI traffic.
This is a big shift in how people discover and evaluate products online. AI tools are already influencing purchases across retail, travel, finance and tech. This makes Generative Search Optimization (GEO) more important than ever.
GEO helps AI-driven platforms like Large Language Models (LLMs) understand and share your business to the right people. Traditional search still matters, but AI often highlights fewer sources, which means businesses and organizations that are prepared can stand out in a big way. Even small updates can make a difference.
Here are a few updates you can start putting into practice:
1. Clean up page titles and headings on your website
Make sure every page clearly explains what it is and what you offer. “Coffee Shop in Chicago,” for example, tells both people and LLMs exactly what the page covers.
2. Check your business info online
Ensure your name, address, phone number and website are correct and consistent across Google, Yelp, social platforms and other directories. Consistency helps customers and search tools find you more easily and avoids any confusion.
3. Highlight what you do and where
Include your main services and location on your website pages, contact page and product or service descriptions. This helps LLMs match your business to the right searches and questions.
Even small steps like these can help more of the AI-driven traffic find your business, regardless of your product or service offerings.
Right Relations can help you show up in AI searches. Contact us today to learn more.
Nostalgia messaging is here to stay
With the new year came a collective rewind to ten years ago. On social media, you likely saw a flood of throwback posts to 2016, with people sharing old photos, memes and viral moments and calling 2026 “the new 2016.” Celebrities helped the trend gain momentum, and brands followed with throwback posts, some serious and some playful.
This yearning for the past manifested in the “This is who you’re asking to…” trend that took over feeds in February. In this format, users paired a description of their job with photos of their childhood selves. The contrast highlights a simpler time versus today’s professional demands.
These posts work because they tap into a shared history; they use old memories to soften the edges of our modern digital lives. Nostalgic content has been on the rise, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Nostalgia works because it gives people a sense of emotional grounding. In times of uncertainty or overwhelm, we naturally gravitate toward periods that feel simpler, more familiar, or more optimistic. These trends give companies and organizations a way to tap into shared memories and cultural awareness.
Thoughtful throwbacks and references can strengthen engagement and build trust while keeping content relevant.
A TikTok Deal Was Finally Reached & Updates are Happening
In January, TikTok officially launched TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a new U.S. entity intended to operate the platform for American users after years of regulatory uncertainty.
In the company’s press release on January 22, 2026, they shared, “Today, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025, now enabling more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses to continue to discover, create and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience.”
The joint venture is majority-owned by U.S. investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, keeps a smaller stake. U.S. user data will now be stored domestically, and oversight of content moderation and the algorithm is expected to take place through this U.S.-based entity.
While the transition is happening largely behind the scenes, the first major shifts in how the platform operates have already begun to roll out. In early February, U.S. users began receiving a mandatory Updated Privacy Policy notification. To address the legal liabilities that led to previous regulatory challenges, TikTok USDS has introduced a hard block for users under 13. This is being enforced through enhanced age-verification prompts and behavioral detection. The updated Terms of Service (TOS) now explicitly state that the U.S. entity does not endorse any content, a move intended to shift liability for content accuracy and compliance from the platform to individual creators and businesses
Under the new TOS, TikTok USDS is now classifying location data as “sensitive.” A new toggle is being rolled out that allows users to share their precise location in exchange for localized services, such as the new Local Feed, which launched on February 11, or opt out entirely to keep their data generalized within the Oracle cloud environment.
Behind the scenes, technical teams at Oracle and TikTok USDS have begun retraining the recommendation algorithm on purely domestic data. While global connectivity remains active, Kelsey Chickering, Principal Analyst at the global research firm Forrester, expects the feed to feel “distinctly American” over time as U.S.-based trends are prioritized. Some users have raised concerns about potential shifts in the algorithm or content visibility and early reports have noted minor glitches in feeds and moderation.
We’ll be watching closely to see what changes are rolled out in the months to come and how they’ll affect users and marketing efforts.
We’d love to hear from you! If you have questions or want support putting these trends to work, we’re here to help. Our goal is to help you stay on top of marketing updates without the stress.