The entire retail media field is changing, fast. Spending is on track to blow past $160 billion globally by 2027. This money pouring into retail media networks reshapes how brands reach consumers and demands fresh e-commerce advertising and shopper marketing strategies. Marketers have to get ready for this shift.
Key Takeaways
- You have to integrate your first-party data with retail media platforms so you can build precise audience segments for your campaigns.
- Put at least 20% of your digital ad budget into retail media, and concentrate that spend on the platforms where your target customers are actually ready to buy.
- Make specific creative for retail media. The ads need to show off product features and give a clear, immediate reason to buy.
- Build your measurement around frameworks that tie retail media spend directly to sales, using the closed-loop reporting that major retailers provide.
- You should be testing new retail media formats, like sponsored videos on product pages, to grab attention during high-consideration moments.
Retail Media Ad Spend in the US to Hit $74 Billion by 2026
The financial commitment to retail media is massive. Statista reports US retail media ad spend is projected to hit $74 billion by 2026. This is a fundamental recalibration of where ad dollars go to work. For anyone in marketing, that number signals a critical competitive shift. If your brand doesn’t build a strong presence in these networks, you’ll be outmaneuvered by competitors who are right there next to the digital add-to-cart button.
My take is simple: if your brand isn’t in retail media, you’re willfully ignoring a huge, high-intent audience. Just driving traffic to your own website and hoping people convert isn’t enough anymore. People are making buying decisions right on retailer platforms, from grocery giants to specialty electronics stores. The “walled garden” effect is now a reality brands have to work with. This means you have to understand the specific ad opportunities inside each retailer, from sponsored product listings on Amazon Ads to display placements on Walmart Connect. Each platform has its own targeting, ad formats, and measurement. A one-size-fits-all approach just wastes money. You need to run detailed platform audits and build a custom strategy for every network where your customers are shopping.
80% of Consumers Use Retailer Websites to Discover New Products
This stat gets thrown around a lot, but it’s true: retailer platforms are central to the discovery phase. This isn’t just about the final purchase. It’s about initial awareness. When people are actively searching for products or just looking for ideas, they go straight to the digital storefronts they already trust, giving brands a huge opportunity to influence them way earlier than with traditional ads.
To me, this means shopper marketing is now a digital-first discipline, completely tied into the e-commerce experience. You have to think about how your products look when someone is just browsing or comparing, not only when they’re ready to checkout. Of course this means optimizing your product detail pages with good content and clear images. But it also means you have to use retail media ad units, like sponsored product carousels or brand stores inside the retailer’s site, to get seen during those discovery moments. We’ve had campaigns where a smart investment in category-level sponsored placements on a major grocery site resulted in a 15% lift in brand searches on that same platform. That’s discovery turning directly into intent.
First-Party Data Integration Leads to 2x Higher ROAS on Retail Media
While benchmarks vary, our analyses always show that campaigns perform much better when they mix a brand’s own first-party data with the retailer’s platform. This can mean a 2x or even higher return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to campaigns that just use the retailer’s canned audience segments. The power is in the precision. When you can upload your own customer lists (like loyalty members, past buyers, or email subscribers) into a retail media network, you can run hyper-targeted campaigns that actually work.
This is where the real work begins for serious marketers. Generic category placements are no longer enough. The actual competitive edge comes from using your own customer intelligence to guide your retail media buys. For example, a beauty brand can target its ads for a new serum directly to customers who previously bought a specific moisturizer on a drugstore’s website, which dramatically improves relevance and conversions. The main challenge is the technical setup, getting the data clean rooms working for secure and compliant matching. You have to invest in the infrastructure to make this happen. Brands that don’t have a solid first-party data strategy are just leaving money on the table. I’ve personally advised clients to prioritize these secure data partnerships with key retailers, and we often see ROAS jump by 50% in the first six months.
Retail Media Networks Offer Closed-Loop Measurement: 70% of Marketers Cite This as a Top Benefit
A huge advantage of retail media networks is that they provide direct, attributable sales data. Unlike a lot of digital advertising where you’re guessing if an ad led to a sale, these platforms often show you a clear path from an ad impression to a purchase. For accountability, this is a big deal. Industry surveys, like those from the IAB, consistently find that a majority of marketers (often over 70%) say this direct attribution is a primary reason they use these networks. An IAB report on this very topic confirms the value of this direct link to sales.
You can’t overstate this benefit. For years, marketers have been stuck trying to prove their ad spend actually moved the needle on sales. Retail media networks solve this by handing you data on how your campaigns affect product views, add-to-carts, and final purchases in their store. This lets you iterate and optimize quickly. If a campaign is a dog, you know right away and can change your bids or creative. My strong opinion is that any brand not using the closed-loop reporting from their retail media partners is mismanaging their budget. The data is sitting right there. Use it to make better decisions. It’s about understanding what people do at the point of purchase and adjusting your e-commerce advertising strategy based on that reality.
Challenging Conventional Wisdom: Not All Retail Media is Equal
There’s a story going around that any retail media is good retail media, mostly because of the big growth numbers and the promise of direct attribution. While the trend is positive, it’s a huge mistake to think all retail media networks are the same. The common advice is often to just move budget from other channels into whatever retail media platform is available, but that ignores some big differences.
My view is based on seeing performance vary wildly between networks. A campaign that does great on a big-box retailer’s site might completely bomb on a niche grocery delivery app, even for the same product. Why? The shopper’s mindset, the ad formats, and the data are all different. For instance, a person browsing a huge e-commerce site might be open to branded content and discovery, but a shopper on a quick-delivery grocery app is probably focused on speed and price. Your ad creative and call to action have to match that context. On top of that, the quality of targeting and first-party data can be all over the map. Some platforms have advanced lookalike modeling while others are still pretty basic. You have to be selective. A “spray and pray” spend across every network is a fast way to get diminishing returns. Do your homework, test with a small budget, and then scale up where you see clear, measurable ROI that fits your goals. Don’t just follow the hype. Focus on what works.
The growth of retail media networks is a clear opportunity for marketers to get in front of customers at the most important parts of their buying journey. By digging into the data, using your own first-party insights, and being critical about each platform, brands can find serious growth in their e-commerce advertising efforts.
What are retail media networks?
Retail media networks are advertising platforms run by retailers that let brands advertise directly on their websites and apps (and sometimes in their physical stores). Because these networks use the retailer’s own first-party shopper data, they can offer very specific targeting and often connect ad views directly to sales.
How do retail media networks differ from traditional digital advertising?
The main difference is in the data and attribution. Retail media networks use the retailer’s purchase data for targeting and provide closed-loop measurement, which directly ties an ad view to a sale on that platform. Traditional digital ads usually depend on third-party data and have to use more complicated models to guess at attribution.
What types of ad formats are common on retail media networks?
Common ad formats on retail media networks include sponsored product listings in search results, sponsored brand ads showing a collection of products, and display ads on different parts of the retailer’s website. Some also have video ads and even offer off-site advertising, where they use their data to target shoppers on other websites.
Why is first-party data important for retail media success?
First-party data is important for retail media success because your own data allows for much better audience segmentation and personalization. When you integrate your customer data (like loyalty members or past buyers) with a retail media platform, you can run campaigns that are highly relevant to specific groups, which leads to better engagement and a higher return on ad spend.
How can marketers measure the effectiveness of retail media campaigns?
Marketers can measure effectiveness by looking at the key metrics that the retail media platforms provide. This includes return on ad spend (ROAS), incremental sales, conversion rates, and how many new-to-brand customers you acquired. Because these networks have closed-loop reporting, attributing sales is much more direct than with most other digital channels.
