Retail media (advertising sold by retailers and marketplaces on their own websites, apps and, increasingly, beyond them) has grown from a niche into one of the most closely watched parts of the advertising market. Amazon reports advertising as its own line in its financial results, and many of the world's large retailers now run their own advertising businesses. WPP Media's forecasting has singled out retail media as one of the most direct growth drivers in advertising.
For brands that sell through retailers and marketplaces rather than their own stores, this matters a great deal. It puts ads at the moment of purchase, backed by data about what people actually buy.
Why retail media works
The appeal comes down to two things.
| Proximity to the purchase. | Ads appear where people are already shopping, often when they are comparing products in a category. The distance between seeing an ad and buying is shorter than almost anywhere else. |
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| Shopping data. | Retailers know what their customers search for and buy. That lets advertisers target and measure based on real purchase behaviour rather than inferred interest. |
As privacy changes make it harder to track people across websites, this kind of data, collected directly by the retailer from its own customers, has become more valuable.
The main formats
Most retail media networks offer a similar core set of placements.
Sponsored products.
Paid placements for individual products within search results and category pages. These are usually the starting point, and for many brands they carry most of the spend.
Display and video on the retailer's site.
Banner and video placements across the retailer's pages, used to build awareness of a brand or product range.
Off-site advertising.
Many retailers now let advertisers use their shopping data to reach customers on other websites, apps and streaming services, with results measured back to sales in the store.
In-store media.
Some retailers with physical stores are adding digital screens and other in-store placements, linking them to the same advertising accounts.
Common pitfalls
Retail media is powerful, but a few problems come up often.
| Paying for sales you would have made anyway. | Sponsored ads on your own brand name or best-selling products can look efficient while mostly capturing existing demand. Test what happens when you reduce spend on these. |
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| Fragmented measurement. | Each retailer reports results in its own way, which makes comparison and overall planning difficult. |
| Treating it as a separate silo. | Retail media often sits apart from the wider media plan, or even in a trade marketing budget. That makes it hard to see how it works with other channels. |
| Neglecting the product page. | Advertising cannot fix a product listing with poor images, thin descriptions or weak reviews. The page is part of the ad. |
Getting started
For brands new to retail media, a practical sequence helps.
- Get the basics right on the product pageswhere you already sell.
- Start with sponsored productsin the retailers and marketplaces that drive most of your sales, focusing on category searches rather than only your brand name.
- Set clear measuresincluding incremental sales where the retailer can provide them, not just the retailer's standard return-on-ad-spend figure.
- Add awareness and off-site formatsonce the core is working, to reach shoppers earlier in their decision.
- Plan retail media alongside other channelsso budgets reflect its role in the full customer journey.
Advertising at the point of decision
Retail media brings advertising to the point where people decide what to buy, with data that shows whether it worked. For brands that sell through others, it is no longer optional. The advantage goes to those who treat it as part of their overall media strategy, measure it honestly, and keep improving the product pages that every ad leads to.
