Retail Media
What is retail media?
Retail media is a form of advertising in which retailers sell ad placements to brands using their owned digital properties — their website, app, and search results — powered by their first-party shopper data. Retail media allows brands to reach consumers who are actively browsing and shopping in a retailer's environment, with targeting informed by that retailer's transaction and behavioral data.
How does retail media work?
Retail media leverages the first-party data and customer insights that retailers have about their shoppers. Brands can use this data to target ads and content to highly relevant audiences on the retailer's digital properties via a variety of ad formats.
Retail media vs. commerce media
Retail media is a subset of the broader commerce media category. Retail media is confined to a single retailer's walled garden — Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel. Commerce media extends this model beyond any single retailer, aggregating commerce signals across a network of publishers, apps, and loyalty platforms to reach consumers across the open internet.
What are some types of retail media ads?
Common types of ads include sponsored product listings, display banners, video ads, branded content, and in-app advertising. Retailers may also offer off-site advertising that leverages their first-party data to reach shoppers across the open web.
How to measure retail media:
Retail media campaigns are typically measured using standard digital advertising metrics like impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and conversions. Retailers can also provide sales-based attribution, allowing brands to directly tie their ad spend to actual product sales.
Why is retail media important to marketers?
Retail media allows brands to reach consumers at the point of purchase when they are most likely to convert. It also provides access to valuable first-party data and insights that can inform broader marketing strategies. As third-party cookies are phased out, this growing channel offers a privacy-friendly alternative for targeted advertising.
Who needs to know what retail media is:
- Digital marketing manager
- Paid search specialist
- Affiliate manager
- Ecommerce manager
- Product manager
- Marketing analyst
- Brand manager
Use retail media in a sentence:
"Dyson's new retail media campaign on Walmart’s website resulted in a 25% increase in sales of their featured product line compared to their previous digital advertising efforts.”