Retail media can be defined as the collection of advertising activations on both the digital platforms and in-store environments of retailers. Its main goal? To enhance brand visibility while seamlessly integrating into the consumer’s shopping journey. In other words, it is a strategy that allows brands to display ads across the digital and physical assets of retailers, thereby offering a more personalized and immersive shopping experience for consumers
Beyond its definition, retail media has become a true growth driver for businesses. By capturing consumers’ attention at key moments in their shopping journey, it helps increase revenue and strengthen brand presence in the market.
The evolution of retail media is closely tied to the digital transformation of the commerce sector. With the rise of digital, retailers now have valuable data on consumer buying behaviors, allowing them to offer more targeted and relevant advertising campaigns.
Moreover, the upcoming phase-out of third-party cookies in 2024, announced by Google (currently affecting only 1% of the market), highlights the growing importance of retailers’ proprietary data. Media agencies and advertisers will need to adapt to maximize their marketing impact in a post-cookies landscape.
Retail media platforms like Amazon Ads, eBay, and major retailers such as Carrefour or Auchan play a key role by providing advertising space and data to advertisers, enabling them to personalize their messages and optimize their visibility and sales.
By leveraging social networks like TikTok and Instagram, brands can not only reach a broad audience but also create unique and engaging shopping experiences. TikTok, for instance, uses advanced algorithms to recommend relevant advertising content to users, while Instagram offers integrated shopping features, allowing users to purchase products directly within the app. By adopting increasingly refined segmentation strategies, brands can deliver tailored shopping experiences, seamlessly integrating offline and online channels to create smooth and coherent customer journeys.
Brands that adopt innovative strategies and anticipate emerging trends in this field are better positioned to succeed in the ever-evolving digital economy. For example, we are seeing a significant rise in the use of augmented reality (AR) in retail media campaigns, providing consumers with more immersive and interactive shopping experiences.
The Swedish brand IKEA uses augmented reality in its mobile app to allow customers to visualize furniture in their own homes before making a purchase. This innovation has not only enhanced the customer experience but also boosted online sales.
Measuring the impact of retail media is essential to ensuring its long-term effectiveness. With platformization, businesses now have sophisticated tools to accurately assess the performance of their advertising campaigns and adjust their strategies accordingly. However, challenges remain, particularly in the areas of standardization and maturity of measurement tools, emphasizing the need to employ methods like Marketing Mix Modelling to gain a comprehensive and coherent view of retail media’s impact on business outcomes.
With tools like Mimbi, Pacvue, or Skai, connected to major retail media platforms, businesses gain precise data on metrics such as ROAS, Brand Halo, or Share of Voice. This allows them to evaluate the effectiveness of their ads and adjust their strategies in real time to maximize profits.
