October 2022 Retail Media Roundtable: Should the Retail Media Approach Differ When It’s Online-Only or Omnichannel?

While there are different ways to segment advertising channels, when it comes to retail media, one of the obvious distinctions is with the retailer publishers. Specifically, are they online-only (i.e. Amazon for the most part) or omnichannel (i.e. Walmart, Target, etc.)

For the most part, the fundamental campaign management tasks are very much the same—choosing products to promote, bidding on keywords, etc. But, strategically there certainly is a difference if you’re working with a retailer with a brick & mortar presence versus one that just has a web store. After all, retail media advertising with an omni-retailer may help boost offline sales.

But couldn’t retail media with online-only retailers also boost offline sales in physical stores? Probably. We know that Internet retailers have become one of the first stops for consumers to begin their purchase research. It’s hard to imagine that your Amazon Ads don’t drive sales in-store. There has to be some influence.

How do you approach your retail media with online-only or omnichannel retailers? The same? Differently? If so, how? In this month’s post, we ask our experts what they do.

Retail Media continues to be on the rise and offers advertisers an opportunity to reach new audiences. According to Forrester’s The State Of Retail Media this past July 2022, “the retail media US market alone is expected to double in the next four years.” eMarketer concurs with retail media’s growth ​​advising that “[they] expect US retail media ad spend to jump 31.4% to $40.81 billion this year”.

While the retail media landscape continues to gain traction, the competition continues to stack up. So advertisers must consider how to stand out from the competition in their strategy.

For brands that are online only, their experience with retail media is likely mature. They’ve already learned what campaigns provide constant and steady ROAS. They can continue to ensure ROI on retailers with this experience while understanding how much budget can be applied to experimentation. The key for these brands to stand out from the competition is trying new advertisement types and placements. Is their goal brand awareness and retargeting lost sales? Maybe trying DSP display advertisements is the right next step. They can even do so with Skai’s Amazon DSP product or custom solutions for Walmart and Trade Desk.

For brands that are both online and offline, their experience with retail media may still be relatively nascent. They’re unsure where to increase retail media investments and are navigating budgets offline and online. The key for these brands is to recognize the power of loyalty data, targeted placements, and scaled reach, and that consumers interacting with these ads are nearly or right at the point of purchase – a sure bet on ROI. So is their goal to boost category share? They should take a look at their SOV with tools like Skai’s Competitive Insights and understand where they’re missing share, who is against them, and the relationship between organic and paid efforts. Then they can change their strategy per retailer accordingly.

While the approach of an online-only strategy might differ from that of an online and offline, the goal always remains related to performance and ROI. Given the promise of retail media, advertisers should continue to capitalize on the growth of retail media and leverage the right tools strategizing against their maturity level and brand goals.