• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • SIGN IN
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Omnichannel Advertising
    A platform that connects all walled garden media for more effective campaigns
    Data Connectivity
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    AI-Powered Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by leveraging proprietary AI-based technology
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Case Studies
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    Newsroom
    Check out our recent media mentions and announcements
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Omnichannel platform launch
    Read the press release to see how we're helping marketers win the walled gardens
    AI Breakthrough Award
    Skai Named "Best AI-based Solution for Advertising" in 6th Annual Artificial Intelligence Breakthrough Awards Program
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    The Breakthrough
    Read the latest blog posts and thought leadership from Skai and other industry experts
    Skai Research
    Explore our studies, whitepapers and quarterly trends reports so you can stay up to date
    Quarterly Trends Hub
    Dive into the latest market insights, industry trends, and predictive analysis
    Holiday Hub 2023
    Your go-to source for holiday marketing tips, tricks, and best practices
Back to Blog

What Is a Retail Media Network and How Can It Help Your Brand?

Joshua Dreller, Sr. Director, Content Marketing @ Skai

July  11, 2022
retail media network

Stay-at-home restrictions and safety concerns during the pandemic meant that shopping increasingly involved scrolling through the search results on an app rather than browsing the aisles of a store. And during that time, online shopping brands soared.

With that increased online shopping came the rise of the retail media network, which allows brands to boost their products to the top of search results or offer special promotions across thousands of different platforms, from Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Instacart Advertising, and scores more. Wherever a brand sells products online, there’s likely a retail media marketing option for earning more attention and boosting sales. 

What is Retail Media?

Retail media refers to a specific type of marketing targeted toward consumers who are nearing the end of their buying stage.

Retail media is the marketing at, or in proximity to, a customer’s decision point for making a purchase and can include in-store advertising, online shopping, rewards programs, and coupons. These forms of advertisment could be located on a retailer website or within their apps.

A Merkle report recently stated that “every one to two months a new retail media network is born”, so this is something marketers should be paying very close attention to for the next few years.

Here’s everything you need to know about getting started advertising on retail media networks. 

What is a retail media network?

To understand how retail media networks operate on the most basic level, think about the product placement, in-store signage, and special promotions in circulars retail outlets have always offered brands in their physical locations. As more and more retailers also offer their customers an online shopping experience, those advertising opportunities have moved online via digital ad space to feature sponsored products on websites and apps. 

A Merkle report recently stated that “every one to two months a new retail media network is born,” so this is something marketers should be paying very close attention to for the next few years.

Here’s everything you need to know about getting started advertising on retail media networks. 

During the pandemic, many consumers who were unfamiliar with ecommerce became adept at everything from ordering groceries from their phone to buying tools on home improvement retail sites to redesign their gardens.

As retail slowly moves back in-store, those newfound preferences for ecommerce do not seem to be subsiding. According to Insider Intelligence, U.S. ecommerce sales will reach $1 trillion in 2022, a figure pre-pandemic that was not expected until 2024. Even as consumers move back in-store to make their final purchases, they are still researching products online well before stepping foot in a store, making retail media advertising more important than ever.

Amazon Ads is perhaps the biggest example of a retail media network, giving sellers and brands quite a few ways to feature their products at companies in search results, banner ads, and even on competitors’ pages. However, in recent years many other businesses have entered the retail media network fold.

For example, Instacart, the grocery delivery app that saw unprecedented growth during the pandemic, is set to boost that growth even more with its retail media network, which, like Amazon, allows brands to place their products at the top of search results and offer in-app coupons to shoppers. The move is set to increase Instacart’s ad revenue by $700 million in 2022.

What is retail media advertising?

Retail media’s offline predecessor, shopper marketing, offers the closest analogy: reach consumers as they shop in stores. But, instead of being served in brick-and-mortar stores or on physical billboards, retail media advertising appears within the shopping experience of online retailers such as Amazon, Walmart.com, Target.com, and more. 

Although certainly an individual ad channel, retail media advertising should be approached as more of a full-funnel advertising program for online stores. In this regard, it is more like paid social offering a mix of ad formats across the funnel within the walls of a closed ecosystem, e.g.  Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, etc.

Ads generally come in two varieties:

  • Sponsored listings within retailer search results
  • Display ads (banners, videos) throughout the site

Each retailer offers its own flavor of retail media; some include email sponsorships or social media co-op buys.

What are the benefits of a retail media network?

While it’s undeniable that retail media networks are great for retailers, what exactly is in it for advertisers?

Well, according to Amazon, retail media network ads are useful not just for brand discovery but also for sales. A recent study found that 68% of its shoppers had discovered a new brand on its platform. So it stands to reason that placing sponsored products directly in search results when shoppers are looking to discover is an effective means of getting noticed. Furthermore, Kantar analysis of mobile campaigns running on Amazon found a 450 percent increase in purchase intent compared to similar campaigns on other platforms. 

The main purpose of advertising is ultimately to attract customers, and retail media networks offer consumer insights that other forms of advertising do not. As third-party data becomes more difficult to come by due to privacy regulations, retailers have begun to increasingly rely on first-party data or information that customers give voluntarily. All of those loyalty programs, email lists, and purchase histories to which online retailers now have access mean that advertisers can deliver more accurate product recommendations and special offers than ever before via retail media marketing. 

Where should retailers be looking to invest, beyond Amazon?

While most third-party sellers on Amazon understand the importance of retail media advertising, other traditionally brick-and-mortar brands may not necessarily understand how crucial retail media advertising has become to markets that traditionally relied on print, social, and other forms of digital advertising. 

Online grocery shopping, for example, boomed during the pandemic–a boom that shows no sign of ending. eMarketer reports that 2021 was the first year that the majority of consumers purchased groceries via ecommerce, forecasting that 142.9 million people ages 14 and older would make at least one digital grocery order or 51.5 percent of the population in the age range.

So for brands that traditionally sell items in grocery or convenience stores, the recent retail media advertising space on popular apps like GoPuff or Instacart are critical spaces for connecting with local audiences.

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

PGRpdiBjbGFzcz0iX2JybGJzLWZsdWlkLXdpZHRoLXZpZGVvLXdyYXBwZXIiPjxpZnJhbWUgdGl0bGU9IlJldGFpbCBNZWRpYSBSb3VuZHRhYmxlIHwgU2thaSB8IFdlYmluYXIiIHdpZHRoPSI1MDAiIGhlaWdodD0iMjgxIiBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUtbm9jb29raWUuY29tL2VtYmVkLzNyY2IyT0FHX1QwP2ZlYXR1cmU9b2VtYmVkIiBmcmFtZWJvcmRlcj0iMCIgYWxsb3c9ImFjY2VsZXJvbWV0ZXI7IGF1dG9wbGF5OyBjbGlwYm9hcmQtd3JpdGU7IGVuY3J5cHRlZC1tZWRpYTsgZ3lyb3Njb3BlOyBwaWN0dXJlLWluLXBpY3R1cmUiIGFsbG93ZnVsbHNjcmVlbj48L2lmcmFtZT48L2Rpdj4=

Right technology foundation = best-in-class retail media program

You need a technology platform that offers omnichannel insights, holistic measurement, actionable data, and comprehensive reporting.  

Research & Innovation

Make smarter, predictive decisions at every turn with all the data you need and faster time-to-insight. Our rich data solutions provide AI-contextualized, actionable intelligence about consumer sentiment, market trends, competition and more.

Marketing & Testing

Customer interactions happen everywhere. Maximize every touchpoint with the broadest reach, and gain the power to engage across all critical retailers, DTC channels, search engines, social media and more.

Measurement & Growth

Discover the incremental impact of any marketing effort on sales lift and determine your optimal mix without cookies or other privacy-regulated identifiers. Our approach is unbiased, unlimited and based on real-time experiments and modeling, minus the data science learning curve.

Why is measurement still a challenge? 

Regardless of the channel, in just about every survey about measurement, marketers still cite it as one of the top challenges they face. Of course, other phases of the campaign lifecycle—research, planning, creative, targeting, optimization—may present their own hurdles, but all seem straightforward compared to the measurement conundrum.

And measurement is so critical to the success of marketing campaigns. We can only make the necessary changes to improve performance by understanding what is working and what isn’t. 

How do expert marketers approach measurement for retail media?

At beBold we have taken the time to really educate our clients on what any given metric might mean, and we use those metrics to explain how any project might have impacted the account. — Max Schneider (Vice President of Advertising @ beBOLD Digital)

When measuring success, include all metrics that help to prove incrementality; for example, Amazon’s “New-to-Brand” metric. Additionally, including top-line revenue (advertising + organic) in advertising reporting will help to demonstrate how advertising investment impacts top-line revenue. — Matt Strietelmeier (Director, Marketplace Advertising @ Stella Rising)

How to get started in retail media marketing

As retail media networks become increasingly common, it can be difficult for brands to choose which ones to use. Everyone from Amazon to Instacart to CVS now offers ad space. Choosing wisely is about looking carefully at where products are the right fit, according to Tim Rogers, SVP and global general manager of omnichannel and CRM at media platform Criteo.

“Painting with a broad canvas, if 25% of my sales go through Amazon, I might put 25% of my investment there and 20% in Walmart and 15% and Target accordingly,” Rogers told AdWeek.

Download the whitepaper “Navigating the Retail Media Bang”

Another factor to consider is exactly how and where it’s possible to display ads.

Home Depot, which has also seen its business boom due to the popularity of home renovations during the pandemic, offers many different ways for its advertisers to connect with its customers. The retailer’s advertising branch, called Retail Media+, offers not only programmatic ads utilizing Home Depot’s first-party data, but also social via platforms like Pinterest and Facebook, and even Google Shopping options. These expanded offerings come in handy for seasonal advertisers whose sales increase during Home Depot sales events such as Spring Black Friday.  

With so many options for retail media marketing, developing strategies for managing, optimizing and automating campaign creation and execution across thousands of retailer and marketplace websites is an ever-increasing challenge for most advertisers. That’s why Skai has partnered with a growing list of retailers in order to help advertisers create and measure retail media campaigns across channels on a single platform.

For more information on how Skai™ can help your brand grow your retail media marketing strategy, please contact us with questions or schedule a brief demo today.

Request a Demo

Related Posts

  • Amazon advertising homepage in Brazil.
    Skai Retail Media Now Supports Amazon Advertising in Brazil
    Read More
  • Why Marketers Need a Third-Party Amazon Ad Platform
    Read More
  • One of the Amazon office locations with the company logo in on the front signage.
    Amazon Ad Benefits: How You Can Win [Webinar]
    Read More
  • Amazon packages piled up at the front door
    Win at Ecommerce with an Amazon Marketing Strategy
    Read More
  • 2021 Publisher Holiday Trends: Instacart
    Read More
  • Walmart Connect Search Brand Amplifiers (SBA) Help Marketers Go Up the Funnel with Retail Media
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Amazon, Audience, Create, Instacart, Measure, Omnichannel, Plan, Retail, Retail Media, Target, Walmart, xPSx

    Subscribe to Updates

    Media that matters.
    Marketing that works.
    © 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
    Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
    • Omnichannel Strategy
      • Skai HQ
      • Dynamic Marketing Mix
      • Budget Forecasting
      • Strategic Consulting
    • Walled Garden Advertising
      • Overview
      • Retail Media
      • Paid Search
      • Paid Social
      • App Marketing
      • Auditing
      • Expert Services
    • Marketing Measurement
      • Incrementality
      • Experiments
      • Cross-Channel Attribution
    • Resources
      • Blog
      • Glossary
      • Case Studies
      • Capabilities
      • Quarterly Trends Hub
      • Training & Enablement
      • Developer Hub
    Privacy Preference

    We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

    Privacy Preference

    Save All

    Save

    Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Manage Cookie Preferences

    Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

    Privacy Preference

    Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

    Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Back

    Privacy Preference

    Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website, Imprint
    PurposeSaves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
    Host(s).skai.io, skai.io
    Cookie Nameborlabs-cookie
    Cookie Expiry1 Year
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie Namewordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    PurposeThis cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
    Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
    Cookie NameacsbState, acsbReset
    Cookie Expiryn/a

    We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).comeet.co, www.comeet.co
    Cookie Namevisid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
    Cookie Namefs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie NamemoduleFormPardotDownload
    Cookie Expiry30 days

    Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie Name_ga, _ga_*, _gat,_gat_*,_gid, GOOGLE_ABUSE_EXEMPTION, AEC, __Secure-ENID, SOCS, CONSENT
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderHotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
    PurposeHotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
    Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
    Host(s)*.hotjar.com
    Cookie Name_hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    PurposeVWO is AB Testing software that we'll use to test different elements of the website - form placement, nav, different page layouts, etc.
    Privacy Policy https://vwo.com/compliance/cookies-notice/
    Host(s).skai.io, dev.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com
    Cookie Name_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_goal_{GOALID}, _vis_opt_test_cookie, _vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_combi, _vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_exclude, _vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_split, _vis_opt_s, _vis_opt_out, _vwo_uuid, _vwo_uuid_{CAMPAIGNID}, _vwo_ds, _vwo_sn, _vwo_uuid_v2, _vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_combi_choose, _vwo_referrer, _vwo, _vwo_global_opt_out, _vwo_ssm, uuid
    Cookie ExpirySession / 10 Years

    Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderPardot
    PurposeCookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
    Host(s).pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
    Cookie Namepardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
    Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
    Cookie Name_fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderLinkedin
    Cookie Namelidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderSkai
    Cookie Nameken_gclid
    Accept
    Name
    Provider6sense
    Cookie Name_gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie NameIDE, 1P_JAR, NID, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Cookie NamePHPSESSID, sid, okto-autoposter-XXX, oktgid, oktsid, oktlogid-XXX, oktolead-XXX-Email, oktolead-XXX-Company, oktolead-XXX-FirstName, oktolead-XXX-LastName, oktolead-XXX-Phone, oktolead-XXX-Country, oktolead-XXX-Url, oktolead-XXX-State, oktolead-XXX-Comment, optout
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years

    Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderWistia
    Host(s).wistia.com
    Cookie Namecb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Instagram content.
    Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
    Host(s).instagram.com
    Cookie Namepigeon_state
    Cookie ExpirySession
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOpenstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
    PurposeUsed to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
    Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
    Host(s).openstreetmap.org
    Cookie Name_osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
    Cookie Expiry1-10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderTwitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Twitter content.
    Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
    Host(s).twimg.com, .twitter.com
    Cookie Name__widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
    Cookie ExpiryUnlimited
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderVimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
    PurposeUsed to unblock Vimeo content.
    Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
    Host(s)player.vimeo.com
    Cookie Namevuid
    Cookie Expiry2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock YouTube content.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
    Host(s)google.com
    Cookie NameCONSENT
    Cookie Expiry6 Month

    Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

    Privacy Policy Imprint