The 2026 State of Retail Media: What Separates Leaders From Laggards

The best organizations have built sophisticated capabilities across network diversification, programmatic activation, and incrementality measurement that compound over time. While laggards chase the same opportunities leaders pursued years ago, leading brands continuously expand into new formats and networks, capturing performance gains that accelerate results and justify even greater investment.

The 2026 State of Retail Media report, produced in partnership with Skai, offers a comprehensive view of where the industry stands today. The study is packed with data on budget allocation, measurement practices, AI adoption, and investment priorities. But the most valuable insights come from understanding what separates the organizations achieving outsized results from everyone else.

We segmented respondents into leaders and laggards based on performance criteria. The results are revealing.

What separates the top 31% from everyone else

Now in its fifth year, the State of Retail Media report surveyed 166 consumer brands and advertising agencies on their retail media strategies, challenges, and priorities. Respondents included retail media managers, directors, and VPs of ecommerce and marketing, professionals with direct visibility into how their organizations approach this channel.

To identify what distinguishes high performers, we segmented respondents based on three criteria that had to all be met simultaneously:

• Ecommerce growth outpacing their category average (gaining market share)
• Retail media maturity rated ‘above average’ or ‘extremely sophisticated’ on Amazon and/or other networks
• 2025 retail media results meeting or exceeding KPI goals

31% of respondents qualified as leaders under this framework, with 69% classified as laggards. 

These leading brands demonstrate operational maturity, execution capability, and measurable business impact, setting them apart from the rest. By analyzing how Leaders approach strategy, budget allocation, platform management, and measurement differently than Laggards, we can identify the specific behaviors and capabilities that drive superior brand-side retail media performance. Here’s what we found.

Five patterns that predict retail media success

Across budget allocation, network strategy, format adoption, measurement maturity, and strategic clarity, distinct patterns emerged. These five characteristics matter most.

Leaders are one to two years ahead on budget allocation

Leaders allocate 27% of their total media budgets to retail media compared to 23% for laggards. That four-percentage-point gap might seem modest, but context matters: typical year-over-year budget increases run just two to four percentage points. Leaders are thus somewhere between 1 to 2 years ahead in terms of budget allocation.

They also activate across more networks: 7.2 today versus 6.2 for laggards. This broader footprint creates compounding advantages. By expanding into incremental networks where performance opportunities remain, leaders boost their returns and build the business case for even greater investment.

The implication for laggards is sobering. Simply matching current leader budget levels won’t close the gap as those leaders are continuing to grow their budgets and active network portfolios in 2026. To catch up, laggards will need to move faster than the pace of normal progression.

Amazon optimization is table stakes

Both leaders and laggards continue to prioritize Amazon, and they should. Amazon remains the dominant player, growing by more than 20% annually. But leaders aren’t stopping there. They’re scaling outwards to capture opportunities on networks with lighter competition, lower CPCs, and different customer segments. Leaders are looking for distinct audiences with different purchase behaviors on mid- to long-tail networks, and they are building presence across those ecosystems. For example, leaders allocate 21% of their retail media budget to Walmart Connect compared to 17% for laggards. 

Importantly, the findings do not suggest brands heavily indexed to Amazon should pull back on that investment. Rather, it’s about identifying where your next increment of growth will come from once you’ve optimized and maximized your spend on Amazon. Leaders have done that work and are already executing against it.

The next battleground is DSP and video

On-site search remains the dominant ad type in retail media. But leaders are asking: where’s the next game being played? They’re moving faster into retailer DSP ads, on-site video ads, and on-site display at a faster clip than their lagging peers. Amazon proved the performance potential of on-site video with Sponsored Brand Video, and leaders have taken notice.

Not all retail media growth is incremental. Even leading brands must make difficult decisions about where to secure funding to invest in more performant opportunities. The benchmark findings indicated leading brands are pulling back more aggressively on search engine shopping ads and traditional in-store investments compared to laggards. This is a logical outcome given how much faster ecommerce is growing than physical channels.

Incrementality measurement separates confidence from guesswork

ROAS is easy to measure. Incrementality is not. Only 7% of leaders don’t measure incrementality at all, compared to 21% of laggards. And 21% of leaders rate themselves as ‘good at measuring’ incrementality, compared with just 11% of laggards.

That said, mastery remains elusive. Only one in five leading brands feels genuinely confident in their incrementality measurement. The desire for crystal clarity is more aspiration than an achievable goal by year-end. But leaders are further along on that crawl-walk-run journey, often starting with one ad type on Amazon and expanding from there.

The practical advice: don’t try to solve for incrementality across all of the networks you’re activating simultaneously. Start with your largest investment, get your arms around measurement there, then expand. 

Progress beats perfection, and leaders have embraced that mindset.

Uncertainty is the real performance killer

When asked about shifting budgets from open-web DSPs to retail media DSPs, 53% of leaders said yes compared to 43% of laggards. But the real story is in the uncertainty: only 14% of leaders were unsure how to approach this decision, compared to 34% of laggards.

Leaders have developed a clearer point of view on the role of different ad types in their media budgets. This clarity requires strong cross-functional collaboration, since the retail media team typically doesn’t control open-web DSP spend. It requires a genuine organizational desire to understand which approach will perform best.

Almost a third of lagging brands aren’t sure how to referee between open-web DSP and retail media DSP. That uncertainty reflects deeper organizational challenges around structure, silos, and competing goals. Leaders have done the hard work of building alignment. Laggards are still figuring it out.

Conclusion: Close the gap before it widens

The gap between retail media leaders and laggards isn’t about budget alone. It’s about capability maturity, strategic clarity, and the willingness to move beyond what’s comfortable. Leaders have built diversified network portfolios, embraced programmatic and upper-funnel formats, invested in incrementality measurement, and developed clear organizational alignment on where retail media fits in their marketing mix. These advantages compound over time.

For organizations looking to close the gap, the path forward starts with an honest assessment. How many networks are you actively optimizing? Are you under-indexed on networks beyond Amazon? Do you have a defined point of view on retail media DSP versus open web? Can you articulate your approach to incremental measurement? Answering these questions is the first step toward operating like a leader.

Skai’s Retail Media solutions enable marketers to plan, activate, and measure campaigns across hundreds of retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart, as part of a broader commerce media strategy. AI-powered pacing, product intelligence, and keyword tools help teams meet shoppers across the journey and tie spend to sales with confidence.

Schedule a quick demo to see how Skai can help you close the gap.

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Stratably helps brands make better decisions. It provides objective forecasts, benchmarking, practitioner-led insights and peer-to-peer events on the strategies and tactics leading brands are deploying across Amazon, Walmart, retail media, the digital shelf and agentic commerce. 

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Download the full 2026 State of Retail Media report for complete findings on budget allocation, measurement practices, AI adoption, and more.

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