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Retail media networks (RMNs) are an exciting innovation within the advertising industry. A retail media network refers to an advertising platform that a retailer owns, providing marketers with the opportunity to buy advertising space on the retailer’s digital platforms as well as extend their reach offsite with key platforms the retailer has partnered with to open up their media buying to advertisers. The retailer uses first-party data and customer insights to create new advertising opportunities and connect with shoppers throughout their buying journey.
In this article, we’ll discuss the significant advances in retail media trends and technology — and their implications for the future of advertising.
Benefits of retail media for advertisers
Every online impression counts in the digital era, making retail media especially advantageous for advertisers. It yields new opportunities for advertisers to thrive, which we’ll discuss below.
Get access to first-party data
First-party data is a valuable asset for advertisers. Retail media networks offer advertisers direct access to customer insights from the retailer’s data vault, which helps them create highly personalized ad campaigns and connect with current and potential customers.
Custom marketing options for each brand
Retail media provides brands with various marketing options, from product listings to onsite display advertising. These options allow advertisers to customize their approach, deliver tailored messages to their target audience, and meet consumers where they are.
Reach new customers
Retail media networks empower advertisers to connect with new and existing customers using retailers’ extensive digital presence. These networks extend beyond a retailer’s own website and allow brands to tap into a broader audience base; major RMNs often have a significant offsite presence and provide advertisers with opportunities to reach consumers across various digital touchpoints and platforms beyond the retailer’s controlled environment. This reach enhances brand visibility, engages diverse audiences, and contributes to the growth of customer acquisition.
Closer proximity to purchase decisions
Another benefit of retail media is its ability to position brands closer to the point of purchase in the customer journey. Targeted, data-driven advertising strategically placed across various touchpoints enables retailers to influence consumers when they are already lower in the purchase funnel. This proximity increases the likelihood of faster purchase decisions, especially when complemented by strategies such as timely offers and retargeting, expediting the decision-making and conversion processes.
Consumers prefer personalized advertising
Research has shown that approximately 50% of consumers will spend more money with companies that personalize their e-commerce retail experience. Ads relevant to a consumer’s interests and aligned with their behaviors make shoppers more likely to engage with a brand and find it easier and more convenient. As retailers honor consumer preferences for personalized advertising, they’ll find it easier to align with consumer preferences and provide an improved shopping experience.
Retail media network use case: Experian’s impactful marketing attribution with a discount store giant
Experian’s past collaboration with a discount store giant involved implementing a comprehensive marketing attribution strategy. The primary goal was to effectively demonstrate brand campaign performance and optimize ad spend within the retail media network. We built a full-stack attribution solution that connected their offline and online data, and our approach was as follows:
- We started by collecting exposure data from all touchpoints, such as the website, app, and offsite display and social, to turn anonymous exposures into identified individuals and households.
- Additionally, we gathered debit and credit card transaction data from in-store and online points of sale to better understand purchase behavior. We also unveiled new demographic insights for the retailer.
- To streamline the decision-making process, we provided an easy-to-read reporting tool that showcased vital performance metrics.
Takeaways from the collaboration emphasized the importance of:
- Understanding the audience seeing the ads and those making purchases.
- Analyzing incremental lift and identifying insights or trends.
- Sharing these valuable insights across the organization and with advertisers to inform future campaigns and brand positioning.
Utilizing recent trends in the retail media landscape
This case study serves as a prime example of how recent retail media trends are shaping a data-centric, integrated, and insights-driven future for advertising in retail. Our marketing attribution strategy aligns with the industry’s shift toward data-driven decision-making in RMNs.
Today, retailers are adopting full-stack attribution solutions like ours, enabling them to connect offline and online data to understand customer interactions better. This reflects the trend of looking for a holistic view of customer journeys and highlights the importance of integrating diverse data sources to understand consumers comprehensively.
Moreover, our strategy to transform anonymous exposures into identified individuals, integrate transaction data, unveil new demographic insights, and provide an easy-to-read reporting tool mirrors the trends of enhanced personalization, merging online and offline data, and simplifying analytics within RMNs.
Using new retail media
Our introduction of a user-friendly reporting tool highlights the potential of new retail media to change how advertisers analyze data and gain actionable insights. It emphasizes the value of advanced tools in optimizing ad campaigns, measuring performance metrics, and informing future strategies. New technology will continue to drive effective marketing attribution and shape the future of retail advertising.
Kroger Precision Marketing’s newly announced platform
Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) represents another excellent retail media use case. The retail media arm of the popular supermarket chain is looking to the future with the launch of its advertising platform. KPM is committed to innovation, and this move underscores its desire to be at the forefront of the retail media landscape. Let’s take a closer look at some of the essential features of this new platform.
In-house
KPM recently announced the launch of an in-house advertising platform — a significant shift from their previous practices, where they relied on external tools and systems for their retail media services. By bringing the ad technology in-house, KPM has greater control, flexibility, and the ability to align its platform precisely with its retail media goals. This decision enhances Kroger’s self-sufficiency and enables quicker adaptation to evolving market demands.
KPM’s new in-house platform was officially rolled out on October 13, 2023, and is redefining how advertisers interact with Kroger’s expansive base of consumers.
Easier for media buyers
KPM’s in-house platform is also focused on providing better tools for media buyers. The platform is designed to offer advanced automation and optimization capabilities that will make campaigns more efficient and data-driven. By using this platform, media buyers can easily reach the right audience, customize their messages, and fine-tune their campaigns — all in one place.
Integrated platform
KPM’s new platform will integrate with existing ad campaigns and eventually encompass all their retail media options. This interoperability makes migrating ongoing campaigns easy and minimizes disruptions to advertising efforts. In the long run, the platform will serve as the foundation for all KPM’s retail media services. Advertisers will have a one-stop solution for on-site and off-site media channels to ensure consistency and efficiency in retail media strategies.
KPM’s emerging retail media solutions demonstrate a commitment to advertisers and their changing needs in a shifting digital era.
Home Depot retail media
Home Depot, a well-known player in the home improvement retail industry, has made great strides in retail media. With an impressive annual customer transaction count of 1.7 billion and 3.6 billion visits to homedepot.com, their Retail Media+ platform provides advertisers with unparalleled visibility, reaching 198 million individual customers across 2,322 stores, according to their site. The benefits of Retail Media+ also include 24/7 self-service access to advertising portals, real-time reporting for campaign optimization, and dedicated support.
What Home Depot’s Retail Media+ does right
Home Depot’s Retail Media+ has set itself apart through strategic initiatives that prioritize enhancements to the shopper experience. Here’s a closer look at what makes Home Depot’s approach to RMN noteworthy:
- Seamless integration: Retail Media+ seamlessly integrates into the customer’s journey without disrupting their experience. The platform allows the delivery of targeted ads across various Home Depot-owned spaces, including the website, app, in-store, email, and offsite channels like social and video.
- Supplier-centric ad inventory: Home Depot allocates the majority of its RMN ad inventory to suppliers. This ensures the ads presented to customers align closely with the products available at Home Depot for a natural connection between onsite and in-store experiences.
- Customer-centric approach: Melanie Babcock, Vice President of Retail Media+ and Monetization at The Home Depot, emphasizes maintaining a customer-centric perspective. The goal is not merely to monetize the website but to enhance the customer journey by incorporating suppliers into the process. This approach contributes to a more personalized and relevant shopping experience.
- Exploration of offsite opportunities: Home Depot is actively exploring opportunities to expand its RM+ platform beyond onsite channels. Initiatives include piloting in-store video screens and venturing into connected TV (CTV). By considering the entire customer journey, Home Depot aims to provide value to suppliers while gaining deeper insights into customer behavior.
- Strategic use of data science: With the help of data scientists, Home Depot ensures personalized precision in its advertising efforts. This aligns with the shopper’s preferences and needs and makes the ads more relevant and engaging.
- Ongoing adaptation and expansion: Home Depot’s proactive stance is evident in its continuous efforts to adapt and expand its RMN initiatives. The exploration of offsite channels, partnerships with platforms like Roku and Disney Advertising, and the piloting of in-store video screens showcase a commitment to staying at the forefront of evolving digital retail trends.
Home Depot’s success with their RMN stems from its commitment to creating a symbiotic relationship between customers, suppliers, and the retail brand. Home Depot has set a benchmark for RMNs by aligning advertising efforts with the customer’s journey and embracing technological advancements.
Amazon retail media
Amazon Advertising, the retail media division of Amazon, has become another dominant force in the industry. Let’s take a quick look at what they’ve done well and what they could improve.
Scale of Amazon’s retail media
In 2022, eMarketer estimated that Amazon commanded a 76.9% share of retail digital media spend, blowing its competitors out of the water. Walmart, the second-largest player, trailed far behind with a 6.1% share. This underscores Amazon’s unparalleled influence and market presence in the digital advertising landscape and solidifies its position as the go-to platform for advertisers looking to reach a massive audience.
What works for Amazon
Amazon has an unmatched advantage when it comes to personalizing ads and delivering relevant content to consumers. With over 200 million Prime members in the U.S. alone, Amazon has access to vast amounts of valuable data that spans shopping habits, preferences, and more. This data is invaluable for advertisers looking to target their audiences with precision, and it gives Amazon a significant edge in the market.
What needs to change
Although Amazon continues to thrive, there’s always room for improvement. For instance, to attract brand dollars, traditional retailers are starting to concentrate on channels where Amazon has less historical dominance, such as in-store experiences and email marketing. Understanding this potential, Amazon has been experimenting with email tools to enhance merchant-audience connections and widen its reach. As ad sales’ profitability becomes more significant, incorporating these offerings into Amazon’s retail media strategy could further strengthen its market position.
Walmart retail media
Walmart has been working hard to become a more dominant retail media force. Walmart Connect, the retailer’s retail media network, has done an excellent job bridging the gap between online and in-store activities. It provides a unique closed-loop system that connects online and in-store activity on an unprecedented scale. This mechanism offers advertisers a comprehensive view of Walmart customers’ behavior, giving them valuable insights and measurable business results. With this closed-loop approach, advertisers can access a holistic view of customer activity and achieve successful marketing campaigns.
How Walmart ties together online and in-store activities
Walmart’s massive brick-and-mortar presence and its comprehensive online platform provide a complete view of customer behavior and preferences. This synergy between the digital and physical is a compelling selling point for advertisers that gives them a holistic view of consumer interactions. Walmart’s connected shopping experience integrates both online and in-store activities, allowing advertisers to engage with customers from the research stage to the online or in-store purchase stage of the buying journey.
New features and technology Walmart’s retail media platform is trying
As part of their innovative initiatives, Walmart Connect introduced the “Holiday Hub,” recognizing Walmart as America’s go-to holiday shopping destination. Advertisers can use this hub to gain key customer insights and implement product best practices to ensure a meaningful omnichannel connection during the holiday season.
In terms of new features and technology, Walmart Connect provides various advertising options to help brands stand out from the crowd:
- The Search feature ensures visibility when customers actively search for products, with ads appearing prominently in search results and on browse pages.
- Display ads, strategically placed on Walmart.com, the Walmart app, and across the web, aim to make a premium impression on customers based on their omnichannel Walmart history.
- For in-store influence, Walmart Connect offers opportunities to inspire shoppers through digital TV and point-of-purchase screens across 4,700+ Walmart stores.
- Walmart’s closed-loop measurement uniquely enables advertisers to correlate online ads with purchases, providing unparalleled scale and accuracy in measuring campaign impact.
Whether for a small business or a global brand, Walmart Connect offers solutions to help marketers discover new and effective ways to connect with their target audience.
The future of RMNs
The future of retail media networks (RMNs) is bright and holds exciting possibilities. These five key dynamics will likely drive retail media evolution:
Smaller retailers getting into the RMN game
With each passing day, more small brands are becoming active with RMNs. This trend is highly beneficial, bringing diversity, competition, expanded reach, and collaborative potential to the landscape. The future of RMNs is expected to be shaped by a mix of established and emerging brands. This will create an inclusive environment for advertisers and consumers alike.
Potential for cross-platform campaigns
Cross-platform campaigns in RMNs allow advertisers to create a cohesive, impactful, and data-driven advertising approach across different retail media networks. This shift in campaign strategy aligns with the dynamic nature of consumer interactions in the digital landscape, as it provides a comprehensive solution for brands that seek to enhance their presence and influence across diverse channels.
Targeted vs. personalized ads
Personalized ads are becoming a notable trend in RMNs and replacing targeted ads. This means RMNs now provide consumers with more relevant and tailored content based on their interests and preferences. The shift is driven by the increasing demand for personalization and the need to improve the consumer shopping experience. RMN advertisers must take advantage of these personalized ad opportunities to create stronger brand awareness.
Conversions vs. brand awareness
Advertisers often struggle when deciding whether to focus more on conversions or brand awareness. For a well-rounded strategy, RMN advertisers should craft campaigns that balance these two goals. Using the data and insights from RMNs, advertisers can personalize their messaging to drive sales and build and reinforce brand recognition. This approach can help RMN advertisers make brand awareness a central component of their advertising efforts.
Third-party data integration to enhance data and audiences
As RMNs evolve, data expansion is essential for targeted, personalized, and contextually relevant advertising experiences and will help drive the future success of retail media. Advertisers using third-party data, in particular, can unlock new dimensions in audience targeting to create more tailored and impactful campaigns. Third-party data allows for a broader understanding of customer behaviors and preferences and facilitates relevant content delivery.
Data insights for more connected, tailored advertising
Moving forward, it will also be important for advertisers to achieve a consistent view across online, app, and in-store activities. They need to understand where customers prefer to be reached and where they are most likely to engage so they can ensure a strategic alignment of messaging and optimize the effectiveness of their retail media strategies. The future of RMNs lies in using comprehensive data insights for more connected and personalized advertising.
What about AI? Where is it useful?
In the retail media context, AI (Artificial Intelligence) enhances advertisers’ capabilities by providing valuable insights and automation to drive more effective and personalized ad campaigns. AI helps analyze vast amounts of data, predict consumer behavior, and empower advertisers with the tools to optimize their strategies. Ultimately, it helps them deliver more tailored, relevant content to consumers that best aligns with their interests and preferences.
Humans still needed to drive change
While AI is a critical technology in retail media, it doesn’t replace the need for human expertise. People are still essential for driving change, making strategic decisions, and ensuring AI-driven solutions align with business objectives. Moving forward, advertisers will need to utilize both AI-driven capabilities and human expertise to see the greatest success.
A connected customer identity is the key to success
The future of advertising lies in the seamless integration of customer identity across various touchpoints. Experian’s cutting-edge solutions are leading the way in this transformation. We can help businesses navigate this dynamic environment with helpful tools that unlock a comprehensive view of audiences and facilitate effective campaigns across multiple channels.
Partner with Experian to achieve retail media success
Experian’s comprehensive data and identity solutions can help RMNs maximize their opportunity, with our new solution tailored to enhance RMNs’ strength in first-party shopper data. Experian’s solution helps RMNs unlock expanded customer insights, enriched audiences for activation, identity resolution for cross-channel audience targeting, and real-time measurement and attribution. This comprehensive solution is designed to help RMNs capture more advertising revenue. Our goal is to ensure you capture the most advertising dollars and make your RMN operate at its peak performance.
Our Consumer Sync solutions can connect customers across multiple touchpoints and channels, specifically bridging the gap between online and in-store to ensure a holistic view and strategy for audiences, campaigns, and performance. With access to over 2,500 frequently updated data points, we have the depth and breadth of data needed to supplement your audience strategy. We’ll help you unlock a broad view of your audiences to see well-rounded profiles, gain the reach required to access your audience across multiple channels, and turn opportunities into revenue. Additionally, our Consumer View solutions can help deepen your understanding of your customers, their behaviors, and campaign success.
Connect with a member of our team today to get started.
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At Experian, we understand the importance of audience targeting when it comes to crafting a successful marketing campaign. We are excited to share a curated list of audience recommendations to support your campaign planning so you can confidently connect with your audience. What separates Experian’s syndicated audiences Experian’s 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, programmatic advertising platforms, and directly within Audigent for activation within private marketplaces (PMPs). Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes. Access to unique audiences through Experian’s Partner Audiences available on Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for activation in PMPs and directly on platforms like DirectTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk. New and improved audience segments we recommend for Q1 campaigns Q1 is the ultimate season for TV, with the NFL playoffs, Super Bowl, College Football playoffs, award shows and so much more capturing viewers’ attention. That’s why we're excited to introduce 14 new and 8 updated television audiences. Recently released on major platforms, these new television audiences offer unique opportunities to align your campaign planning with the latest viewer behavior trends. Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers Satellite Service Subscribers Mutli Brand TV Owners Seasonal audiences for Q1 New Year’s audiences As the new year approaches, it’s the ideal moment to connect with consumers inspired by their New Year’s resolutions. In 2024, one-third of U.S. adults set goals for the year, focusing on key areas like healthier living, getting organized, exploring new experiences, and improving financial wellness. Experian’s New Year’s resolution audiences provide valuable insights into these aspirations, allowing you to tailor your messaging and engage with consumers determined to make positive changes in 2025. From promoting healthy lifestyles and travel to supporting organization and financial goals, Experian’s data-driven solutions help you capture these motivated audiences with precisely targeted messaging. Learn more here Football audiences Football season presents an unmatched opportunity for brands to connect with one of the most engaged audiences in the U.S. As in-game ad costs continue to rise and slots fill up quickly, brands are seeking innovative ways to reach passionate football viewers beyond the game. Experian’s specialized football audience segments allow advertisers to engage with fans across categories like NFL stadium visitors, college football enthusiasts, beer drinkers, and dedicated TV viewers, ensuring your brand connects meaningfully with consumers throughout the season. Read more here Financial audiences With tax season just around the corner, brands have the opportunity to connect with financially engaged audiences in the U.S. Whether your goal is to reach self-starters managing their own returns or high-net-worth individuals seeking advanced tax solutions, Experian can ensure your brand connects meaningfully with the right financial audience at the right time. Experian’s specialized financial audience segments empower brands to engage with key groups, such as: Tax Return – Self prepare user Tax Return – Online tax software user Tax Return – Professional Service Preparer user Savvy Sounding-Board Seeking Investor Price Sensitive, Self-Directed Investor Top recommendations for Q1 Based on the top Experian audiences activated in Q1 of 2024, our top 10 list is designed to assist agencies and media buyers plan data-driven advertising campaigns. Occupation 1) Small Business Owners: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be small business owners. 2) Military – Inactive: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be inactive in the military. 3) Legal/Education and Health Practitioners: This segment contains consumers who are likely to have an occupation in Legal/Education and Health Practitioner. 4) Technical: Computers/Math and Architect/Engineering: This segment contains consumers who are likely to have an occupation in Computers/Math and Architect/Engineering. Consumer Lifestyles 5) Vacation/Leisure Travelers: Weekend Getaways: This segment contains consumers who are likely high spenders or frequent purchasers of weekend getaway travel. 6) Women's Sleepwear and Lingerie: High Spenders: This segment contains consumers who are likely high spenders at women's sleepwear and lingerie stores (e.g., Soma, Victoria's Secret). 7) Smart Investors: This segment contains consumers who are likely actively seeking out as much information about an investment as possible before committing, shopping around for the best investment deal, and aversion to financial debt. 8) Computers/Software Frequent Spenders: This segment contains consumers who are likely frequent spenders of computer software. Life Events 9) New Movers: High Spenders: This segment contains consumers who are likely new mover high spenders. 10) New Parents: Child Aged 0-36 Months: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be new parents for children aged 0-36 months. You can find the complete audience segment name in the appendix. Activate the right audiences with Experian For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide. Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice. Connect with our audience team Contact us Appendix Here are the complete audience segment names (taxonomy paths) for all audience segments discussed in this blog post. TV Audiences Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Discount Holiday Shoppers Television (TV) > Brand Owners > Multi Brand TV Owners Financial Audiences Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Financial Behavior > Tax Return – Self prepare user Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Financial Behavior > Online Tax Software user Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Financial Behavior > Tax Return –Professional Service Prepare user Financial Personalities > Investments Financial Personality > Savvy Sounding-Board Seeking Investor, Average Investable Assets Financial Personalities > Investments Financial Personality > Price Sensitive, Self-Directed Investor, Very High Investable Assets Occupation Consumer Behaviors > Occupation: Small Business Owners Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Occupation > Military – Inactive Demographics > Occupation > Professional: Legal/Education and Health Practitioners Demographics > Occupation > Technical: Computers/Math and Architect/Engineering Consumer Lifestyles Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Travel > Vacation/Leisure Travelers: Weekend Getaways Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Apparel > Women's Apparel (Clothing): Women's Sleepwear and Lingerie: High Spenders Financial Behavior > Smart Investors Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Technology/Telecom > Computers/Software Frequent Spenders Life Events Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Shopping Behavior > New Movers: High Spenders Life Events > New Parents > Child Age 0-36 Months Latest posts
The advertising ecosystem has seen significant transformation over the past few years, with increased privacy regulation, changes in available signals, and the rise of channels like connected TV and retail media. These changes are impacting the way that consumers interact with brands and how brands understand and continue to deliver relevant messages to consumers with precision. Experian has been helping marketers navigate these changes, and as a result, our marketing data and identity solutions underpin much of today’s advertising industry. We’re committed to empowering marketers and agencies to understand and reach their target audiences, across all channels. Today, we are excited to announce our acquisition of Audigent—a leading data and activation platform in the advertising industry. With Audigent’s combination of first-party publisher data, inventory and deep supply-side distribution relationships, publishers, big and small, can empower marketers to better understand their customers, expand the reach of their target audiences and activate those audiences across the most impactful inventory. I am excited to bring together Audigent’s supply-side network as a natural extension to our existing demand-side capabilities. Audigent’s ability to combine inventory with targeted audiences using first-party, third-party and contextual signals provides the best of all worlds, allowing marketers to deliver campaigns centered on consumer choices, preferences, and behaviors. The addition of Audigent further strengthens our strategy to be the premier independent provider of marketing data and identity, ultimately creating more relevant experiences for consumers. To learn more about Experian and Audigent, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/ and https://audigent.com/. Contact us
Retail media has been on everyone’s radar for a while. Commerce media has also established itself as a significant player in the AdTech industry over the past few years. While retail media focuses on engaging customers within a retailer’s ecosystem, commerce media goes beyond these boundaries to capture the entire shopping journey, spanning multiple touchpoints, channels, and platforms.But what is commerce media, and why should we care? Commerce media is here to stay Estimated to hit $33.86 billion this year and more than double by 2028, the hunt is on to capture as much of retail media’s projected ad spend as possible. However, given the numerous verticals expanding their retail media strategy to include any touchpoint within the commerce channel, it might be time to lower the retail media flag and hoist the LUMA dubbed "commerce media flag." So why are Travel, Financial Services, and other verticals focusing on the commerce media ship? Authenticated and digital users (usually app-driven) Consented data that provides unique insight into the household’s or consumer’s intent/purchase behavior Emerging focus on advertising as an important revenue stream for the future With all this “data” at their disposal — why is it not smooth sailing for commerce media to build an ad-supported business? What’s missing for them to acquire the lucrative billions efficiently and effectively? Why retail media networks are important Retail media networks (RMNs) are now a major tool for brands to connect with shoppers. These networks gather valuable data from customers who browse and shop on e-commerce sites and apps. What makes RMNs so powerful is that they allow brands to advertise directly to people who are already interested in buying, leading to more successful sales. For marketers, RMNs offer a clear way to reach potential customers and ensure their advertising dollars are well spent. But as competition grows and consumer habits change, these networks must keep improving. To stay ahead, brands will have to find new ways to use RMNs effectively, linking them with other parts of the commerce media world to unlock even greater results. Differences between building a loyalty program and developing ad products Loyalty programs are the backbone of commerce media networks; however, creating a loyalty program is much different than building an advertising product. It requires commerce companies to bring on additional people, technology, and partners to execute flawlessly. There are four areas to consider: 1. Organizing your data at scale To successfully build an ad-supported business at scale, data must be organized to initiate action (targeting and/or measurement). However, this requires changes in company culture. Both the business and technology infrastructure must be updated. Additionally, commerce media companies must update their mindset around creating and selling products. 2. People We have seen this story before, with large opportunities comes the requirement for new talent. Where are we seeing commerce media companies recruit from? AdTech and MarTech. Whether it’s engineers or data scientists, business development and partnership leads, or even your direct sales team, the poaching has begun. To build a successful business around advertising, experts are needed who can navigate the waters. 3. Partner vs. build The Requests for Information (RFIs) and Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for any combination of agency, demand-side platform, supply-side platform, customer data platform, identity graph, clean room, and beyond are piling up. One trend is clear: commerce media companies are looking for collaborative partners to provide a true strategic partnership to take on the complexities of the transition away from retail media. 4. Identity will remain the keystone to success All commerce media companies have some identity data that reveals a slice of their customers’ viewpoint. Yet, unlocking the broad view of these audiences is crucial to success. These companies need to use the “full pie” to see well-rounded profiles, gain the reach required to access them across many channels, and turn opportunities into revenue. Advertisers can finally close the loop with commerce media networks Commerce media companies with real-time transaction data enable advertisers to see true ROI on their ad spend when products move off the shelves. Measuring real product lift/sale touch points across multiple channels will put performance and measurement front and center. Programmatic was the promise of performance advertising. Well, commerce media may finally fulfill that vow, creating enough value for companies to make it a real competitor to social channels. While retail media will always exist, the transition to commerce media has become increasingly popular and is here to stay. The journey might not be a straight shot to perfect results, but the data, partnerships, and resources are out there and ready to hop aboard to help guide commerce media companies to success. The future of commerce media Commerce media shows no signs of slowing down. More industries are seeing the benefit of making every customer touchpoint an opportunity to drive sales. Whether through social media shopping or in-app purchases, commerce media pushes businesses to create smoother, more connected shopping experiences for consumers. In the future, brands won’t just compete on prices or products — they’ll stand out by offering simple, seamless shopping experiences across all devices. With better data and tools to track consumer behavior, brands will be able to personalize their ads and measure their success in real time. Commerce media allows brands to see a direct link between their ads and sales. Those who can adapt and keep up with these changes will come out on top. Create a connected customer view with Experian At Experian, we empower RMNs to unlock the full potential of their first-party data through comprehensive identity and audience solutions. Our data-driven capabilities enable RMNs to build a deeper understanding of their customers, optimize audience targeting across channels, and create enriched, actionable segments that drive measurable outcomes. By seamlessly connecting our offline and digital data, we help RMNs organize identities into households, device IDs, and more. Each household is enriched with valuable marketing insights, allowing you to gain better customer understanding, create targeted advertising, and reach the right customers across different devices. Additionally, you’ll be able to measure the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. With our support, RMNs can maximize revenue opportunities, extend reach, and confidently demonstrate the value of the network to advertisers. Contact us today to find out how Experian can help you succeed in commerce media. Contact us Latest posts