This is why retail media is attracting growing attention from brands, agencies and platforms. As privacy regulation, cookie restrictions and fragmented customer journeys make traditional targeting harder, retailers have something many media owners do not: first-party data connected directly to real purchasing behaviour. In Europe, retail media grew by 16.7% in 2025 to reach €13.3 billion, passing 10% of total digital ad spend, according to IAB Europe’s AdEx Benchmark 2025 report. (IAB Europe) WARC also forecasts that global retail media spend will reach $196.7 billion in 2026, a level that places it ahead of combined linear and connected TV spend. (warc.com)
The reason is clear. Advertising is moving closer to the point of purchase.
Retailers are sitting on the data brands need
For years, digital advertising depended heavily on third-party data, platform signals and audience targeting systems that allowed brands to reach users across the open web. That model has become more complicated. Privacy laws, consumer scrutiny, browser restrictions and platform changes have made addressability harder and measurement less straightforward. EMARKETER’s digital privacy trends for 2026 highlight that marketers now have to navigate a more complex environment around data use, compliance, addressability and brand safety. (EMARKETER)
Retailers operate from a different position. A supermarket knows what customers buy regularly, which categories they explore, which offers convert, which products are added to basket, which brands are substituted and which campaigns lead to actual sales. A marketplace knows what users search for, compare, save, abandon and purchase. An e-shop may know not only who clicked an ad, but whether that user eventually bought the promoted product or a competitor’s alternative.
This is the strategic value of retail media. It does not rely only on inferred interest. It connects advertising to commerce behaviour.
From shelf space to media inventory
The logic behind retail media is not entirely new. Supermarkets have always monetized visibility. Brands paid for better shelf placement, promotional stands, in-store displays, catalogues and end-of-aisle exposure because they understood that attention near the buying moment was valuable. Retail media is the digital evolution of that same logic, but with more precise targeting, more measurable outcomes and more scalable inventory.
Today, the digital shelf includes sponsored product listings, search placements, display ads, personalized recommendations, homepage takeovers, category sponsorships, loyalty app placements, email promotions, in-store screens, connected TV extensions and off-site advertising powered by retailer data. In this environment, the retailer becomes both a sales channel and a media owner. The same platform that hosts the transaction can also sell the attention that influences it.
This changes the relationship between brands and retailers. A supermarket is no longer only a distribution partner. A marketplace is no longer only a place where products are listed. An e-shop is no longer only a conversion destination. Each one can become a media platform with its own audience, inventory, data and measurement logic.
Why brands are shifting budgets
Retail media appeals to brands because it promises something many other channels struggle to deliver: proximity to purchase. A social media campaign may create awareness, a video ad may influence perception and a search campaign may capture intent, but retail media often appears at the moment when the customer is already browsing, comparing or buying.
This is especially valuable for FMCG, beauty, consumer electronics, home goods, fashion, pharmacy, food delivery and any category where purchase decisions happen frequently inside retailer environments. A brand can reach users while they are searching for a category, while they are reviewing options or while they are about to add a product to their basket. The opportunity is not only awareness, but intervention at the decision point.
IAB Europe’s 2025 Attitudes to Retail Media report notes that buy-side growth is being fuelled by first-party data activation, point-of-sale reach and emerging channels, while buyers prioritize transparency, performance and measurement options when evaluating retail media partners. (IAB Europe) This explains why retail media is not just another advertising format. It is a performance, data and commerce proposition combined.
The measurement advantage and its limits
One of the strongest arguments for retail media is closed-loop measurement. In theory, the same ecosystem that serves the ad can also track whether the user bought the product. For advertisers under pressure to prove return on investment, this is extremely attractive. Retail media can connect impressions, clicks, baskets and sales in ways that many upper-funnel channels cannot.
However, this advantage should not be exaggerated. Retail media also creates new complexity. Every retailer may use different dashboards, attribution windows, reporting standards, audience definitions and performance metrics. A brand running campaigns across multiple supermarkets, marketplaces and e-shops may quickly face a fragmented measurement environment where results are difficult to compare.
There is also the question of incrementality. A campaign may show strong ROAS, but marketers still need to understand whether the advertising created new demand or simply captured sales that would have happened anyway. As retail media matures, the challenge will not be whether it can produce attractive numbers, but whether it can prove meaningful business impact beyond short-term sales activation.
First-party data is powerful, but not complete
Retail media’s rise is often linked to first-party data, but this does not mean retailer data gives a complete view of the customer. A retailer may understand purchase behaviour inside its own ecosystem, but it does not necessarily see the full journey across awareness, consideration, competitor research, offline influence, social discovery or brand preference formation.
This is why retail media should not be treated as a replacement for broader marketing strategy. EMARKETER has warned that the limitations of first-party data in retail media will become unavoidable in 2026, noting that retailer datasets capture only part of the customer journey and may need to be enriched through privacy-compliant data partnerships. (EMARKETER) The value of retail media is significant, but it becomes stronger when connected to brand strategy, content, CRM, search, social, creative planning and customer experience.
For brands, the question is not simply whether to invest in retail media. The more important question is how retail media fits into the wider marketing ecosystem.
Retail media changes the role of the marketer
The growth of retail media requires marketers to think differently about channel planning. It is no longer enough to separate brand awareness, performance marketing and retail activation into completely disconnected areas. The customer does not experience the journey that way. A person may discover a brand on TikTok, compare it on Google, see it promoted inside a supermarket app, buy it through a marketplace and later receive a loyalty offer through CRM.
This means the modern marketer needs to understand not only media buying, but commerce behaviour, data partnerships, customer journeys, measurement quality and creative adaptation across retail environments. Retail media is not just about placing ads near products. It is about understanding how attention, availability, pricing, promotion, product content and trust interact at the moment of decision.
A strong retail media strategy therefore needs more than budget allocation. It needs clear objectives, strong creative assets, optimized product content, consistent brand positioning, platform-specific planning and an honest view of what each channel can and cannot measure.
The role of The Design Agency
The Design Agency helps businesses approach shifts like retail media as part of a broader digital and commercial strategy, not as isolated trends. In a landscape where supermarkets, marketplaces and e-shops increasingly operate as media platforms, brands need partners who understand how marketing, design, content, data and customer experience connect.
Through consulting, digital strategy, content architecture, creative direction and performance-oriented thinking, The Design Agency supports businesses in evaluating where retail media fits within their wider marketing ecosystem. This includes clarifying the customer journey, strengthening product and brand presentation, developing campaign assets that work across commerce environments and ensuring that retail media activity does not operate separately from the brand’s broader communication strategy.
The marketer’s role is no longer static. It requires continuous learning, adaptation and the ability to interpret new channels before they become mainstream expectations. The Design Agency helps clients stay informed, understand emerging opportunities and make strategic decisions that connect visibility with measurable business value.
Retail media is not only a media trend
Retail media is growing because it sits at the intersection of advertising, commerce, data and customer experience. It gives retailers a new revenue stream, brands a more purchase-oriented media channel and marketers a way to reach consumers closer to the moment of decision. At the same time, it introduces new challenges around transparency, measurement, data quality, platform dependence and strategic integration.
The businesses that benefit most will not be those that simply move budget into every available retail media network. They will be the ones that understand where retail media creates genuine value, how it supports the wider brand journey and how it can be measured without losing sight of long-term growth.
Supermarkets, marketplaces and e-shops are becoming media platforms because customer attention has moved closer to commerce. For brands, the opportunity is significant. The challenge is to treat retail media not as another advertising slot, but as a strategic layer in the modern customer journey.
