Retail media has undergone a profound transformation over the past decade. What once was a niche, retailer-driven capability focused on driving sales within commerce platforms has now become one of the most powerful tools in the marketing ecosystem.
In its early days, retail media was largely viewed as a tactic— siloed from the broader brand strategy and often executed by shopper marketing teams who were driven by the end goal — an increase in sales. Media placements were confined to in-store signage, later to include display tactics like paid search and banner ads on retailer websites, and success was measured narrowly in terms of return on ad spend (ROAS) with the hopes to measure incremental sales.
Read more in MediaPost.