The Retail Media landscape is undergoing a rapid and fundamental shift. Once a quiet revenue stream, Retail Media Networks (RMNs) are now under intense pressure to scale, standardise, and prove their value to increasingly discerning advertisers. In this blog, members of our Retail & Commerce Media Committee share their perspectives on the biggest challenges and opportunities facing RMNs today. From mounting revenue expectations and measurement scrutiny to AI-driven innovation and the rise of programmatic access, they explore how retailers and brands are adapting to stay competitive.
A big thank you to the following contributors for sharing their thoughts:
Diana Abebrese, Global Retail Media Lead. Empathy Lab by EPAM
Deni Petrova, Commerce Strategy Lead, WPP Media
Maximilian Knorr, Retail Media Lead @Spark, Publicis Media
Emma Helsloot, Director Sales EMEA at Pentaleap
Diana - “RMNs are struggling to keep pace with both internal and external expectations. Retail Media has become a high-profile priority within most retailers, resulting in increasingly aggressive revenue targets. RMNs can no longer fly under the radar and continue to deliver incremental, unforecast revenue quarter on quarter. They need to unlock incremental revenues at scale from new budget sources if the “gold rush” is to continue. Brands and agencies, rightly or wrongly, are choosing RMNs who provide predictive audience targeting, full-funnel activation and transparent incrementality measurement, AND who are making it as easy as possible for them to plan and buy. The balance of power has firmly shifted back to the advertisers.”
Deni - “RMNs are becoming more scrutinised by brands and agencies. Inventory is saturated, and measurement is still all over the place. Smaller players are fighting for ad share while the giants dominate, and all are equally affected by internal silos that seem difficult to break down.
Leading brands are responding by becoming more selective about where to invest. They are pushing hard for transparency and seeking ways to understand the incrementality of Retail Media. They are not investing blindly anymore. The winners in this space treat Retail Media as a full-funnel media discipline that connects brand, shopper, and experience in one ecosystem.”
Max - “Pricing and transparency are uncomfortable topics of discussion, I know - it's a cat-and-mouse game where RMNs are chasing after incremental brand marketing investments but aren’t willing to forego the rate cards established in the old days of trade marketing. Leading brands and agencies have adapted by setting up the right frameworks to assess the incremental value promised by on-site & off-site Retail Media as a channel. We are finally reaching a tipping point where Retail Media CPMs and audience fees are inevitably compared to those of historical vendors and tech giants. RMNs will need to adapt in order to scale.”
Emma - “Retailers running media networks face mounting pressure to prove ROI, scale beyond trade budgets, and balance monetisation with a seamless shopper experience. As competition intensifies, advertisers are demanding standardised measurement, transparent reporting, and easier access through programmatic buying. Leading retailers are adapting by modernising their tech stacks to improve ad serving capabilities and connect with major ad tech platforms via RTB - turning Retail Media into a scalable, data-driven growth engine.”
Diana - “Rapid advances in AI technologies are finally enabling retailers to overcome legacy challenges around data, tech and operational complexity and start to deliver against industry expectations. We are seeing retailers, brands and agencies building their own AI-powered tools, such as Nectar 360’s Pollen, and off-the-shelf Retail Media platforms are increasingly embedding AI into their solutions. Common use cases include: omni-channel media planning and measurement, creative ad generation, real-time campaign optimisation and end-to-end campaign orchestration. Crucially, democratisation of Retail Media is starting with the integration of retailer inventory and data into agency and brand buying platforms. This will be a game-changer.
Deni - “One of the biggest opportunities for Retail Media I see lies in the creative and experiential space, not just the first-party data. Retailers shouldn't be looking for ways to sell more impressions, but for ways to turn retail environments into storytelling platforms.
Things like content-led commerce, brand storytelling inside retailer ecosystems, and shoppable inspiration that actually adds value to the shopper journey. There is so much in-store real estate that is still not maximised - self-scanning devices are a prime example.
There’s also a huge opportunity in how retailers use their data, collaborating with brands through clean rooms and shared insights to shape better campaigns, and even inform product development.”
Max - “I am very much looking forward to seeing self-service platforms grow and flourish. They are at the core of the Retail Media revolution. They are what get brands and agencies truly excited, to the point of creating entirely new Centre of Excellence (COE) teams around them. These platforms make RMNs more accessible and campaigns easier to plan, buy, optimise, and measure. I still see large parts of Retail Media assets outside of sponsored products being underutilised, and I believe programmatic media will ultimately create the necessary economies of scale for retailers' media networks of all sizes.”
Emma - “Most RMNs are still heavily reliant on trade budgets and struggle to tap into broader media budgets to scale their ad revenues. Real-Time Bidding (RTB) now presents a breakthrough opportunity: retailers will soon be able to programmatically access ad budgets from major demand sources like Google, Microsoft, and even Amazon. As walled gardens begin to open up, Retail Media is evolving into a true media play.”
Diana - “Most retailers I speak with embrace the concept of standardisation, as it allows them to simplify and streamline workflows and automate day-to-day campaign planning, activation and measurement tasks for both internal and external users. Automating and standardising 80% of their campaigns will drive profitability and revenue per head for the retailer - meaning they can refocus their client-facing teams onto more strategic initiatives. It is this shift in focus that will support long-term brand building and differentiation for the RMN - giving them the time and resources needed to co-create innovative full-funnel brand partnerships with their advertisers - hopefully resulting in valuable PR and award nominations.”
Deni - “We need to see more retailer-brand-agency collaboration, where everyone plans together and not in silos, aligning content, retail media, trade budgets and brand goals from the start. This means using data not just to optimise short-term, but to shape strategy and understand what drives brand preference long-term. When we connect the two, retail media becomes more than a performance lever. It supports brand equity, which still remains the most powerful driver of long-term sales.”
Max - “Ultimately, it is the responsibility of brand marketing and their agencies to find the right balance between the long and the short of it. Retailers can help us by first adhering to our measurement and viewability standards. Secondly, by opening their ad ecosystem to our dashboards and data clean rooms. Thirdly, by ensuring their media inventory can be easily added to our plans and bought as part of our existing operating systems. In the case of out-of-home, for example, we’d love to start planning outdoor, in-store and near-store consistently without needing three different workstreams.”
Diana - “Technology is moving fast, and is finally allowing Retail Media to deliver on its promise. The challenge is around adopting and implementing new technologies in a scalable, foundational manner so they can evolve with and adapt to continuing advancement. LLMs and conversational interfaces are becoming the norm very quickly. Real-time data-driven decisioning, personalisation and content generation, within open, multi-tenant environments, will open the doors to many new opportunities. RMNs and brands should ensure they are ready for the future with a focus on data quality, process optimisation and cross-team stakeholder engagement.”
Deni - “Using more technology in stores that adapts to real shopper needs could be a game-changer. For example, AI-driven personalisation and contextual displays that change based on time of day, weather or footfall. If done well, this kind of personalisation can make retail feel alive and ensure shoppers notice what's in front of them - unlike the static above-the-aisle, or sticker on the floor displays that still dominate the shop floors.”
Max - “Agency executives often joke about seeing innovation in online media twice a week and in offline media once in a good year. Similarly, I believe there’s still tremendous opportunity for transformation in-store, in the physical world, where most people still shop today. I am particularly excited about digital screens and connected stores and the breadth of new targeting and measurement capabilities they will open to advertisers. Self-serve platforms have the potential to completely redefine how in-store media is currently being planned and booked.”
Our Retail & Commerce Media Committee is at the forefront of the Retail Media industry. Members are driving Retail Media growth and shaping the landscape by:
All of the work of the Committee can be found in our Retail Media Hub here.
Find out more about our work and how you can get involved by contacting Marie-Clare Puffett - puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
