Programmatic on‑site Retail Media is moving from concept to reality, reshaping how brands buy, how retailers monetise and how technology partners enable scale. We asked members of our Retail & Commerce Media Committee to share their views on what’s coming next, from data and privacy to interoperability, infrastructure and the shifting balance of power across the ecosystem.
A big thank you to the following contributors for sharing their thoughts:
Robert Kiessling, Data Partnerships Director, The Trade Desk
Paul Dahill, Managing Director, Sales EMEA, Koddi
Ollie Walls, Sr Director, Nexxen
Robert: "Programmatic on-site capabilities will fundamentally shift Retail Media from isolated, retailer-specific buying environments toward a more connected, scalable marketplace model. Today, power largely sits with retailers operating closed ecosystems. As programmatic standards emerge:
The balance of power will not disappear but rebalance toward those who can enable connectivity, transparency, and measurable outcomes at scale. Closed ecosystems will remain relevant, but open, interoperable approaches are likely to capture incremental growth due to superior scalability and advertiser alignment."
Paul: "Programmatic on-site capabilities are likely to reshape Retail Media by shifting it from a fragmented, retailer-by-retailer buying model toward a more integrated media channel that sits alongside display, video, CTV, and social in existing DSP workflows. Koddi’s research study, The State of Programmatic Retail Media, suggests that buyers see programmatic as a way to reduce operational friction and unlock scale: 80% view programmatic as key to solving fragmentation, and 96% of agencies and 92% of brands say they are open to buying on-site retail media through a DSP. The report also finds that eight in ten respondents say it would be easier to move more budget to DSP-enabled retailers, with nearly half saying it would drive a significant shift in spend.
In practical terms, that does suggest a shift in the balance of power, but not a simple transfer from retailers to ad tech. Brands and agencies would gain more leverage through easier access, more centralised activation, and the ability to compare retail media more directly with the rest of their media mix. At the same time, retailers would gain access to larger brands and full-funnel budgets that today sit outside traditional trade and shopper marketing allocations. The report is explicit that this can be done without retailers surrendering control, provided they preserve guardrails around data, exclusive formats, curated deals, and auction governance through a retail media-specific SSP.
So the likely outcome is less a loss of retailer power than a rebalancing of roles. Brands gain workflow simplicity and buying flexibility; retailers gain new demand and stronger monetisation opportunities; and ad tech partners become enabling infrastructure rather than owners of the retailer relationship."
Oliver: "Retailers will continue to hold a strong position given their proximity to the transaction and their ownership of high-quality, deterministic data. What changes is how that value is accessed. Programmatic introduces more fluid, auction-based buying, enabling brands to engage with retail media in a way that’s closer to the rest of the digital ecosystem, thus bringing greater flexibility, transparency and optimisation.
In this model, the combination of unique data and media becomes central. Retailers aren’t just inventory owners; they are curators of high-intent environments enriched by signals that can’t be replicated elsewhere. Programmatic makes those signals more actionable at scale."
Oliver: "First-party data is the foundation of on-site retail media, but its value increasingly depends on how it can be activated responsibly and at scale. As privacy expectations continue to tighten and evolve, the focus is shifting toward approaches that preserve the integrity of that data, such as clean rooms, cohort-based modelling and other privacy-enhancing technologies.
The real opportunity lies in connecting those privacy-safe signals to activation in a way that still captures intent. Retail environments naturally combine unique data (e.g., purchase behaviour, browsing patterns) with unique media moments (e.g. search, product pages, checkout). Brands that can operationalise this combination – and continue protecting user trust while enabling meaningful targeting and measurement – will be best positioned to drive sustainable, long-term growth."
Robert: "First-party data is the core asset underpinning on-site retail media, but its value can only be fully realised when it is activated in a privacy-safe, interoperable way.
Programmatic scaling depends on:
Without privacy-safe activation, first-party data remains confined to individual retailer silos, limiting its effectiveness. With it, first-party data becomes a scalable signal for cross-channel decisioning and full-funnel measurement."
Paul: "First-party data is central to making programmatic on-site Retail Media valuable at scale because it is what allows retailers to preserve the relevance and performance that differentiate retail media in the first place. Any move toward programmatic has to preserve what already makes the channel effective, namely first-party data, privacy, and relevant user experiences. It also identifies the ability to use first-party data for improved targeting as one of the most valued benefits of DSP-enabled on-site buying.
Scaling is possible with privacy-safe activation through retailer-controlled SSP infrastructure. Specifically audience targeting should allow retailers to route audience segments to DSPs via secure, permissioned signals, enabling retargeting, sequential messaging, and full-funnel strategies while preserving shopper privacy and on-site relevance. Clean room, CRM, and DSP integrations are all part of privacy-compliant attribution and measurement.
In other words, first-party data is not just an input; it is the asset that makes programmatic on-site Retail Media defensible. But scale only becomes sustainable if activation is privacy-safe and retailer-governed. Retailers need strict control over which advertisers can access their ecosystem, what signals are exposed in transactions, and how campaigns are approved and served. Without that, programmatic scale would risk undermining the trust and user experience that make onsite retail media effective in the first place."
Paul: "True on-site programmatic only works when retailers build for control first, not just access. That starts with infrastructure that can connect onsite inventory to DSP demand without breaking the retail experience: tight ad server and SSP orchestration, clear auction logic, SKU-level decisioning, durable merchandising controls, and measurement that can stand up to scrutiny. If the pipes are not built to preserve relevance, pacing, prioritisation, and creative quality, then programmatic will create noise instead of growth.
Just as important is the operating model around that infrastructure. Retailers need governance over who can buy, what can run, how pricing is managed, and when campaigns can be paused or adjusted. They also need teams and processes that connect monetisation, product, engineering, and merchandising, because onsite programmatic is not just an ad sales feature. It affects the shopper journey. The opportunity is real: Koddi’s research found that 96% of agencies and 92% of brands are open to buying onsite retail media through a DSP, and eight in ten said it would be easier to shift more budget to DSP-enabled retailers. But that demand only becomes sustainable when retailers have the technical discipline and operational guardrails to make programmatic feel native to the onsite experience rather than bolted onto it."
Robert: "For on-site programmatic to work at scale, retailers must establish a set of capabilities:
Technical foundations:
Operational foundations:
Without these elements, programmatic on-site remains fragmented and manual, limiting both advertiser adoption and revenue potential."
Oliver: "To realise the full potential of on-site programmatic, retailers need to move beyond simply automating existing placements and focus on three foundational elements: real-time infrastructure to support dynamic decisioning, integrations with programmatic demand and measurement platforms to ensure consistency at scale and a clear commercial model that defines how programmatic complements direct sales.
Perhaps most importantly, these elements need to work together. The ability to connect and activate data and media within a unified environment is what turns programmatic from a workflow into a performance driver. Without that connection, it risks becoming incremental automation rather than meaningful evolution.
When these foundations are aligned, though, retailers can unlock the full value of their environments -- making outcomes easier to drive, scale and measure."
Robert: "Standardisation and interoperability are the key unlocks for scaling demand in on-site retail media.
Today’s fragmentation creates friction:
Standardisation enables:
Interoperability extends this further by:
Together, they transform retail media from a set of isolated opportunities into a scalable, full-funnel channel — unlocking incremental budgets rather than redistributing existing spend."
Paul: "Standardisation and interoperability are what turn on-site Retail Media from a collection of one-off buys into a scalable media channel. Buyers do not want every retailer to feel identical, but they do want the basics to work in familiar ways: cleaner activation, more consistent workflows, comparable reporting, and the ability to manage retail media alongside the rest of the media mix. When those foundations are in place, on-site inventory becomes easier to plan, easier to buy, and easier to defend in front of broader brand and performance budgets.
The growth effect is straightforward. The less friction there is between retailer environments and the systems buyers already use, the easier it becomes to move dollars into the channel. Koddi’s research found that 80% of buyers view programmatic as key to solving fragmentation, and 49% said DSP access would encourage a significant shift of non-retail media budgets into retail media. That is why interoperability matters so much: it lowers the operational cost of buying, improves confidence in measurement, and helps retail media compete for larger, more strategic budgets. The retailers that win will be the ones that standardise the buying experience, where it helps buyers, while still protecting the data, formats, and shopper context that make their onsite environments valuable in the first place."
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.
