What is a retail media network?
A retail media network (RMN) is a retailer's advertising business: the platform, data and sales team that let brands buy ads on the retailer's digital properties and beyond, targeted with the retailer's shopper data and measured against sales. Examples include Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Target's Roundel, Kroger Precision Marketing and Tesco's dunnhumby-powered offerings.
A retail media network turns first-party purchase data into an ad product with high margins, which is why so many retailers, banks, travel firms and delivery apps launched one. Advertisers struggle with fragmentation: each network has its own buying tools, metrics and definitions.
Industry groups including the IAB and MRC have issued retail media measurement guidelines to improve consistency. Buyers should ask how incremental sales are measured, whether incrementality tests are offered, and how off-site retail media inventory is sourced.