Retail & commerce · also called RMN
Retail media network (RMN)
A retail media network (RMN) is a retailer's advertising business, including its ad inventory, shopper data, ad technology and sales team, that sells ads to brands on and off the retailer's properties.
An RMN packages everything a retailer needs to sell ads: inventory (site search, product pages, apps, in-store screens, email), audiences built from purchase and loyalty data, targeting and measurement tools, and a self-serve platform or managed service for brands and agencies.
Some retailers build their own technology; many use partners for ad serving, sponsored-product auctions, off-site activation through DSPs, and clean rooms for privacy-safe matching. Examples span the world: Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect (which expanded into TV screens when Walmart acquired Vizio in 2024), Tesco's dunnhumby-powered media, Flipkart Ads in India, Mercado Ads in Latin America and Coupang Ads in South Korea.
For brands, the benefits are purchase data and closed-loop measurement; the frustrations are fragmentation, with each RMN having different metrics, attribution windows and tools, and the need to trust the retailer's own measurement. IAB and MRC guidelines aim to standardise this, and some networks now offer third-party verification.
Think of it like this
An RMN is like a shopping mall setting up its own advertising agency, selling space on its walls and using its knowledge of what shoppers buy.
An example
A European grocery chain's RMN offers brands on-site sponsored products, in-store screens and off-site social ads targeted to loyalty members, with sales measured by matching exposed members' receipts.
Related terms
Retail media
Retail media is advertising sold by retailers, on their own websites, apps and stores or elsewhere using their shopper data, letting brands reach customers close to the point of purchase.
Commerce media
Commerce media is advertising sold by any business with transaction or shopper data, such as retailers, delivery apps, travel sites, payment companies and banks, not only traditional retailers.
Closed-loop measurement
Closed-loop measurement links ad exposure directly to actual sales data for the same people, typically within a retailer or data owner, showing whether ads led to purchases.
Off-site retail media
Off-site retail media is advertising that uses a retailer's shopper data to target and measure ads outside the retailer's own properties, such as on the open web, social media or CTV.
Data clean room
A data clean room is a secure environment where companies combine and analyse their customer data together, getting aggregated insights or audiences without exposing each other's raw personal data.
Sources: IAB: retail media