A Guide to Retail Media Networks: What They Are and Why They Matter

In the fast-evolving world of digital marketing, retail media networks (RMNs) have emerged as a game-changer. These advertising platforms enable retailers to sell ad space on their digital properties—websites, apps, and even in-store screens—to third-party brands. This innovative approach helps brands reach targeted audiences while capitalizing on the growing trend of online shopping.

In this guide, we’ll explore what retail media networks are, why they’re important, and how they can help businesses grow in a competitive digital landscape.

What Are Retail Media Networks?

Retail media networks are platforms where retailers offer ad opportunities, similar to traditional media outlets like TV networks or publishers. The key difference? Retail media leverages the retailer's proprietary first-party data to provide brands with highly relevant advertising opportunities.

Retail media can be divided into two primary categories:

1. On-Site Advertising: Ads placed directly on the retailer’s website, app, or in physical stores. For example, Amazon’s Sponsored Products are a classic on-site retail media format.
2. Off-Site Advertising: Ads served on third-party platforms, such as social media or external websites, using the retailer’s first-party data to target audiences effectively.

While on-site advertising is more straightforward, off-site retail media is growing, offering brands extended reach and richer insights.

Why Retail Media Networks Are Gaining Momentum

The rise of online shopping has turned retailers into powerful advertising platforms. Consumers increasingly rely on digital channels for discovery and purchasing, making retail media a critical avenue for brands to engage shoppers.

Key reasons retail media is essential include:

• Reaching Shoppers Where They Are: Retail media places brands in front of consumers already in a buying mindset.
• Leveraging First-Party Data: With privacy changes limiting the use of third-party cookies, first-party insights from retail media networks are invaluable.
• Closed-Loop Measurement: Brands can track the journey from ad engagement to purchase, enabling precise ROI analysis.

How Retail Media Networks Operate

At its core, a retail media network allows brands to buy ad space across a retailer’s digital ecosystem. Advanced networks also partner with external platforms to expand ad inventory. This structure creates a seamless loop where shoppers discover, engage with, and purchase products—all within an ecosystem that benefits both the retailer and the advertiser.

For example, a retailer might sell ad placements on its website, promoting a brand's products to shoppers actively searching for similar items. For more advanced campaigns, the retailer might use its customer data to serve targeted ads on social media or streaming platforms, extending the brand's reach.

Benefits of Retail Media Networks

Retail media networks deliver advantages for retailers, brands, and consumers alike:

1. For  Brands: some text
    
   • Targeted Reach: Ads appear to shoppers likely to be interested in the product, based on browsing and purchase history.
   • First-Party Insights: Brands gain valuable data to refine campaigns and product offerings.
   • Linking Spend to Sales: The ability to track consumer behaviour from ad engagement to purchase supports smarter budgeting and inventory planning
 
2. For Consumers: some text
    
   • Relevant Suggestions: Ads often align with shoppers’ needs, helping them discover new brands or products.
 
3. For Retailers: some text
    
   • New Revenue Streams: Retailers monetize their digital platforms, turning them into powerful profit centres.

On-Site vs. Off-Site Retail Media

While the bulk of retail media today focuses on on-site opportunities—such as promoted listings or display ads on retailer websites—off-site activations are rapidly growing. By combining first-party data with external channels like connected TV (CTV) and social media, brands can engage broader audiences while retaining precise targeting and measurement capabilities.

As Jeffrey Bustos, VP of Measurement, Addressability, and Data at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), notes:
"This year, we’ll see significant investment in off-site activations, especially in CTV and social commerce, where closed-loop measurement remains key."

Retail Media Networks: A Growing Landscape

The retail media market is booming. Research by Bain &Company predicts ad spend in the retail media space will grow to $25 billion by2023. Additionally, McKinsey reports that 75% of non-CPG advertisers plan to increase their retail media investments, underlining the value brands see in these platforms.

IAB Australia suggests that first-party data: The key to the future

As global privacy regulations tighten and third-party cookies phase out, first-party data is becoming critical. LeRoy sees RMNs as avital player in this new landscape.

“Retailers who build transparent, privacy-compliant relationships with consumers have a huge advantage,” she said. “Strong first-party data allows them to offer marketers an effective, addressable media option.”

Challenges to overcome

Despite its potential, the RMN sector in Australia isn’t without its hurdles. The IAB Australia Retail Media State of the Nation report identified three key challenges for brands:

1. Measurement and reporting remain inconsistent.
2. The supplier-retailer relationship can be complex.
3. Perceived costs of partnering with RMNs are high.

Where AdFixus helps retail media networks

Targeting Audiences on Premium Publishers

One of the biggest issues is that though retailers have a significant level of authenticated users and thus PII level first-party data.Most publishers do not.

For Retail Media Networks looking to offer off-site targeting that is not just within social channels and looking to target and reach audiences that are outside of social walled gardens - this is where AdFixus comes in. [VR1] 

As we provide a first-party anonymous link to the largest media publishers in the Australian market. Many businesses are working with a retail media network and looking to leverage their audience and conversion data for campaign targeting to uplift sales – yet lack the link for their anonymous audiences.

Measurement and Attribution

As an example, to demonstrate:

• A spirit manufacturer wants to promote their top shelf whiskey
• They rarely advertise this directly to customers as it very hard to track and measure attribution when they do not sell directly but through retailers
• The spirit manufacturer is very interested in using the data of say a leading retailer of alcoholic brands to run campaigns on behalf of the spirit manufacturer onsite and offsite into publishers.
• These campaigns use the data available on hand to segment and create audiences to target- these campaigns push people back onto the retailer’s website where a user can buy online
• AdFixus acts as the bridge for the ID sync across the retailer media network and the premium publishers - we will provide a round trip first party reporting as the buys goes between the two sites. If the spirit manufacturer also has     first-party data to share into the RMN and then onto the publisher this can also be facilitated to increase targeting and reporting.
• As AdFixus has no degradation of data visibility from any browser we can facilitate complete end to end reporting and attribution on these campaigns from investment to sales.

Conclusion

Retail media networks are revolutionizing the advertising landscape by creating a powerful ecosystem where brands, retailers, and shoppers all benefit. With access to first-party data, precise targeting, and advanced measurement tools, RMNs are becoming an essential part of any marketer’s toolkit.

Whether you're a brand looking to expand your reach or a retailer exploring new revenue opportunities, retail media networks are a strategy worth investing in. As online shopping continues to grow, so too will the importance of these dynamic advertising platforms.