The booming retail media sector’s greatest strength lies not just in its expanding footprint but in its foundation of actual sales data.
Unlike traditional programmatic channels where marketers append third-party data and push it downstream, in retail media networks, purchase insights flow upward through the system, enabling genuinely informed targeting decisions.
“It is not guessed, it’s not modeled, it’s not attributed. It is actual sales data,” said Jeff Ratner, president of media, analytics and data at Quigley-Simpson, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
The evolving retail media landscape
The retail media sector continues its explosive growth trajectory, with U.S. spending projected to reach $58.79 billion in 2025 – a 19.4% increase from the previous year, according to eMarketer’s September forecast. By 2027, retail media ad spend is expected to more than double to $106.12 billion, nearly matching social media as the second-largest ad channel behind search.
Ratner notes that part of this growth stems from an expanding definition. “Yes, there’s been this exponential growth in retail media, but what’s also happened is we’re now lumping more channels into what we’re defining as retail media,” he said. “We used to call it shopper marketing, and now it’s retail media. We used to call it end-aisle displays … and now that’s all under this big bubble.”
This consolidation includes everything from in-store screens to programmatic channels and data transfer capabilities, creating a comprehensive ecosystem centered around the point of purchase.
Data-driven storytelling shortcuts
When it comes to connecting retail data with creative storytelling, Ratner notes an interesting tension between traditional marketing approaches and retail media’s data-driven efficiency.
“We all as marketers want to be storytellers. We also all want to sell stuff as effectively and as efficiently as possible,” Ratner said. “In certain cases there is a bit of actually a disconnect between what you want to do kind of moving someone through their journey and their purchase decision through telling a story from broader based targeting all the way down into intent.”
Retail media networks can effectively short-circuit parts of this journey because of their direct purchase data. “If you know someone is a frequent traveler on United… you know where they fly, you know where they go, you know where their seat is,” Ratner explained. “You’re not even really making inferences about them but you’ve got direct data and know that if you’re a hotel, a rental car or any other endemic that that is the place to go.”
Endemic partnerships and mega-platforms
The retail media ecosystem presents two distinct opportunity paths for advertisers looking to leverage purchase data effectively.
- “There are some slam dunks when you talk about endemics,” Ratner said. “If you’re selling TVs and you’re working with Best Buy, if you’re selling packaged goods and you’re working with Kroger… there are these slam dunks with endemics.”
- The second path involves tapping into the vast data resources of retail giants. “Then you’ve got the mega players in the space, the Walmarts, the Amazons, obviously, who have a tremendous wealth of data,” Ratner added. While specialized retailers offer highly relevant data for endemic categories, the breadth of information available through major platforms like Amazon creates value for virtually any advertiser category.
The future of retail media integration
As the retail media sector continues to evolve, Ratner sees fragmentation as a significant challenge that needs addressing.
“I’d love to see more coalescence in the space,” he said. “Right now everybody’s, you know, a few of them will trade on shared platforms like The Trade Desk and a few others, but essentially each one of them pretty much has their own buying platform and their own way of going to market.”
This fragmentation forces advertisers to divide budgets across multiple platforms and learn different operating systems, limiting budget fluidity and operational efficiency.
You’re watching “How Programmatic is Powering the Retail Media Revolution, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Best Buy Ads.” For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
