Commerce Media Moves Beyond the Checkout Aisle in Omnichannel Push
CANNES, France – Commerce media is growing beyond its retail roots as platforms use shopping, travel and mobility data to reach consumers throughout their daily lives, according to industry executives speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The expansion gives marketers a much richer collection of behavioral signals. It also creates the small challenge of turning several oceans of data into advertising that’s useful, measurable and slightly less annoying than being followed around the internet by the blender you already bought.
Jeff Daniel, general manager of retail data partnerships at The Trade Desk, moderated the panel with executives from Albertsons Media Collective, Instacart, Expedia Group Advertising and Lyft.
“We continue to expand the idea of rich signal and rich measurement,” Daniel said. The discussion showed just how broad that idea has become. A grocery list, hotel booking or ride to the airport can reveal where a consumer is going, what they may buy and which version of themselves they plan to unveil upon arrival.
Retail data searches for chapter two
Retail media’s first chapter largely revolved around targeting people based on previous purchases and measuring whether they bought something again. Brian Monahan, senior vice president of retail media at Albertsons Media Collective, said the next chapter is about finding growth beyond familiar customers.
The company is examining behavioral insights that can help advertisers predict demand in new places. One example is “Rico’s Tacos,” a 20-episode branded entertainment series created with Procter & Gamble for distribution across Albertsons’ social channels, app and stores.
The content draws on insights about why people make grocery trips, including the panic-stricken discovery that Taco Tuesday is rapidly approaching and somebody forgot the avocados.
“Those types of insights are now getting baked into the content that is then being presented on surfaces from couch to checkout,” Monahan said.
Albertsons also is building a smart-screen network that is expected to reach 1,000 stores by the end of the year. The goal is to connect off-site advertising, digital shopping and in-store messaging rather than treat each surface like a small media kingdom with its own flag.
“Purchase intent is not built in an instant,” Monahan said. “Growth comes when you can build some preference and intention upstream.”
Scale needs a scalpel
Instacart works with 2,200 retailers, a figure Daniel initially placed at 1,800 before receiving a cheerful onstage fact-check. Apparently, even moderators need real-time data enrichment.
Adam Silverblatt, head of off-platform ad sales and strategy at Instacart, said that scale comes with a responsibility to solve specific brand problems. Simply having a massive audience isn’t enough if advertisers can’t buy against it in familiar ways or connect the data to their particular goals.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” Silverblatt said. “We take more of a scalpel approach.”
Instacart’s address and purchase data offer another advantage. Most people don’t provide fake addresses when ordering groceries, unless confusing a shopper and donating frozen waffles to a stranger is their idea of a productive afternoon.
“You’re only as good as the identity and fidelity of your data,” Silverblatt said.
The company also is applying artificial intelligence to its advertising tools and consumer shopping assistant. Silverblatt described a shift from shoppers explicitly selecting meat, seasoning and other ingredients to making a simpler request: “I just want Taco Tuesday, load my cart.”
For advertisers, this could move commerce media closer to interpreting consumer intent instead of waiting for shoppers to assemble every detail themselves.
Travel signals don’t stay on vacation
Expedia Group sees travel as a signal that extends far beyond flights and hotels. Travelers buy clothes, beauty products, pharmaceuticals and other goods before leaving. They keep spending during the trip and often make nostalgia-driven purchases after returning home.
Jennifer Andre, global vice president at Expedia Group Advertising, said the company handles $120 billion in annual travel bookings. Its research found that travelers spend an average of about $500 on non-travel products connected to a trip.
“That’s not a token spend,” Andre said.
Those patterns can help Expedia build lifestyle segments for advertisers outside the travel industry. Someone who routinely books five-star hotels, for example, is probably a stronger luxury prospect than someone whose vacation planning begins with sorting motel listings by “free ice.”
“We’re just scratching the surface when it comes to what we consider non-endemic,” Andre said.
Artificial intelligence may make that opportunity larger. Andre said only 1% to 2% of Expedia’s traffic currently comes from AI agents, though she expects that share to change quickly. The company has assembled a large team focused on organic and agentic search as travel discovery becomes more conversational.
Lyft maps the moments between purchases
Lyft brings another type of signal to the commerce-media buffet: location and destination intent.
Shane Dwyer, vice president of advertiser solutions at Lyft, said the company conducts about a billion rides a year. Its data can distinguish between commutes, business travel, vacations and other journeys.
“We’re not retail media,” Dwyer said. “We are not even close to retail media. We’re mobility media. We’re travel media.”
Those rides create short, highly contextual windows for marketers. A passenger traveling to work is in a different frame of mind from someone leaving a concert, heading to an airport or trying to escape the transportation obstacle course outside SoFi Stadium.
Lyft is experimenting with sponsored offers that could subsidize or influence a ride at the right moment. The value comes from understanding not only who a rider is, but where that person is going and what might be relevant along the way.
“We are different in rideshare here at Cannes than we were a week ago at home,” Dwyer said.
That may be the clearest summary of where commerce media is headed. The industry is moving from broad identity segments toward moment-by-moment intent. The consumer hasn’t become a different person. They’ve merely become a different advertising opportunity every time they leave the house.
AI starts loading the cart
AI ran through the closing discussion as both an operating tool and a new consumer interface.
Albertsons is placing sponsored products inside AI shopping chats. Instacart is using automation to make campaign management easier and shopping requests less explicit. Lyft is considering a future in which a car recognizes a scheduled trip and simply arrives. Expedia is preparing for AI agents to play a larger role in travel discovery.
The panelists generally agreed that experimentation will accelerate, even if a few products take an express ride into the corporate recycling bin.
“There is no line anymore,” Dwyer said of the old distinction between planned development and more speculative projects. “That line has just been demolished with AI.”
For brands, the message is that commerce media no longer begins with a product search and ends at checkout. It now follows consumers from the couch to the store, through the airport and into a rideshare. If Taco Tuesday survives the journey, the attribution report should be magnificent.
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by The Trade Desk. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France – Commerce media is growing beyond its retail roots as platforms use shopping, travel and mobility data to reach consumers throughout their daily lives, according to industry executives speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The expansion gives marketers a much richer collection of behavioral signals. It also creates the small challenge of turning several oceans of data into advertising that’s useful, measurable and slightly less annoying than being followed around the internet by the blender you already bought.
Jeff Daniel, general manager of retail data partnerships at The Trade Desk, moderated the panel with executives from Albertsons Media Collective, Instacart, Expedia Group Advertising and Lyft.
“We continue to expand the idea of rich signal and rich measurement,” Daniel said. The discussion showed just how broad that idea has become. A grocery list, hotel booking or ride to the airport can reveal where a consumer is going, what they may buy and which version of themselves they plan to unveil upon arrival.
Retail data searches for chapter two
Retail media’s first chapter largely revolved around targeting people based on previous purchases and measuring whether they bought something again. Brian Monahan, senior vice president of retail media at Albertsons Media Collective, said the next chapter is about finding growth beyond familiar customers.
The company is examining behavioral insights that can help advertisers predict demand in new places. One example is “Rico’s Tacos,” a 20-episode branded entertainment series created with Procter & Gamble for distribution across Albertsons’ social channels, app and stores.
The content draws on insights about why people make grocery trips, including the panic-stricken discovery that Taco Tuesday is rapidly approaching and somebody forgot the avocados.
“Those types of insights are now getting baked into the content that is then being presented on surfaces from couch to checkout,” Monahan said.
Albertsons also is building a smart-screen network that is expected to reach 1,000 stores by the end of the year. The goal is to connect off-site advertising, digital shopping and in-store messaging rather than treat each surface like a small media kingdom with its own flag.
“Purchase intent is not built in an instant,” Monahan said. “Growth comes when you can build some preference and intention upstream.”
Scale needs a scalpel
Instacart works with 2,200 retailers, a figure Daniel initially placed at 1,800 before receiving a cheerful onstage fact-check. Apparently, even moderators need real-time data enrichment.
Adam Silverblatt, head of off-platform ad sales and strategy at Instacart, said that scale comes with a responsibility to solve specific brand problems. Simply having a massive audience isn’t enough if advertisers can’t buy against it in familiar ways or connect the data to their particular goals.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” Silverblatt said. “We take more of a scalpel approach.”
Instacart’s address and purchase data offer another advantage. Most people don’t provide fake addresses when ordering groceries, unless confusing a shopper and donating frozen waffles to a stranger is their idea of a productive afternoon.
“You’re only as good as the identity and fidelity of your data,” Silverblatt said.
The company also is applying artificial intelligence to its advertising tools and consumer shopping assistant. Silverblatt described a shift from shoppers explicitly selecting meat, seasoning and other ingredients to making a simpler request: “I just want Taco Tuesday, load my cart.”
For advertisers, this could move commerce media closer to interpreting consumer intent instead of waiting for shoppers to assemble every detail themselves.
Travel signals don’t stay on vacation
Expedia Group sees travel as a signal that extends far beyond flights and hotels. Travelers buy clothes, beauty products, pharmaceuticals and other goods before leaving. They keep spending during the trip and often make nostalgia-driven purchases after returning home.
Jennifer Andre, global vice president at Expedia Group Advertising, said the company handles $120 billion in annual travel bookings. Its research found that travelers spend an average of about $500 on non-travel products connected to a trip.
“That’s not a token spend,” Andre said.
Those patterns can help Expedia build lifestyle segments for advertisers outside the travel industry. Someone who routinely books five-star hotels, for example, is probably a stronger luxury prospect than someone whose vacation planning begins with sorting motel listings by “free ice.”
“We’re just scratching the surface when it comes to what we consider non-endemic,” Andre said.
Artificial intelligence may make that opportunity larger. Andre said only 1% to 2% of Expedia’s traffic currently comes from AI agents, though she expects that share to change quickly. The company has assembled a large team focused on organic and agentic search as travel discovery becomes more conversational.
Lyft maps the moments between purchases
Lyft brings another type of signal to the commerce-media buffet: location and destination intent.
Shane Dwyer, vice president of advertiser solutions at Lyft, said the company conducts about a billion rides a year. Its data can distinguish between commutes, business travel, vacations and other journeys.
“We’re not retail media,” Dwyer said. “We are not even close to retail media. We’re mobility media. We’re travel media.”
Those rides create short, highly contextual windows for marketers. A passenger traveling to work is in a different frame of mind from someone leaving a concert, heading to an airport or trying to escape the transportation obstacle course outside SoFi Stadium.
Lyft is experimenting with sponsored offers that could subsidize or influence a ride at the right moment. The value comes from understanding not only who a rider is, but where that person is going and what might be relevant along the way.
“We are different in rideshare here at Cannes than we were a week ago at home,” Dwyer said.
That may be the clearest summary of where commerce media is headed. The industry is moving from broad identity segments toward moment-by-moment intent. The consumer hasn’t become a different person. They’ve merely become a different advertising opportunity every time they leave the house.
AI starts loading the cart
AI ran through the closing discussion as both an operating tool and a new consumer interface.
Albertsons is placing sponsored products inside AI shopping chats. Instacart is using automation to make campaign management easier and shopping requests less explicit. Lyft is considering a future in which a car recognizes a scheduled trip and simply arrives. Expedia is preparing for AI agents to play a larger role in travel discovery.
The panelists generally agreed that experimentation will accelerate, even if a few products take an express ride into the corporate recycling bin.
“There is no line anymore,” Dwyer said of the old distinction between planned development and more speculative projects. “That line has just been demolished with AI.”
For brands, the message is that commerce media no longer begins with a product search and ends at checkout. It now follows consumers from the couch to the store, through the airport and into a rideshare. If Taco Tuesday survives the journey, the attribution report should be magnificent.
You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by The Trade Desk. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
