What is a retail media network and how can marketers use them?

Every store you've ever shopped at used to have one job: sell you stuff. Somewhere in the last few years, a lot of those same retailers turned into landlords, too, renting out shelf space, search results, and screen time to whichever brand is willing to pay for it. Open Amazon, Walmart, or Target's app today and you're shopping, sure, but you're also standing in the middle of a mall where every storefront is bidding for your attention on the way to checkout.

That shift has a name: retail media network. And if your brand isn't already spending a chunk of its budget there, chances are your competitors are, or your boss is asking why you aren't. Retail media has grown fast enough that understanding how retail media networks work, who the major players are, and where the real value lives isn't optional anymore for marketers managing paid budgets across multiple digital channels. It's become the kind of line item that gets its own conversation in planning meetings, so it's worth knowing exactly what you're buying before you commit more ad spend.

Key takeaways

• A retail media network is an advertising platform a retailer owns, letting third party brands purchase ad space across the retailer's website, app, and sometimes physical stores.
• Retail media networks run on first party shopper data instead of third party cookies, which is a big part of why brands are shifting ad spend there.
• Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, and Target's Roundel are among the largest retail media networks, though most major online retailers now run some version of one.
• Retail media generally splits into onsite, offsite, and in-store formats, each with different ad placements and different goals.
• Closed loop measurement sounds airtight, but it's worth remembering that the retailer reporting your results is also the one selling you the ad space.
• Choosing the right retail media platform depends on where your customers already shop and how much operational lift your team can take on, not just which network has the lowest minimums.
• Retail media works best when you can see how it connects to the rest of your digital marketing strategy, not as a channel measured in total isolation.

What is a retail media network?

A retail media network refers to an advertising platform that a retail company owns and operates, letting third party brands purchase ad space across that retailer's owned properties. Think sponsored products in search results, premium ad placements on category pages, and video ads that show up while someone's browsing a retailer's app or website.

What makes retail media different from a lot of other digital advertising is the data behind it. Retailers hold onto first party data, meaning actual purchase history, loyalty program data, and on-site shopper behavior, instead of leaning on third party cookies to guess what someone might want. That first party shopper data gives retail media platforms a shot at more precise targeting than a lot of other advertising channels, since the retailer already knows what a shopper bought last time, not just what they clicked on once.

This is also why retail media has picked up a broader label: commerce media. Commerce media stretches beyond traditional retailers to include any company with a transactional relationship with customers, like travel booking sites or delivery apps. But retail media is still the biggest and most established slice of commerce media, and it's what most marketers mean when they bring up the term.

Here's a simple way to think about how retail media networks operate: the retailer builds the advertising infrastructure, brands buy access to a slice of its ad inventory, and shoppers see ads that are supposedly more relevant because they're based on real purchase data. For retailers trying to maximize revenue from properties they already own, that ad inventory has turned into one of the most valuable things they sell.

What are the top retail media networks?

Amazon Ads still sits at the top of the retail media landscape, largely because Amazon built the model that everyone else is now copying. But the field has gotten a lot more crowded over the past few years, as more online retailers realized their own sites and apps were sitting on an underused revenue stream.

Most of these platforms compete on the same core promise: better sponsored products placement and more relevant digital advertising than a brand could get anywhere else, backed by data the retailer already owns. A few of the retail media platforms marketers run into most often:

• Amazon Ads: the largest and most mature network, spanning sponsored products, display, and video ads both on and off Amazon's site.
• Walmart Connect: Walmart's retail media network, with strong reach into in store sales through point-of-sale data tied back to digital campaigns.
• Target's Roundel: known for tying advertising campaigns to Target's guest data and loyalty program data.
• Instacart Ads: relevant for grocery and CPG brands, since Instacart sits across multiple retailers' fulfillment data.
• Kroger Precision Marketing: built on Kroger's loyalty program data, which covers a huge share of U.S. grocery shoppers.

These aren't the only options out there, either. Retailers from Ulta (UB Media) and Sephora (Sephora Media) to Macy's (Macy's Media Network) and Dick's Sporting Goods (DICK'S Media Network) have launched their own retail media networks, and more keep showing up as retailers look for new revenue streams beyond selling products off the shelf.

What are the different types of retail media networks?

Not all retail media works the same way, and the format matters for where your ad spend actually ends up landing. Retail media networks generally fall into three types, and most retail media strategies end up using some mix of all three.

Onsite retail media

Onsite retail media covers anything that happens directly on the retailer's website or app: sponsored products in search results, premium ad placements on category pages, and banner or video ads scattered through the online shopping experience. This is where most ad spend still goes, since it lets brands deliver relevant ads to high intent shoppers who are already in buying mode.

Offsite retail media

This category takes a retailer's first party data off their own site and uses it to target ads across other digital channels, like social platforms or the open web. This is sometimes called off site audience extension, and it lets brands reach relevant audiences who match a retailer's online shopping profile even when those shoppers aren't actively browsing that retailer's app.

In-store retail media

In-store covers digital ad formats inside physical stores, like screens near checkout or shelf-edge displays. It's a smaller piece of the retail media landscape today, but it's growing as retailers figure out how to connect in store purchases back to a campaign the same way they already do online.

Who owns the largest retail media network?

Amazon owns the largest retail media network by a wide margin. Amazon's advertising revenue crossed $68 billion in 2025, up from $56.2 billion the year before, and sponsored products are still the backbone of that business. That scale comes from a simple advantage: Amazon has more high intent shoppers, more purchase history, and more third party brands competing for ad space than any other retail company on earth.

Walmart Connect and Target's Roundel are working to close that gap, and both have real leverage of their own. Walmart's advantage is its physical footprint combined with online shopping data, which gives it a view into in store purchases that Amazon can't fully match. Target's advantage is a loyalty program and guest data set that's smaller than Amazon's, but arguably more engaged. Neither is likely to overtake Amazon Ads in total scale anytime soon, but both are proof that owning a retail media network has become a serious growth strategy for retailers well beyond selling products.

How do retail media networks make money?

Retail media networks make money the same way any advertising platform does: they sell ad space, and brands pay to purchase ad space that puts them in front of shoppers at the right moment. What's different is the margin. Because retailers already have shopper data, fulfillment data, and existing site traffic in place, retail media becomes a high margin advertising revenue stream layered on top of a retail company's core business, without requiring much new advertising infrastructure to build from scratch.

A few of the ways retail media networks generate advertising revenue:

• Sponsored products: brands pay to have specific products show up higher in search results or category pages, which remains the single largest source of retail media advertising revenue across most networks.
• Display and video ads: banner and video ad formats placed throughout a retailer's site or app, often sold at a premium for the best ad placements.
• Off site audience extension: retailers license their first party data to help brands deliver relevant ads on other platforms, extending advertising revenue beyond their own properties.
• Data and insights products: some retail media platforms sell access to shopper behavior and sales data as a standalone offering, packaged as actionable insights for the third party brands buying ad space, separate from the ad space itself.

For retailers, this isn't just about padding revenue streams. A retail media network is a different type of profit engine than moving inventory, since digital ad space carries almost none of the overhead that comes with selling physical goods, which is exactly why so many retail companies are racing to build or expand one of their own.

How to choose a retail media network

Picking a retail media network isn't just about which platform promises the lowest ad spend minimums or the flashiest dashboard. A few things are worth weighing before you commit budget to a new retail media strategy.

Start with where your customers already shop

A retail media strategy built around Amazon Ads makes sense for a brand that sells heavily through Amazon's marketplace. That same strategy makes a lot less sense for a brand whose customers mostly shop at Target or a specialty retailer. Match the network to actual purchase behavior, not to whichever platform has the most buzz around it.

Account for the operational lift

This is where a lot of teams get caught off guard. Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, and Kroger all have their own interfaces, their own bid strategies, and their own way of reporting results. Managing several retail media networks isn't the same job as managing one programmatic platform five different ways. It's closer to learning several separate skill sets at once, and treating retail media as an extension of a team's existing digital marketing strategies is a common reason retail media programs stall out.

Understand what you're really being sold

Retail media offers a version of closed loop measurement that sounds like the cleanest attribution in advertising: someone sees an ad, buys the product, and the retailer tells you exactly what happened. That's appealing, but it's worth remembering the retailer reporting those results is also the one selling you the ad space. A platform grading its own homework isn't automatically wrong, but it's a good reason to treat retail media insights the same way you'd treat any platform reported number: useful, but worth validating against an independent view of what's actually driving revenue. These networks still can't account for someone who was primed to buy your product from an awareness campaign and moved over to their shopping platform of choice to convert.

Think about budget, not just channel

Retail media increasingly overlaps with trade marketing and buyer relationships, especially at large retailers where shelf placement and co-op budgets are already part of the conversation. Brands that treat retail media purely as a digital ad line item can miss leverage they'd otherwise have in those broader retailer relationships.

Done well, retail media uses first party data to engage shoppers at the exact moment they're ready to buy, and it gives smaller brands a way to boost brand visibility next to competitors with far bigger media budgets. The catch is that none of those benefits of retail media show up automatically. They depend on picking the right network, staffing it properly, and measuring it honestly, since first party data is only as useful as the model interpreting it.

Where Prescient comes in

Retail media's closed loop measurement tells you what happened on that retailer's own site, but it can't tell you whether that sale would have happened anyway, or how much of it was actually driven by a campaign running somewhere else entirely. Prescient's marketing mix model measures retail media the same way it measures every other channel: as part of a full omnichannel picture, including halo effects that show up on Amazon's Selling Partner data and other retail storefronts as a result of campaigns running on Meta, CTV, or search.

That means you can see whether a retail media network is actually pulling its weight, or whether it's just capturing revenue your other campaigns already generated. If you're ready to see where your retail media spend really connects to the rest of your marketing, book a demo with Prescient to see how our platform can uncover it.

FAQs

Is retail media the same as programmatic advertising?

Not exactly. Programmatic advertising buys ad space across a wide range of publishers and platforms using automated bidding, while retail media networks sell ad space specifically on a retailer's own properties, using that retailer's first party data. Some retail media platforms use programmatic technology under the hood, but the inventory, targeting data, and measurement all come from the retailer itself.

How much should brands spend on retail media networks?

There's no universal number, since the right retail media budget depends on how much of your revenue already flows through retail channels and how competitive your category is on each platform. Brands with a heavy retail media presence often start by benchmarking ad spend against their share of sales on a given retailer, then adjust based on how sponsored products, first party data quality, and other ad placements perform relative to other digital channels.

Do retail media networks work for brands without a retail presence?

Retail media networks are built around retailers, so they work best for brands that already sell through those retailers in some form, whether that's a marketplace listing, wholesale distribution, or a retail partnership. Brands without any retail footprint typically won't have access to the sponsored product placements and on-site inventory that make up most retail media advertising.

How is retail media different from trade marketing?

Trade marketing traditionally covers the relationship-driven side of getting a retailer to feature a brand, like in-store placement, promotional pricing, and buyer negotiations. Retail media is the paid advertising layer that sits on top of that relationship, letting brands purchase ad space directly. The two increasingly overlap, since retail buyers are often evaluated in part on retail media spend, but they aren't the same discipline.