Executive Overview
The modern digital advertising ecosystem is undergoing a seismic realignment. What began as a transactional real estate play—dominated by sponsored product listings on e-commerce sites—has matured into a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar enterprise known as retail media. As brands navigate an increasingly complex matrix of consumer touchpoints, retail media networks (RMNs) have transcended their original classification as lower-funnel performance channels. Today, they command substantial portions of corporate ad budgets, expanding aggressively into off-site media, connected TV (CTV), social media partnerships, and full-funnel brand building.
According to proprietary analysis from Glossy+ Research—drawing on comprehensive surveys of 125 marketing executives and qualitative insights from industry leaders—marketers are actively rethinking their approach to RMN investments. Driven by the unmatched precision of first-party point-of-sale data, audience behavioral signals, and closed-loop measurement capabilities, brands are moving past simple keyword bidding. They are building sophisticated, multi-channel strategies that treat retail media not merely as a place to capture last-minute intent, but as an engine for customer acquisition, product discovery, and long-term brand equity.
However, this rapid evolution is not without friction. Advertisers face a complex operational landscape defined by surging media costs, the proliferation of over 200 distinct global RMNs, persistent attribution challenges, and rising pressures to tie ad spend directly to physical shelf-space negotiations. This report examines how top-tier brands and agencies are navigating these shifts, diversifying their RMN portfolios, aligning key performance indicators (KPIs) with specific customer journey stages, and embracing emerging technologies like streaming and agentic AI.
Detailed Chronology: The Evolution of Retail Media (2023–2026)
To understand where the retail media industry stands today, it is essential to trace its rapid trajectory over the past several years. The market’s structural evolution highlights a continuous cycle of experimentation, consolidation, and strategic diversification.
2023: The Gold Rush and Standardization Struggles
In 2023, retail media emerged as the fastest-growing sector in digital advertising. Spurred by signal loss from third-party cookie depreciation and tightening privacy regulations, brands flocked to walled gardens owned by major retailers. Amazon solidified its dominance as the absolute "must-play" channel, while early-adopter brands began testing emerging networks like Walmart Connect, Target’s Roundel, and Kroger Precision Marketing. During this foundational phase, however, fragmentation reigned supreme. Advertisers struggled with siloed reporting, inconsistent metrics, and a lack of standardized attribution models, treating each RMN as an isolated walled garden.
2024–2025: The Maturation Phase and Strategic Dips
By 2024, the sheer volume of new networks entering the market forced a reckoning. With global RMN counts surpassing 200 by mid-2025, according to data from retail media intelligence platform Mimbi, marketers began exercising greater selectivity. Survey data from Glossy+ indicates subtle dips in adoption rates for secondary networks in 2025 as brands re-evaluated their return on investment.
Concurrently, retailers began aggressively expanding their inventories. Platforms introduced off-site programmatic display, instore digital screens, and mobile app features designed to capture consumer attention both on and off-site. Despite broader retail headwinds—including economic pressures and consumer pushback against shifting corporate initiatives at legacy giants like Target—ad revenues within RMNs remained remarkably insulated. Retailers proved that data monetization could thrive independently of foot traffic fluctuations.
2026: The Full-Funnel and Interoperable Era
As of 2026, retail media has entered its commerce media era. RMNs are no longer just digital shelf-space vendors; they are comprehensive data and media ecosystems. Major acquisitions—such as Walmart’s purchase of self-service CTV ad platform Vibe.co and its integration of Vizio—have blurred the lines between retail media, streaming entertainment, and linear television. Marketers are no longer asking if they should invest in retail media, but how to orchestrate cohesive, cross-channel campaigns that seamlessly bridge first-party audience signals with off-site environments.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Navigating the RMN Landscape
A granular look at Glossy+ Research survey data reveals shifting marketer preferences, budget allocations, and the specific hurdles facing modern media planners.
Market Share and Platform Dominance
Amazon and Walmart Connect continue to hold an unshakeable grip on marketer mindshare. For the fourth consecutive year, Amazon remains the most utilized retail media network, with 89% of survey respondents actively advertising on the platform. Walmart Connect commands the second position, utilized by 47% of respondents, while Target’s Roundel secures third place at 32%.
Despite these established leaders, multi-brand portfolios are becoming the norm. Brands are steadily diversifying their spend to match consumer shopping habits. Jeremy Lowenstein, Chief Marketing Officer at Milani Cosmetics, noted the necessity of a multi-dimensional approach:
"Amazon is the must-play and is usually a reflection of our growth and spend as a percent of sales… We started on the Criteo side with Target and Ulta and have expanded to Walmart and our drugstore accounts. We’re piloting on Costco, so we are playing across the spectrum."
Financial commitments are following this diversification. On a weighted average basis, marketers have doubled the amount of marketing budget devoted to Target’s Roundel in 2026 compared to the previous year. This resilience is attributed to Roundel’s robust data infrastructure. Anthony Costanzo, chief analytics officer at independent media agency Mile Marker, emphasized:
"The audience data that Target can turn out is still highly effective and allows us to reach really key in-market shoppers. If it’s working, they’re going to put more money in."
The Shift in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
For three consecutive years, sales have remained the paramount success metric across retail media campaigns. A vast majority of marketers point to sales conversion as their primary evaluation tool, with 100% of respondents citing sales as their top metric for Best Buy and Albertsons RMNs, 89% for Instacart, and 88% for Target’s Roundel.
However, the treatment of secondary metrics—particularly consumer engagement—has undergone a notable contraction. In 2025, substantial portions of marketers viewed engagement as a top success metric across a wide array of platforms, including Best Buy Ads (75%), eBay Ads (50%), Amazon, Nordstrom, Target, and Walmart. By 2026, engagement as a standalone primary metric has concentrated almost exclusively on Amazon, where 7% of respondents maintain it as their main measurement of success.
This hyper-focus on Amazon makes strategic sense. Over 58% of U.S. online adults utilize Amazon for product discovery, making it the second-largest product search engine in the United States behind Google (69%), according to Forrester’s Consumer Pulse survey data. For Amazon, search intent and product discovery naturally elevate engagement to a critical diagnostic metric, whereas transactional RMNs are judged strictly on closed-loop sales conversion.
The Cost and Measurement Dilemma
When asked to identify the primary challenges of executing campaigns across RMNs, survey respondents overwhelmingly pointed to media cost. Cost concerns are driven by three interconnected industry pressures:
- Intense Network Proliferation: Hundreds of retailers competing for a finite pool of brand marketing dollars.
- Shelf-Space Leverage: Heightened pressure from brick-and-mortar retailers for brands to allocate ad spend to their respective RMNs to secure and maintain premium in-store shelf placement.
- Attribution Complexity: Fragmented reporting tools that make true incremental ROI difficult to prove.
Elizabeth Marsten, Vice President of Commerce Media at performance marketing agency Tinuiti, notes that measurement will remain an ongoing battleground:
"Measurement will always be the number one challenge, since consumers will continue to interact whenever and wherever they want… That makes measuring exposure and assigning attribution and credit more difficult, but at the same time easier as digital fingerprints continue to guide us on the consumer’s journey."
Marsten also highlights the operational hurdle of content creation at scale. As brands deploy creative assets across dozens of unique retail environments, managing format variations and ensuring compliance—increasingly via automated systems—requires robust governance. Commenting on the intersection of automation and strategy, industry observers note that while agentic AI streamlines execution, it also introduces systemic risks if algorithms hallucinate or miscategorize product data across early steps in a campaign workflow.
Official Statements and Industry Insights
Industry leaders are actively redefining how retail media fits into the broader marketing mix, emphasizing flexibility, interoperability, and full-funnel utility.
Mandy Hunsicker Adams (The Home Depot / Orange Apron Media)
Highlighting the shift toward holistic audience engagement, Mandy Hunsicker Adams, Senior Director of Orange Apron Media, stressed the power of proprietary retail signals:
"We’re seeing demand grow across the funnel, and retail media networks are continuing to advance. The power of retail, customer, audience signal and point-of-sale data, and being that close to the purchase and having the ability to close the loop, is all too powerful when every marketer is trying to be as productive and efficient with their marketing budget as possible."
Addressing the perennial debate over standardization versus flexibility, Hunsicker Adams argued that RMNs must provide actionable intelligence rather than rigid templates:
"Having standardization in a way that makes sense for the different ways customers are shopping has opportunities. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It really is, how do we make sure we’re educating and informing and putting as much of the data in the hands of the folks that need to analyze and assess it based on the needs of their specific business."
Jeremy Lowenstein (Milani Cosmetics)
Offering a brand-side perspective, Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Lowenstein underscored that different RMNs serve fundamentally different strategic purposes:
"Not all retail channels and parts of the funnel are born equal. They all have different roles to play. If you’re looking for CPM efficiency, that’s not going to be about conversion. So, know what measurement looks like, and be honest with yourself if you’re hitting it or not. Then, lean in or pivot… We’re all just testing and learning at this point and to see where we can scale."
Adam Solomon (LiveRamp)
Looking at the technological architecture powering this evolution, Adam Solomon, VP of Product Solutions at LiveRamp—the marketing infrastructure platform behind retail integrations for Kroger and Albertsons—pointed to the transition toward open commerce media:
"It reflects the next stage of retail media’s evolution: from isolated retailer inventory to a broader commerce media model where first-party data can power media activation and measurable outcomes across more channels and touchpoints."
Future Outlook: The Next Frontier for Retail Media Networks
As the industry looks past 2026, several defining trends will dictate the success of retail media networks and the brands that leverage them.
1. The Convergence of Retail Media and Connected TV (CTV)
Streaming video has officially become the next great frontier for RMN growth. Retailers are recognizing that their rich shopper datasets can solve the holy grail of television advertising: proving that an ad seen on a living room screen directly drives an in-store or online purchase.
Walmart’s acquisition of self-service CTV ad platform Vibe.co, combined with its broader integration of Vizio hardware and operating systems, exemplifies this shift. By opening up self-service streaming inventory to small- and medium-sized businesses backed by closed-loop retail metrics, Walmart is positioning RMNs as direct competitors to traditional broadcast and cable television ad sales. Expect other major RMNs to aggressively pursue video and streaming assets through acquisitions or strategic partnerships.
2. The Move Toward Interoperability and Off-Site Activation
The era of siloed retail media gardens is slowly giving way to interoperable commerce media ecosystems. Driven by data clean rooms and identity resolution partners like LiveRamp, brands can increasingly deploy retailer first-party data across open web environments, social media platforms, and video channels. This transition allows marketers to target high-intent retail audiences while they browse content entirely outside the retailer’s native ecosystem, subsequently closing the attribution loop when the consumer eventually converts.
3. Maturation of AI and Creative Scale
As RMNs expand their inventory types—incorporating everything from interactive in-store mobile app modes to dynamic off-site display and programmatic CTV—the demand for localized, variant-rich creative assets will skyrocket. Brands will increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and generative creative tools to dynamically produce thousands of tailored ad variations that meet the precise technical specifications of dozens of competing retail networks.
Conclusion
Retail media has successfully graduated from a tactical, lower-funnel line item into the connective tissue of modern digital marketing. While challenges surrounding media costs, campaign complexity, and attribution standardization remain formidable, the strategic imperative is clear. Brands that treat RMNs as multi-dimensional, full-funnel partners—aligning precise KPI expectations with the unique strengths of each network—will successfully capture consumer intent wherever it manifests, securing a decisive competitive advantage in the years ahead.
