by Dean McElwee, eCommerce leader and author of eCommerce for CEOs
There is no doubt that the hype around Retail Media is well-founded, with it already being a big channel that will get even bigger going into 2024.
It’s going to be one of the fastest-growing ad channels across media for the next three years at least. Some retailers, late to the party, will announce their networks this year. But, it’s going to go through some growing pains. These are:
- Advertisers, both brands and ad companies, will struggle with retail media network’s lack of standardisation of measurement and withhold funding as a result.
- Unlike terrestrial media, RMNs don’t have standardised ad formats, making it harder for large ad buyers to manage inventory. This ultimately leads to less spend than could be as analytics and scalability are impacted, making it less cost-effective.
- The need to orchestrate data on the ad agency and brand side means that it’s less clear what is being spent where and how, and what the impact on sales will be.
It’s going to be a difficult route for retailers who will argue that their inventory is unique and will attempt to coerce brand owners to spend more directly, but the big media buyers are required to reach scale. This will mean a need to adopt standard measurement. For retailers, the IABs view is the right starting point.
