Retail media networks have transformed from obscure advertising channels into a $45 billion industry, giving brands unprecedented access to shoppers at the exact moment they’re ready to buy. These networks allow companies to advertise directly on retailer websites, apps, and physical stores, leveraging first-party customer data that’s increasingly valuable as third-party cookies disappear.

Amazon Advertising leads the pack with over $38 billion in annual ad revenue, offering sponsored product listings, display ads, and video placements across its massive marketplace. Walmart Connect reaches 150 million weekly shoppers through on-site ads, off-site programmatic campaigns, and in-store digital displays. Target’s Roundel network provides access to Target Circle’s extensive shopper data, enabling precise audience targeting across digital and physical touchpoints.

Beyond these giants, specialized networks are emerging. Instacart Ads reaches grocery shoppers across 1,400 retail banners, while Best Buy Ads targets tech-savvy consumers with high purchase intent. CVS Media Exchange and Walgreens Advertising Group connect pharmaceutical and health brands with pharmacy customers at critical decision points.

The opportunity extends to mid-sized retailers too. Regional grocery chains, specialty retailers, and e-commerce platforms are launching their own networks, creating targeted advertising opportunities for brands at every budget level. Understanding which networks align with your customer demographics, product categories, and marketing objectives determines whether these platforms become profitable growth channels or costly experiments.

What Makes Retail Media Networks Different From Traditional Advertising

Retail media networks represent a fundamental shift in how brands connect with shoppers. Unlike traditional advertising that interrupts consumers during their daily activities, these networks reach people at the exact moment they’re ready to buy. Think of it as the difference between placing a billboard on a highway versus setting up a display inside the store where purchasing decisions actually happen.

The key advantage lies in first-party data. When retailers run their own advertising platforms, they possess incredibly valuable information about actual purchase behavior, browsing patterns, and shopping preferences. This data comes directly from their customers, making it far more accurate and actionable than the third-party cookies traditional digital advertising relies on. Brands can target customers who’ve previously bought similar products, are actively searching for specific items, or fit precise demographic and behavioral profiles.

Purchase intent is another critical differentiator. Someone scrolling through social media might click an ad out of curiosity, but someone browsing a retailer’s website or app is already in buying mode. This translates to higher conversion rates and better return on ad spend. Retailers can also track the complete customer journey from ad impression to final purchase, providing clear attribution that’s increasingly difficult to achieve through other channels.

With growing privacy regulations limiting traditional tracking methods, retail media networks offer a compliant, transparent way to reach motivated buyers. The combination of high-quality data, AI-powered personalization, and proximity to the point of purchase makes these networks essential for brands seeking measurable results. As more retailers launch their own platforms, understanding how each network operates becomes crucial for maximizing your marketing investment.

Shoppers browsing in modern retail store with digital advertising displays
Modern retailers are transforming their physical and digital properties into sophisticated advertising platforms that connect brands with high-intent shoppers.

Amazon Advertising: The Retail Media Pioneer

Amazon pioneered the retail media network model and continues to dominate the space with its comprehensive advertising ecosystem. With over 200 million Prime members worldwide and millions of daily shoppers, Amazon offers advertisers unmatched scale and purchase intent data.

The platform’s core advertising products serve different marketing objectives. Sponsored Products appear directly in search results and product pages, allowing sellers to promote individual items where shoppers are actively searching. These cost-per-click ads blend seamlessly into the shopping experience, making them highly effective for driving immediate sales.

Sponsored Brands take visibility further by showcasing your brand logo, custom headline, and multiple products at the top of search results. This format builds brand awareness while directing traffic to either your Amazon Store or a custom landing page, helping you capture attention before competitors do.

For advertisers seeking broader reach, Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform) extends campaigns beyond Amazon’s properties to reach audiences across the web, apps, and streaming services. This programmatic advertising solution leverages Amazon’s rich first-party data to target specific customer segments based on shopping behavior, demographics, and interests.

What sets Amazon apart from other interactive advertising platforms is its closed-loop attribution. Advertisers can track the complete customer journey from ad impression to purchase, measuring exact return on ad spend without relying on third-party cookies. This transparency makes budget allocation decisions straightforward and performance optimization data-driven.

Amazon’s targeting capabilities draw from billions of shopping signals. You can reach customers who viewed specific products, abandoned carts, purchased from competitors, or fit detailed demographic profiles. The platform’s machine learning continuously refines these audiences, improving campaign performance over time.

For businesses selling on Amazon, the network offers a direct path to influencing purchase decisions at the critical moment. Even brands not selling through Amazon can leverage the platform’s audience reach and behavioral data to drive awareness and consideration across their broader marketing funnel.

Walmart Connect: Competing With Physical and Digital Reach

Walmart Connect stands as a formidable competitor in the retail media space, leveraging the company’s position as the world’s largest retailer. With over 240 million weekly customers across physical stores and digital platforms, Walmart offers advertisers an unmatched scale that few networks can rival.

What sets Walmart Connect apart is its dual-channel approach. Advertisers can reach customers through traditional in-store displays, digital screens at checkout lanes, and Walmart Radio, while simultaneously running sponsored product ads, display campaigns, and video advertising on Walmart.com and the mobile app. This combination of physical and digital touchpoints creates multiple opportunities to connect with shoppers throughout their purchasing journey.

The network’s competitive pricing represents another significant advantage, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses operating on tighter budgets. Walmart Connect typically offers lower cost-per-click rates compared to Amazon Advertising, making it an attractive entry point for brands testing retail media networks for the first time.

Walmart’s first-party data capabilities provide detailed insights into shopping behaviors across groceries, general merchandise, and pharmacy purchases. This diverse data set allows for sophisticated audience targeting based on actual purchase history rather than assumed intent. Advertisers can create campaigns targeting specific demographics, purchase patterns, or geographic locations with considerable precision.

The platform’s self-service interface streamlines campaign management, enabling businesses to launch and adjust campaigns without extensive technical expertise. Automated bidding options and performance dashboards simplify the optimization process, making it accessible for teams without dedicated advertising specialists.

For businesses seeking broad market reach with cost-effective rates, Walmart Connect delivers substantial value through its combination of massive scale, omnichannel presence, and practical pricing structures.

Target’s Roundel: Premium Audience With Proven Results

Target’s Roundel positions itself as a premium retail media network, attracting brands that want to reach shoppers with higher household incomes and strong purchasing intent. The platform serves over 100 million active guests annually, with approximately 50% holding college degrees and an average household income exceeding $75,000.

What sets Roundel apart is its creative flexibility and sophisticated audience targeting. The network offers advertising placements across Target.com, the Target mobile app, and in-store digital displays, creating a true omnichannel experience. You can run display ads, sponsored product listings, video ads, and even social media campaigns through Roundel’s partnerships with major platforms.

The integration between digital and physical channels proves particularly valuable. When shoppers browse Target.com and later visit a store, your ads can follow them through the customer journey. In-store digital screens near relevant product categories mean your message reaches shoppers at the exact moment they’re making purchase decisions.

Roundel’s measurement capabilities focus on closed-loop attribution, meaning you can track how your ad spend directly influences sales both online and in physical stores. The platform provides detailed reporting on impressions, clicks, and most importantly, actual purchases made by customers who saw your ads.

For brands selling products at Target, Roundel offers first-party data access that competitors simply cannot match. You gain insights into shopping behaviors, purchase frequency, and category preferences specific to Target’s customer base. This data helps refine your targeting strategy and improve campaign performance over time.

The minimum investment for Roundel typically starts around $50,000, making it more accessible than some enterprise-level retail media networks while still delivering the sophisticated targeting and measurement tools that marketing professionals expect from premium platforms.

Business professional analyzing retail media advertising on laptop and mobile devices
Marketing professionals are increasingly leveraging retail media networks to reach customers with high purchase intent across multiple digital touchpoints.

Instacart Ads: Capturing Shoppers at Decision Time

Instacart has carved out a distinctive position in retail media by capturing shoppers at the most critical moment—when they’re actively filling their digital cart. Unlike traditional advertising that occurs before or after the shopping experience, Instacart’s platform delivers ads when purchase intent is at its peak.

The company’s retail media network operates across multiple grocery retailers, including Kroger, Publix, and Costco, giving advertisers access to diverse customer bases through a single platform. This multi-retailer approach means brands can run coordinated campaigns across different geographic markets and demographic segments without managing separate relationships with each store chain.

Instacart’s targeting capabilities leverage real-time shopping behavior and historical purchase data. If someone adds pasta to their cart, they might immediately see sponsored products for pasta sauce or parmesan cheese. This contextual relevance drives higher conversion rates than traditional display advertising because the timing aligns perfectly with shopping intent.

For advertisers, Instacart offers featured product placements, display ads, and shoppable video ads that appear throughout the customer journey—from search results to product pages to checkout. The platform provides detailed attribution, showing exactly how ad spend translates into product sales.

The network particularly benefits consumer packaged goods brands looking to influence grocery purchases. Since Instacart captures both online and offline shopping data through its retailer partnerships, brands gain insights into how digital advertising drives in-store purchases—a measurement gap that has historically challenged grocery advertisers.

Hands holding smartphone showing retail shopping app with product advertisements
Retail media networks allow brands to reach customers at the critical moment when they’re actively searching and ready to purchase products.

Smaller but Mighty: CVS, Home Depot, and Best Buy

While the major players dominate headlines, several category-specific retail media networks deliver impressive results for advertisers seeking targeted audiences.

CVS Media Exchange leverages the pharmacy giant’s healthcare expertise to reach health-conscious consumers at critical decision points. With access to over 100 million loyalty program members, advertisers can target shoppers based on purchase behavior and health-related interests. The network excels at connecting pharmaceutical brands, wellness products, and health-focused companies with consumers actively seeking solutions. CVS’s closed-loop measurement capabilities allow advertisers to track campaign performance from impression to purchase, providing clear ROI data that guides budget allocation decisions.

The Home Depot’s retail media network serves advertisers in the home improvement, DIY, and professional contractor spaces. Their platform reaches homeowners during high-intent moments when they’re planning projects and making significant purchase decisions. The network combines digital advertising across homedepot.com with in-store displays and sponsored product placements. This dual approach captures both the research phase and point-of-purchase moments, creating multiple touchpoints throughout the customer journey.

Best Buy Ads connects electronics and technology brands with consumers already in shopping mode. The platform benefits from Best Buy’s reputation as a trusted technology advisor, giving advertised products credibility by association. Advertisers gain access to detailed audience segments based on technology interests, past purchases, and browsing behavior. The network’s strength lies in reaching consumers during the consideration phase when they’re comparing products and seeking expert guidance.

These specialized networks offer distinct advantages over broader platforms by providing direct access to engaged audiences within specific categories. Their focused approach enables more precise targeting and often delivers higher conversion rates for relevant products, making them valuable additions to diversified customer engagement strategies.

How to Choose the Right Retail Media Network for Your Business

Selecting the right retail media network requires careful evaluation of several key factors to ensure alignment with your business objectives and maximize return on investment.

Start by assessing product-category fit. Review each network’s primary customer base and determine whether it matches your target demographic. Amazon Ads excels for consumer electronics and household goods, while specialty networks may better serve niche products. Check if the platform already carries your products or similar items from competitors, as this indicates an established customer interest.

Budget considerations play a crucial role in your decision. Establish clear spending limits and compare minimum investment requirements across platforms. Larger networks like Walmart Connect and Target Roundel typically demand higher budgets, while emerging platforms may offer more flexible entry points. Calculate potential cost-per-acquisition based on average order values to determine realistic budget allocations.

Audience alignment ensures your advertising reaches the right shoppers. Analyze each network’s demographic data, shopping behaviors, and purchase patterns. Consider whether customers visit the platform specifically for your product category or discover items through browsing. Platforms with robust first-party data provide better targeting capabilities and performance tracking.

Technical capabilities and ease of use matter, especially for businesses with limited resources. Evaluate dashboard interfaces, reporting tools, and campaign management features. Automated processes can significantly reduce time investment while maintaining campaign effectiveness across emerging digital commerce channels.

Testing multiple platforms simultaneously provides valuable comparative data. Begin with small-budget campaigns on two or three networks that align with your criteria. Track performance metrics including click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend over 30-60 days before committing larger budgets.

Consider integration requirements with your existing marketing technology stack. Ensure the network supports necessary tracking pixels, attribution models, and reporting formats that align with your current analytics systems for seamless performance monitoring and optimization.

Retail media networks represent a significant shift in digital advertising, combining the power of first-party data with audiences already in a buying mindset. These platforms offer something traditional advertising channels cannot match: direct access to shoppers actively researching and purchasing products. Whether you choose established giants like Amazon and Walmart or specialized networks aligned with your niche, retail media provides measurable results and actionable insights.

The key is starting small and testing strategically. Choose one or two platforms that align with your target customers, set clear performance metrics, and monitor results closely. As you refine your approach and integrate retail media into your broader digital platform strategy, you’ll discover new opportunities to reach high-intent customers at critical decision-making moments. The retail media landscape continues to evolve, making now the ideal time to establish your presence and gain competitive advantage.