Retail media networks are the newest trend in the retail sector, so move over, to metaverse and NFTs. The retail media network trends have been around for a while, but many merchants are just now creating their own digital networks or increasing the level of sophistication of their services.
It’s simple to understand why so many other retailers have started or are planning to start their own advertising networks. The huge profit margins and added revenue that media networks offer to appeal to retailers. In 2021, Amazon’s advertising division will have generated over $31 billion in revenue. The majority of retail media ad dollars are paid for by brands to the e-commerce juggernaut. Although Amazon Advertising now dominates the retail media business and is the third-largest overall ad network behind Google and Facebook, other merchants are starting to gain market share.
Retail media now appeals to brands more thanks to recent data privacy regulations. Due to privacy developments like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) that restricted ad attribution and targeting options, other advertising channels like social media have become less effective. Privacy improvements, like the ATT, do not have a significant influence on retail media networks. First-party data that brands cannot obtain anyplace else is only available to retailers. Retail media, which offers an unrivaled return on investment with advanced attribution for numerous product categories, enables brands to target in-market consumers in a very efficient manner.
Additional data privacy protections, like Google’s planned phase-out of third-party cookies for Chrome in late 2023, are favourable for the growth of retail media networks. The value of merchants who create sophisticated retail media networks to profit from their unrivaled access to first-party and in-market data will rise as a result of the implementation of these privacy regulations.