What is offsite retail media and how to plan it into your 2027 plan

Offsite retail media takes a retailer's shopper data beyond its own website, so brands can reach category buyers on connected TV, online video and display. Targeting is based on what people have bought, and results are measured against sales, which makes it a practical add-on for 2027 plans.

What is offsite retail media?

Offsite retail media is advertising that uses a retailer's first-party shopper data to reach people outside the retailer's own site and app. Onsite retail media covers sponsored products, display and brand pages on the retailer's properties. Offsite extends the same audiences to publishers, streaming services and CTV.

Why do you need offsite retail media?

Most shoppers never see onsite ads. Epsilon research found that only 10-20% of consumers visit a retailer's site organically. Offsite reaches the others on the sites, apps and streaming services they already use.

Retail media is now a mainstream budget line in Europe, passing 10% of total digital ad spend in 2025 according to IAB Europe's AdEx Benchmark. If you're new to the model, our guide to retail media networks covers the basics.

Onsite and offsite: how they fit together

Most retail media plans use both. Onsite reaches shoppers who are already on the retailer's site. Offsite reaches the same audience earlier in the journey and between visits.

Onsite

Offsite

You don't have to sell through the retailer

You don't have to sell directly through a retailer for its audiences to be highly relevant to what you offer. Deliveroo is a good example, because people order all sorts of things through the app, but someone who regularly orders Italian food is also relevant to a travel brand promoting a holiday in Italy. The order says something about what that person enjoys and what they might be receptive to, and none of that depends on the travel brand being on the menu.

The same principle applies elsewhere. Confused.com offers comparison shopping across home, travel, car and pet insurance, but a car quote tells an auto manufacturer far more than the price of cover. It can show who already has an electric vehicle and whether they might be nearing the end of a contract, which is invaluable if you're deciding who to talk to and when. The platform isn't a retailer in the traditional sense, but the audience and the moment of intent are what make it useful to a brand that sells nothing through it.

How to plan offsite retail media for 2027

1. Decide what the activity is for. Offsite retail media can build awareness among category shoppers or drive sales at a specific retailer. Pick one primary objective per campaign so the results are easy to read.
2. Choose retailers whose shoppers match your category. Grocery networks offer frequency and household reach, while electricals and home retailers suit longer, considered purchases. Our overview of UK retail media networks shows which retailers offer offsite activation.
3. Match the channel to the objective. Connected TV and online video suit reach and storytelling on the big screen. Display keeps your brand present during consideration and close to purchase.
4. Build audiences from verified shopping behaviour. Target category buyers, lapsed customers or shoppers new to your brand, based on what they have bought rather than modelled interests.
5. Agree closed-loop measurement before launch. Decide whether success means online and in-store sales, new-to-brand customers or incremental lift against a holdout. Our guide to retail media measurement explains the options.
6. Plan around the purchase cycle. Considered purchases can take weeks of research, so keep media running across the full journey rather than in short bursts.
7. Use the results to plan the next round. Shopper-level reporting shows which audiences and channels drove sales. Carry those findings into the brief for the next campaign.

Why CTV belongs in a retail media plan

CTV brings TV-scale reach to retail media. Retailer data lets brands aim that reach at real category buyers and then see whether it led to sales. Video already makes up more than half of display investment in Europe, according to IAB Europe's AdEx Benchmark, so most brands have the creative to start.

One way to plan it is as a sequence. Use CTV to reach new category shoppers, then follow up with display and online video as they move closer to buying. If CTV is new to your team, our guide to getting started with CTV advertising covers the assets you need.

Questions to ask a retail media partner

• Is the audience built on verified purchase data, or modelled from third-party sources?
• Can it measure sales in store as well as online?
• Does reporting separate new-to-brand customers from existing ones?
• Is the offer managed, self-serve or both? Some UK networks, including the John Lewis Partnership, launched offsite as a managed service first.
• How is frequency controlled across CTV, online video and display?
• How is consent handled under UK GDPR?

Where should you start?

Start with one retailer and one objective. Run offsite activity alongside your existing onsite, trade and platform spend, and compare what each delivers.

A recent John Lewis Partnership campaign followed this approach. A global fitness technology brand launching a new smartwatch for peak gifting season used John Lewis' first-party data to find active lifestyle shoppers with a proven interest in smart tech. It then reached them across display, online video and connected TV, with closed-loop measurement tracking sales online and in store. The campaign delivered a 17:1 brand ROAS, and 92% of orders came from customers new to the brand.

Request an Epsilon Retail Media demo

Epsilon powers onsite and offsite retail media for UK retailers across grocery, electricals, home and fashion. Book a demo with our EMEA team to see which retailers' shoppers your brand can reach on CTV, online video and display, and how sales would be measured.

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