Retail media has become a fixture in nearly every CPG marketing plan for 2026. Yet, for all its promise, it remains one of the most complex and fast-moving landscapes in marketing. There are now more than 200 retail media networks worldwide, each claiming to offer unmatched access to valuable audiences.
Capabilities evolve monthly, new entrants appear constantly, and almost every network boasts a fantastic audience and proprietary insight. So how do you tell them apart? What separates a network that promises impressions from one that truly delivers outcomes?
Below, we explore three things every brand should look for when evaluating retail media partners and highlight examples from EMEA retailers already setting the standard.
Reach is easy to promise, but the right kind of reach is what matters. The most effective networks can identify and connect with all of a retailer’s real shoppers across digital, in-store and offsite channels, without duplication. That’s what “unique reach” means: connecting with real people, not modelled segments.
Without this foundation, you’re investing in only a portion of the available audience. With it, you unlock greater scale, stronger performance and more value for your spend.
A robust identity layer makes this possible. It’s what enables networks to recognise the same shopper across different touchpoints, from loyalty schemes and app usage to in-store transactions and offsite behaviour.
Iceland represents a uniquely valuable audience in UK grocery, with around 7% of the online market. Its expanded retail media network now gives brands access to price-sensitive and often underrepresented consumers, opening the door to more advertisers who can engage shoppers in smarter, more relevant ways. That inclusivity — built on people-based media — is what makes Iceland’s network stand out.
For more on how retailers are applying these principles in practice, you can learn about Epsilon Retail Media and how it helps retailers bring unique reach, omnichannel activation and measurable outcomes to life.
Learn more about Epsilon Retail Media.
Brands today expect access to all shoppers, not just those browsing a retailer’s website. A high-performing retail media network should unify activation across every environment, from in-store screens and product listings to connected TV, digital audio and social media.
According to IAB Europe’s Attitudes to Retail Media report, 46% of buyers now allocate more than 41% of their digital spend to offsite channels. Yet only 30% of retailers offer offsite capabilities. That’s a critical gap and a major opportunity.
The best networks don’t just add more channels; they connect them intelligently. Success in retail media isn’t about being everywhere, it’s about showing up in the right places with a consistent understanding of who you’re reaching and how those interactions influence purchase behaviour.
Example: John Lewis Partnership
The John Lewis Partnership has recently advanced its retail media offer by activating first-party data from its loyalty schemes to power offsite campaigns. Partner brands can now run advertising across external channels including video on connected TV and display on consumer websites, all linked back to real shoppers. It’s a model that connects grocery and non-grocery journeys, showing how unified activation can translate into richer insights and stronger ROI.
Measurement is where strong networks truly distinguish themselves. Retailers must move beyond assumed ROAS to show verified outcomes, tying media exposure directly to transactions, both online and offline.
That level of precision demands two things: an accurate view of real shoppers and closed-loop measurement to confirm what happened after the ad was seen. Without identity resolution, a network can’t know who it’s talking to; without closed-loop attribution, it can’t know what those interactions achieved.
The most advanced players now apply AI to person-first identity resolution, evaluating hundreds of variables in milliseconds to decide when and where to deliver each message. This ensures the right shopper sees the right offer at the optimal moment and that every impression is accountable to real business results.
Example: Currys Connected Media
Currys Connected Media network, including its Tech Hunters proposition, combines extensive first-party data with Epsilon’s COREid technology to give brands a unified view of in-market tech shoppers. By integrating display, online video and connected TV within a single campaign, Currys can measure both digital and in-store impact. In recent campaigns, in-store sales rose by as much as 20%, showing how omnichannel measurement can connect awareness activity directly to physical outcomes.
For more information, read our Currys Retail Media Network case study.
Retail media is evolving at speed and every retailer sits at a different stage of maturity. For brands, the challenge is separating noise from value.
When choosing where to invest, look for networks that can:
Those that meet all three criteria aren’t just another media partner, they’re engines of growth. In an increasingly crowded market, they’re the networks that will move your brand forward with speed, confidence and measurable impact.
