What is a retail media network?

In the UK, online retail media reached £1.5bn in 2025 and is now one of the fastest growing digital ad channels according to IAB UK, making it a channel that neither retailers nor advertisers can afford to ignore.

But what exactly are retail media networks, how do they work and what should your retail media strategy look like?

What is a retail media network?

A retail media network (RMN) is an advertising platform that gives brand advertisers access to the retailer’s first-party data, allowing them to reach more specialised audiences with targeted, highly relevant messaging at the times they’re most likely to purchase.

By connecting transaction-level data and media impressions, retail media platforms also allow advertisers to close the loop on reporting and accurately measure performance.

Benefits of retail media networks

The retail media industry is growing as fast as it is because it offers significant benefits for retailers, brands and shoppers alike.

• Additional revenue stream for retailers. Retail media networks are a rapidly expanding branch of advertising, which can create an entirely new revenue source for retailers.
• Higher ROAS for brands. With retail media advertising, brands reach customers while they’re in the mood to buy something. The result is higher returns than many advertisers see in other channels. One retail media campaign, for example, drove 20% in-store sales uplift.
• Better shopping experiences for customers. First-party retail data allows brands to gain a deeper understanding of their customers and reach specific audiences at key points in their purchase journey. As a result, shoppers more easily discover the types of products they’re interested in.

How retail media networks work

There are three key players in retail media networks:

1. Retailers provide the advertising platform and the first-party data. They leverage their shopper relationships, transaction data and owned channels, like their app or website, to enable advertising and closed-loop measurement.
2. Brand advertisers use the RMN to reach the right consumers with personalised messaging based on first-party retail data, improving campaign performance and ROI.
3. Technology partners provide the retail media platform infrastructure. They provide identity management and analytics to maximise the effectiveness of retail media campaigns while also ensuring accurate measurement and attribution.

Learn how Epsilon’s Retail Media solution works.

Types of retail media ad placements

Retail media advertising solutions offer two main types of online ad placements, onsite and offsite.

Onsite ads

Retail media offers brands a variety of onsite placement options on the retailer’s website and app, including:

• The retailer’s home page to build early consideration.
• Category pages to influence shoppers who are browsing and comparing within a relevant section.
• Search pages to reach shoppers who are actively looking for a specific product.
• Product detail pages to promote a complementary item, trade shoppers up, or present a credible alternative at the point of decision.

Offsite ads

Offsite extends retail media beyond the retailer’s site and app, using retailer signals to find and influence in-market shoppers elsewhere, including across the open web and connected TV (CTV). The value is scale with relevance: you can reach shoppers who are in the buying window but not currently on the retailer’s digital shelf, and you can do it in a way that stays measurable rather than drifting into broad, proxy-led targeting.

The importance of in-store

Most online-to-online journeys are easy to track: a shopper sees an ad, clicks, and buys. They are also the neatest version of reality. In practice, only 29% of UK retail sales occur online (ONS), which means the majority of revenue is still won and lost in-store.

When in-store purchases stay disconnected from digital exposure, the problem is bigger than “incomplete attribution”. You end up optimising towards what’s easiest to observe, then drawing confident conclusions from partial truth: wrong channels get credit, the wrong audiences get scaled, and the wrong messages get repeated.

One of the most important criteria when selecting a retail media partner is whether they can connect online exposure to offline outcomes. That hinges on identity resolution, so you can recognise the same shopper across environments and measure what actually drove sales, not just what generated clicks.

FAQs

What are some common challenges retail media networks face?

Underperforming retail media programs are largely the product of:

1. Poor identity resolution. Without robust identity resolution, it becomes impossible to piece together a shopper’s various data points and signals (e.g., email addresses, search behaviour, browsing activity and transactions) into a single, persistent profile that carries through activation and measurement. Persistent identity allows retailers to find, reach and capture purchases of real shoppers onsite and offsite.
2. Disparate technology solutions. Retailers often begin with an enviable reservoir of customers. But when that audience is passed between multiple partners, each using inconsistent identifiers or partial datasets, the loss is immediate and compounding. Identity resolution can also help here, providing a stable base, but too many handovers will always lower confidence in who is actually being reached.
3. Artificial outcomes. As a result of subpar retail media tech stacks, many advertisers aren’t actually reaching new and unique individuals through their investments. Instead, they’re increasing ad spend against the same people who would have bought anyway.

Success in 2026 and beyond demands a unified, shopper-first tech stack that delivers real, measurable business outcomes. Epsilon’s retail media solutions are designed to meet that challenge.

Learn more about Epsilon’s Retail Media solutions.

What are some examples of top retail media networks?

With retail media spending (including Amazon) expected to exceed £7bn by 2028, more and more retailers are getting into the business. Other notable examples of retail media players include:

• John Lewis Partnership
• Currys Connected Media
• Wickes Connected Media
• Iceland
• Ocado

Retailers of any size can (and do) launch their own retail media networks, but it doesn’t come without its challenges.

How is retail media different from co-op advertising?

Traditional co-op advertising was largely confined to print circulars, in-store signage, or basic digital buys where retailers and brands split costs. Retail media transforms those programs into data-driven, identity-powered campaigns. The difference is precision and accountability: Retail media networks enable real-time personalisation, closed-loop measurement down to the SKU level and the ability to prove true sales impact.

How is retail media different from commerce media?

Retail media focuses specifically on retailers monetising their first-party shopper data to help brand partners reach in-market consumers. Commerce media takes that same model and expands it beyond retail, enabling any business with valuable audience data—such as airlines, hotels or financial services—to create media opportunities for aligned advertisers.