Identity drives end-to-end retail media outcomes​

Retail media is getting crowded, and that changes the brief for brands and agencies. If every retailer can sell onsite placements, the differentiator becomes whether campaigns can reach real buyers consistently and show what moved sales, not just what won a click.

What IDC is saying

In Identity Drives End-to-End Retail Media Outcomes, IDC’s Ananda Chakravarty argues that person-level identity is the engine behind precision, closed-loop attribution and scaled activation across formats. It is the difference between a network that can only retarget site visitors and one that can build unique reach across the wider journey.

Why this matters now

Most Retail Media Networks are hitting the same wall. Data quality and accessibility become the limiting factor, with IDC’s survey pointing to “data issues” as the top blocker at 36.2%. When identity is weak, teams spend their days reconciling customers, channels and transactions instead of optimising outcomes.

Where it is heading

The paper also flags the next growth frontier, in-store, where nearly four in five retail sales still happen. Strong identity infrastructure, plus AI-led decisioning to handle messy signals, is what makes omnichannel attribution and smarter optimisation realistic rather than aspirational.

Download this whitepaper for a clear view of what “end to end” actually requires, and the questions worth asking before budgets shift.