Retail media: the complete guide for retailers and brands

Retail media is advertising sold by a retailer on its own shopping surfaces (search, product pages, apps, emails, stores) and on outside channels using its shopper data. Brands pay to reach shoppers close to purchase, and the retailer earns media income alongside product margin. It works best when ads are ranked on relevance with organic products.

What retail media is

Retail media is advertising that a retailer sells using its own shoppers, its own surfaces and its own data. A brand pays the retailer so its products or messages are seen by people who are actively shopping. The retailer earns income from that media on top of the margin it makes selling products.

The term covers a wide range of inventory. On the retailer's own website and app there are sponsored products in search results and category listings, banners and brand pages, sponsored recommendations on product pages and in the basket, and offers in emails and push notifications. In physical stores there are screens, shelf labels and checkout placements. Away from the retailer's properties, the same shopper data can be used to target ads on social platforms, video and the open web.

What makes retail media different from other advertising is closeness to the sale. A shopper who searches a grocer's site for "pasta sauce" has already told the retailer what they want. An ad shown at that moment is more useful to the shopper and more measurable for the brand, because the retailer can see whether the product was bought.

Onsite, offsite and in-store

Onsite retail media runs on the retailer's own website and app: search, browse, product pages, basket and checkout. It is usually the largest and most profitable part of a programme because the retailer controls the inventory and sees the outcome directly. See onsite vs offsite retail media.

Offsite retail media uses the retailer's audiences to buy ads elsewhere — social, video, connected TV, display. The retailer typically shares in the media spend and provides closed-loop measurement back to its own sales data.

In-store retail media brings the same logic to physical shops: digital screens, electronic shelf labels and checkout offers. See in-store pricing and media.

The main ad formats

• Sponsored products — a product promoted inside search results, category pages and recommendations, normally sold on cost per click. This is the core of most programmes. See Sponsored Products.
• Sponsored search — sponsored products and brand units tied to what the shopper searched for. See Sponsored Search.
• Display and rich media — banners, video and interactive units, usually sold on cost per thousand impressions (CPM). See Video and rich media.
• Sponsored brand pages — a brand's own shoppable page inside the retailer's site. See Sponsored Brand Pages.
• Retargeting — reaching shoppers again with relevant products after they searched or browsed. See Search Retargeting.
• Supplier-funded offers (trade media) — a brand funds a discount or offer that the retailer shows to the right shoppers, with the offer itself as the ad. See Trade Media.
• Non-endemic advertising — advertisers that don't sell through the retailer, such as banks, insurers or car brands, reaching its shoppers in context. See Up-Funnel Non-Endemic.
• AI assistant formats — sponsored answers and products inside shopping chat and agents. See Sponsored Prompts.

How the money flows

Brands fund retail media from several budgets: marketing (brand and performance), shopper marketing, and trade spend that was traditionally used for discounts and in-store promotions. That last source is why retail media sits so close to the commercial relationship between a retailer and its suppliers. See retail media is eating trade.

For the retailer, media income is high-margin because the inventory already exists. The trade-off is the shopping experience: every slot given to an ad is a slot not given to the most useful organic product. A programme that fills pages with poorly matched ads can lower conversion and damage trust, which costs more than the media earns. That is why ranking matters as much as selling.

Why relevance decides results

The simplest way to run sponsored products is fixed slots: the first two positions are ads, the rest are organic. It is easy to sell but often shows ads that don't match the shopper's need.

The alternative is to rank sponsored and organic products together on relevance to the shopper, so a sponsored product only appears where it is a genuinely good result. Shoppers see useful products, brands get clicks from people who wanted the product, and the retailer can show more ads overall without hurting the page. See Unified Ranking and the relevance layer for retail media.

How retail media is measured

Retailers can connect ad exposure to actual purchases, which is the main reason brands invest. The common measures are:

• Return on ad spend (ROAS) — attributed sales divided by spend. Useful but it counts sales that might have happened anyway. See ROAS.
• Incrementality — the extra sales caused by the ad, measured against a holdout group that didn't see it. See incrementality.
• Brand halo — sales of the brand's other products after exposure. See brand halo.
• New-to-brand — buyers who hadn't bought the brand recently.

For the full method, see the retail media measurement guide.

How a retailer starts

• Pick the first surface. Search results are usually the best start because intent is clearest.
• Connect the catalogue, prices and stock so ads never promote products that can't be bought.
• Decide the ranking approach — fixed slots or relevance-ranked with organic results.
• Set the commercial model: pricing (CPC, CPM), minimum prices, and who in the business owns advertiser relationships and delivery.
• Give brands self-service and reporting, including incrementality tests.
• Expand to product pages, basket, apps, email, offsite and non-endemic demand.

Step-by-step: how to launch a retail media network. To size the opportunity for your own site, use the free Retail Media Business Case Builder.

Decisions that stay with the retailer

A platform can automate ranking, targeting and reporting, but some decisions belong to the retailer's ad business: price floors, frequency caps, how to respond to under-delivery and whether to offer make-goods. Particular Audience notifies AdOps teams and advertisers about pacing; it doesn't change floors or caps on the retailer's behalf. See campaign under-delivery.

Where retail media is going

Three shifts stand out. First, more shopping happens inside AI assistants, so ads have to work inside answers rather than in fixed slots. Second, non-endemic demand is growing as retailers open their audiences to advertisers who don't sell on their shelves. Third, trade spend and retail media are merging into one conversation about how suppliers fund growth. Each of these makes relevance — not ad volume — the deciding factor.

Related guides

• Retail media networks explained
• Retail media advertising for brands
• Retail media platform buyer's guide
• Commerce media vs retail media

Sources

• Retail media platform, checked 2026-11-13
• Unified Ranking, checked 2026-11-13
• Retail media is eating trade, checked 2026-11-13

How Particular Audience does it

• Retail media platform
• Sponsored Products
• Unified Ranking
• Retail Media Business Case Builder

Frequently asked questions

What is retail media in simple terms?

Advertising sold by a retailer on its own shopping surfaces, and on outside channels using its shopper data, so brands can reach people close to purchase.

What is the difference between retail media and trade marketing?

Trade marketing funds discounts, ranging and in-store promotion. Retail media funds advertising. The budgets increasingly overlap, and supplier-funded offers combine both.

Is retail media only for large retailers?

No. Any retailer or marketplace with steady shopper traffic and products from multiple brands can sell onsite media, starting with sponsored products in search.

How do retailers price retail media?

Sponsored products are usually sold per click, display and video per thousand impressions, and some formats as fixed tenancies. The retailer sets the floors.

Related guides

• Retail media networks explained: What a retail media network is, how it works end to end, build vs partner, the technology stack and the questions to ask before you launch.
• Retail media advertising: a guide for brands: How brands buy retail media advertising: formats, targeting, budgets, bidding, ROAS vs incrementality and how to choose where to spend.
• Retail media measurement: incrementality, attribution and the metrics that matter: How to measure retail media: closed-loop attribution, holdout incrementality, halo, new-to-brand and the effect of ads on the retailer's own conversion.
• Onsite vs offsite retail media: Compare onsite and offsite retail media by inventory, data, control and measurement. Separate non-endemic advertising from channel choice and check access.
• How to launch a retail media network: Build a retail media launch plan covering inventory, suppliers, eligibility, measurement and billing. Use readiness gates and a practical pilot checklist.

Retail media guides · All guides