During Criteo’s first quarter earnings call in May—and the first for newly-appointed chief executive officer Michael Komasinski—the company was still reeling from two big client losses that would cost the company $100 million in revenue over the next year.
Target’s retail media business Roundel brought ad sales in house earlier than Criteo expected, and Uber Eats moved its U.S. ad business over to Instacart’s Carrot Ads platform.
In the months since, retail media insiders have seen those losses as evidence that Criteo’s reign as the dominant retail media tech player might be ending. Rivals like Kevel, Koddi, Moloco, and others are aggressively competing against Criteo for retail media wins, boasting more nimble and up-to-date tech, sources said.
That put Criteo in a two-front war: fighting for its business as large retail clients sought to bring their operations in house, while smaller retailers are vulnerable to being wooed by upstart adtech companies. “It’s definitely a threat to Criteo,” one agency executive told ADWEEK.
Still, Criteo appears to be holding strong. The company posted better-than-expected earnings on July 30, boosting its end-of-year outlook. It reported a 112% retention rate for its retailer clients. And while Roundel and Uber Eats seem like big losses on the surface, Criteo really only lost part of those businesses, not the entire account.
“Smaller companies coming in [is] just a proof point that this is a place to be and that and that it’s a big market and that there’s opportunity,” Komasinski told ADWEEK.
But the company isn’t out of the woods yet. It must continue to innovate fast enough to keep its competitors from chiseling away at its roster of over 200 retail clients while adapting to generative AI that is revolutionizing the way people find and buy products.
“Criteo is facing growing competition that’s keeping it honest and driving it to innovate,” Andrew Lipsman, independent retail media analyst, told ADWEEK. “But it’s not easy to dislodge.”
Criteo rivals tout flexibility and cutting-edge tech
Retail media is still one of the fastest-growing segments of the ad industry. U.S. advertisers alone bought $52 billion in retail media last year and are expected to buy $98 billion by 2028, according to Emarketer.
But as advertisers sink in more dollars, they’re also demanding more features: better measurement to prove out the investment, more programmatic capabilities, and easier ways to buy across many retailers at once.
