Criteo’s long dominance in providing demand for retail media has let the company charge comparably high rates while lagging on technology like ad serving, sources told ADWEEK. A company spokesperson disputed the claims about its technology, and said its fees reflect the value it delivers to clients.
Criteo was an early winner when a new slate of retailers first started building advertising businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, said James Avery, CEO and founder of Kevel.
At the time, Criteo competed mostly with CitrusAd—which has since been acquired by Publicis Groupe and now sits within its Epsilon data unit—and PromoteIQ, which was acquired Microsoft, but now does not take new clients, according to the tech giant.
Now, Criteo is facing off against a new wave of companies like Kevel, Koddi, Moloco, Pentaleap, Topsort, and Vantage, who pitch sophisticated tech to solve the growing challenges retail media sellers face. Criteo’s competitors are also leveraging more programmatic advertising, an area they claim Criteo has been slow to embrace. A company spokesperson disputed that and said its approach to programmatic is “intentional and designed to meet the needs of specific retailers.”
Many of these rival companies say they can provide much-needed demand to retail media sellers. Moloco, for example, claims its updated infrastructure helps retailers compete for ad dollars against the likes of Google and Meta, said Jon Flugstad, senior director of business development at Moloco. Pentaleap connects with demand-side platforms like Teads to provide that programmatic demand, said CEO and founder Andreas Reiffen.
Criteo’s rivals are also inking deals with firms like Pacvue and Skai to use APIs so advertisers can easily buy retail media across multiple sites—and avoid buying through Criteo.
Many of these upstarts also promise to help retailers adapt to the changing way people find and buy products, as large language models and AI-powered shopper agents impact commerce.
“We’re in a replacement cycle,” said Regina Ye, co-founder and CEO of Topsort. “New solutions are focused on product and engineering, and how agentic tech and AI from Silicon Valley will impact retail media.”
The incumbent is holding strong—for now
Criteo’s business isn’t showing signs of bowing to the competition yet.
The company made $60 million on its retail media business in the second quarter, up 11% year over year. It has an extended partnership with Microsoft, which is recommending that retailers that used PromoteIQ move to Criteo.
And it’s bolstering its tech to fill out its capabilities. In the last six months, it added video ads, and enabled programmatic buying of onsite display ads. It also inked a partnership with Mirakl to bring more small-and mid-size third-party advertisers into the retail media networks that it powers.
CEO Michael Komasinski said Criteo’s competitors aren’t impacting its product roadmap: “I don’t think I’ve seen anything that radically changes what we’re doing,” he told ADWEEK. “But we take all competition seriously, even the small ones.”
