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It’s no secret that Amazon has dominated retail media for most of the past decade.
However, there are several grocery and specialty retailer challengers outside of the ecommerce giant’s shadow powering growth and speculation into how this ad category will transform the marketing ecosystem.
Emarketer estimates global retail media ad spending will hit $54 billion this year, with some counting over 200 retail media networks.
To help simplify this burgeoning landscape, ADWEEK compiled a list (in alphabetical order) of the most important retail media networks for advertisers to know in 2024, based on conversations with experts, analysts and the retailers themselves.
For a deeper dive into specialty and category-specific networks, watch this space in the coming weeks.
“The most successful retail media networks [RMNs] today offer their advertisers a combination of scale, targeting capabilities, and ability to sufficiently measure and report on return on ad spend,” Sarah Marzano, principal analyst at Emarketer, told ADWEEK. To stand out, she continued, RMNs must continue to focus on improving those fundamentals while “developing and delivering on a differentiated value proposition.”
Best Buy Ads
Unique ad proposition: Deep tech focus
Best Buy Ads formally launched as an in-house media business in January 2022 and is one of the frontrunners in specialty retail media. Last year, the company rolled out a new self-service tool called My Ads and launched a partnership with Roku.
“This isn’t new for us,” chief executive (CEO) Corie Barry said during a Feb. 29 earnings call. “[Our ads business] has gotten more scientific. It has gotten a lot more personalized. And I think that first-party data that we have is much more powerful than it has ever been historically.”
What’s new in 2024: The company has teased more of a focus on off-site and CTV and said it has several announcements slated for the coming weeks.
Revenue: Best Buy declined to share revenue information.
Instacart Ads
Unique ad proposition: Off-platform targeting
With over 5,500 brands and 1,500 retailers on its platform, grocery delivery app Instacart spans dozens of regional grocery networks, connecting advertisers to audiences across the U.S. The platform launched its retail media network, Instacart Ads, in March 2020 and followed up with a self-service tool two months later. In 2022, it debuted Carrot Ads, a solution for retailers like Sprouts to build out their own RMNs using Instacart’s tech.
With search, browsing and purchase data from shoppers in over 13,000 cities, Instacart has “incredible insight into what consumers are adding to their baskets,” a spokesperson said via email. Brands see a 15% sales lift when running ads on the platform, the spokesperson said.