How retail media networks work, why advertisers and retailers invest in them, top RMN examples, pricing models, measurement, and how in-store digital screens are reshaping retail media.
First-party shopper data, closed-loop measurement, and the convergence of in-store screens with programmatic DOOH.
A retail media network (RMN) is an advertising platform operated by a retailer that allows brands to purchase ad placements across the retailer’s owned and operated media channels — including website, mobile app, in-store digital screens, email, and offsite audience extensions — using the retailer’s first-party shopper data for targeting and measurement.
In simpler terms, a retail media network turns a retailer into a media company. The targeting is powered by the retailer’s own transaction data — what people actually buy, how often, at what price, and through which channel.
Retail media networks solve three problems simultaneously. For advertisers, RMNs offer deterministic targeting based on real purchase behavior. For retailers, RMNs create a high-margin revenue stream from existing traffic and data assets. For shoppers, retail media surfaces relevant products and offers in context, reducing friction in the purchase journey.
A retail media network operates at the intersection of e-commerce, advertising technology, and first-party data.
A retailer with significant digital traffic and physical stores creates an advertising platform — built in-house, powered by a third-party provider (Criteo, CitrusAd, Epsilon, Kevel, Moloco), or a combination. The platform packages ad placements, targeting capabilities, and buying interfaces.
CPG brands, electronics manufacturers, and other suppliers purchase placements through self-serve (brand logs in and sets up campaigns), managed-service (retailer builds and optimizes), or programmatic (brand’s DSP bids on RMN inventory through SSP integrations).
Purchase history, browsing behavior, loyalty membership, basket composition, and category affinity feed targeting models. An advertiser selling premium dog food can target shoppers who purchased pet products in the past 90 days at specific store locations.
Ads are delivered across the retailer’s owned channels: sponsored product listings on the website, banners in the app, personalized email offers, digital screens in physical stores, and offsite display and video ads targeting the retailer’s audience segments.
Because the retailer owns both the ad platform and the transaction data, it can directly connect ad exposure to purchase outcomes — without cookies, device graphs, or probabilistic matching. The advertiser knows exactly how many impressions led to how many purchases, at what ROAS.
Retail media spans a taxonomy of channels, each with distinct targeting capabilities and performance profiles.
Promoted positions within search results or category pages on the retailer’s site. Targeting is keyword-based and behavioral. Pricing is typically CPC. This format generates the majority of RMN revenue.
Banner placements on the retailer’s homepage, category pages, product detail pages, and checkout flow. Targeting leverages retailer audience segments. CPM-based pricing.
Pre-roll, mid-roll, or in-feed video within the retailer’s app or website. A growing format as retailers invest in richer content and shoppable video integrations.
The retailer builds audience segments from transaction and behavioral data, then activates them through DSPs or walled-garden platforms (Meta, Google, TikTok) to reach shoppers wherever they browse.
Programmatic ads on publisher sites and apps, targeted using retailer segments. Measurement loops back to transaction data for closed-loop attribution.
Retailers extending audience data into connected TV environments, enabling brands to reach high-value shopper segments during premium video content — with purchase-based attribution.
Screens at checkout lanes, end caps, aisle entrances, deli counters, and pharmacy areas. Deliver product promotions and brand messaging within feet of the shelf at the moment of decision.
Large-format screens in entrances, central aisles, and customer service zones delivering brand awareness and promotional content to every shopper who enters the store.
Digital displays replacing static cooler doors in grocery and convenience stores. Dynamic product promotions as shoppers browse refrigerated aisles — pioneered by Cooler Screens and expanding across major chains.
In-store audio networks delivering brand messages through overhead speakers. Audio reaches 100% of shoppers regardless of which aisle they visit.
Touchscreen units for browsing promotions, scanning loyalty cards, or interacting with brand content at the shelf edge.
The unique advantages that make retail media one of the fastest-growing advertising channels.
Targeting based on actual purchase behavior — not modeled intent. Real transaction data: what shoppers bought, how much they spent, how often they return. In a cookieless landscape, retailer first-party data is one of the most valuable targeting assets available.
Retail media reaches consumers at or near the moment they make buying decisions. A sponsored listing appears during active product search. An in-store screen delivers a message while the shopper stands in the relevant aisle. No other channel operates this close to the transaction.
The retailer controls both the ad platform and the point of sale, directly attributing exposure to purchase outcomes. Advertisers see exactly how many impressions drove how many sales, at what ROAS, down to the SKU level.
The most sophisticated RMNs provide incrementality measurement — isolating sales that would not have occurred without ad exposure. This goes beyond simple attribution to quantify the true incremental revenue driven by the media investment.
Challenger brands can target shoppers who historically purchased from a competitor. Incumbents can defend position by retargeting loyal buyers with reinforcement messaging and promotional offers. Competitive targeting impossible in most other channels.
In-store screens and onsite display serve brand objectives, not just performance. For product launches, new categories, or awareness building, retail media provides a high-attention environment with contextual relevance.
The retail media landscape has expanded rapidly. Major networks by category, with what makes each distinct.
The largest retail media network globally. Sponsored products, sponsored brands, sponsored display, Amazon DSP (offsite), and streaming TV ads on Prime Video and Freevee. Amazon’s scale of shopper data and closed-loop measurement make it the benchmark.
Second-largest US RMN. Onsite search and display, offsite programmatic (powered by The Trade Desk), and a growing in-store media network including TV walls, self-checkout screens, and in-store audio. 4,700+ US locations give unmatched in-store reach.
Onsite display, offsite audience extension (including CTV), and in-store digital signage. Known for curated, brand-safe placements and strong audience data from Target Circle loyalty program members.
One of the most data-rich RMNs. Loyalty card data covering 60M+ US households provides granular purchase-level targeting and closed-loop measurement for CPG advertisers. Onsite, offsite, and in-store media.
Reaches shoppers at the digital point of purchase across multiple grocery storefronts. Sponsored products, display, and shoppable video targeting shoppers actively building baskets.
Powered by loyalty data from Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, and other banners. Onsite, offsite, and in-store media across 2,200+ stores.
Reaches a high-frequency, value-conscious base across 20,000+ stores. In-store digital signage significant in rural and suburban areas where digital reach is limited.
Reaches consumers at the moment of ordering — restaurants, grocery, convenience, and retail. Sponsored listings and display within the DoorDash marketplace.
Journey ads served during rides, plus advertising within Uber Eats — reaching consumers during transit and food ordering moments.
High-intent electronics and appliance shoppers. Onsite sponsored products and display, offsite audience extension, and in-store digital across 1,000+ locations.
Reaches professional contractors and DIY consumers. Onsite search and display, offsite extension, and in-store signage in 2,300+ US stores.
Beauty and personal care brands targeting Ulta’s 40M+ loyalty members. Onsite, offsite, and in-store digital placements.
Not every in-store retail media screen is operated by the retailer itself. A parallel ecosystem of in-store digital media network operators manages screens across multiple retail chains. They install, manage, and sell advertising on digital screens deployed inside retail stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores — aggregating inventory across retail partners and connecting it to programmatic demand through DOOH SSPs.
How retail media compares to traditional digital channels on the dimensions that matter most to advertisers.
| Dimension | Retail Media Network | Traditional Digital |
|---|---|---|
| Data foundation | First-party (actual purchases, loyalty, browsing) | Third-party cookies (deprecated), modeled segments |
| Targeting precision | Deterministic — real purchase behavior | Probabilistic — inferred interest |
| Proximity to purchase | At or near point of sale | Typically separated from purchase moment |
| Measurement | Closed-loop — exposure linked to SKU-level transactions | Multi-touch attribution, modeled conversions |
| Incrementality | Measurable via exposed-vs-control sales lift | Difficult to isolate; relies on holdout testing |
| Environment | Retailer-owned, brand-safe, contextually relevant | Open web — variable brand safety |
| Scale | Limited to retailer audience; offsite extends reach | Broad reach across open internet |
| Creative context | Shopping context — products, purchase intent | Content consumption — news, entertainment |
Pricing models vary by format, channel, and retailer, but the industry has settled on several standard structures.
The dominant model for sponsored product listings. CPCs vary by category and keyword competitiveness: $0.20–$0.50 for low-competition grocery keywords to $2.00–$8.00+ for high-intent electronics and beauty categories on major RMNs.
Standard for display, video, offsite extension, and in-store screens. Ranges from $3–$8 for standard onsite display to $15–$40 for premium video and in-store placements. Offsite typically $8–$20.
Homepage takeovers, category sponsorships, and seasonal promotions sold as fixed-fee packages with guaranteed placement and impressions. Common for Black Friday, Prime Day, and back-to-school.
Minimum campaign budget for self-serve onsite campaigns on most major RMNs.
For managed-service programs with offsite and in-store components.
Retail media’s closed-loop measurement is its most powerful differentiator. Here are the metrics and methods that matter.
Total attributed sales divided by ad spend. Reported as closed-loop — not modeled. Industry benchmarks: 3–7× ROAS for sponsored products and 1.5–4× for display.
Measures sales that occurred because of the ad that would not have happened otherwise. Rigorous RMNs offer ghost ad or matched-holdout testing — comparing purchase rates between exposed and unexposed groups.
Percentage of purchasers driven by an ad who are new to the brand. Critical for conquest campaigns. Pioneered by Amazon; now offered by Walmart Connect and Kroger Precision Marketing.
How the brand’s share of media spend, impressions, and attributed sales compares to competitors within the same category at that retailer.
Connects ad exposure on in-store screens to subsequent purchases at the register — using loyalty card data, POS integration, or mobile device matching. Extends closed-loop measurement from the digital storefront to the physical aisle.
Accounts for interaction between retail media and other channels. Multi-touch models and marketing mix models increasingly incorporate retail media as a distinct channel alongside traditional and digital media.
The growth of in-store retail media has created a direct bridge between retail media networks and the broader digital out-of-home advertising ecosystem.
In-store digital screens are, by definition, digital out-of-home advertising — ads served on physical screens in public or semi-public spaces. Many in-store retail media screens are now connected to programmatic DOOH supply-side platforms, making them buyable through the same DSPs advertisers use for billboards, transit screens, airport displays, and other DOOH formats.
This convergence means an advertiser running a programmatic DOOH campaign can include in-store retail screens in the same media plan as roadside digital billboards, transit station displays, and airport concourse screens — with unified targeting, budgeting, and measurement.
AdQuick’s marketplace includes in-store retail media screens alongside digital billboards, transit displays, airport screens, and place-based networks — all accessible through a single planning interface. Advertisers can build media plans that combine in-store retail screens with broader DOOH formats, compare audience data and CPMs across environments, and measure the combined impact of physical-world advertising from the highway to the checkout lane.
Everything you need to know about retail media, in-store advertising, and how RMNs connect to the programmatic DOOH ecosystem.
AdQuick gives advertisers access to in-store retail digital screens as part of the broader digital out-of-home ecosystem — alongside billboards, transit, airports, and place-based networks.
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