Retail Media – What is it?
Explanation & Meaning

Retail media is a marketing strategy that involves advertising directly at the point of sale, typically on retailers’ platforms. It includes all types of ads that can appear within a retailer’s media network, such as display ads, video ads, sponsored product listings, and personalized recommendations.

This approach has a significant advantage: instead of overwhelming audiences with ads indiscriminately, it targets specific groups within a familiar shopping environment. As a result, consumers are more likely to be receptive to product and brand messages. Retail media not only boosts sales but also enhances brand visibility and recognition.

Retail media isn’t a new concept, but it has gained increasing significance with the growth of online retail and retail platforms.

1. Targeted Advertising
   Retailers have extensive data on their customers’ buying habits and preferences. This allows brands to target their ads to specific audiences, making campaigns more effective.
2. High Purchase Intent
   Shoppers on retail platforms are often already in the buying mindset. Advertising on these platforms targets people who are ready to purchase, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
3. Additional Revenue Stream
   Retailers are increasingly providing companies with offers and opportunities to increase the visibility of their brand and products – both onsite and offsite. The offers range from sponsored product advertisements for searches in online marketplaces to display ads, package inserts or live shopping offers in social content. Some retailers even offer shop-in-shop options that allow companies to present products on the platform in their own corporate design.
4. Extended Reach
   Today, retail media includes a variety of channels and media, which leads to an extended reach. This includes traditional retail stores with posters, flyers and digital signage spaces as well as online marketplaces and stores. Retail Media also includes apps, mailings and social media.

As promising as retailers’ offers are, advertising your own products in this competitive environment and via third-party providers is a challenging task. And the success of your campain ultimately depends on the quality of the product content.

Key factors such as topicality, attractiveness, relevance and consistency are crucial in making your product stand out and effectively reaching your target audience.

Topicality
Retail, whether in-store or online, is a fast-paced industry. Seasonal products and discount promotions constantly change, setting the rhythm for product communication. This makes it challenging to keep your advertising messages current and relevant at all touchpoints.

Attractiveness
Especially on highly frequented marketplaces such as Amazon, an advertising message must stand out and attract attention. Using multimedia content like images and videos can help achieve this. Attention should also be paid to concise and catchy wording when addressing customers.

Relevance
In addition to attractiveness, the relevance of the advertising message is also a critical factor. Depending on the touchpoint, consumers have different needs for products and information. It is important to know this need and to cover it completely with the appropriate content.

Consistency
The clearer the product communication, the stronger the positive influence on the purchase decision. Inaccurate or contradictory information at the various touchpoints quickly makes your brand appear unprofessional, reducing the chances of both purchase and conversion.

Retail media therefore offers enormous opportunities as an advertising channel, but also poses major challenges for brand manufacturers. It’s not just about ensuring that the quality of your advertising messages at each touchpoint is strong and that your brand is reinforced by the content. Ongoing adaptation of product communication is also essential: it must constantly adapt to the conditions at each point of sale. A comprehensive marketing technology stack with software solutions such as PIM, DAM and CM is required for all of this to succeed without excessive use of resources. This technology stack can help you navigate the fast-paced retail environment and meet the demands of dynamic product and brand communication. Software such as mediacockpit can help here.