On the 5th December 2018, Forrester published a report written by industry analyst Sucharita Kodali (@smulpuru) titled Retailers: You’re the Next Media Moguls, Media Networks From Commerce Companies Are Growing And Transforming Shopping (subscription required), with Fiona Swerdlow, Susan Bidel, Collin Colburn, Joanna O’Connell and Heidi Anderson.
In the report, Forrester provides insights on how retailers are building ad businesses and serving onsite ads to their customers at relevant moments. Criteo Retail Media is one of two companies referenced in the report as having “turnkey offerings to help commerce companies get set up and mine their first-party data to intelligently showcase ads to different audiences.”
The authors argue that though Google, Facebook and Amazon are generating considerable shopper traffic (and advertising revenues) but Walmart’s greater traffic in stores shows that retailers still stand a chance – especially those running their own media networks to attract and retain loyal shoppers. They see “ad revenue will be transformational to the country’s largest retailers and represents a massive untapped opportunity” and conclude that retailers that ignore media networks will fall behind.
According to Forrester, brands on their side should “embrace this new publishing channel“ as the biggest players will “collectively generate as much value for brands as Facebook and Google.”
How can retailers compete and continue to develop relationships with their brand manufacturer partners, who are “open to effective new ad opportunities?”
As the report explains, retailers need to find new sources of incremental revenue, and brands are shifting their ad dollars to digital and shopper marketing channels. Developing media networks is a step in the right direction, but they are “hard to pull off with a skeleton team… without resource oxygen, these media networks do not scale.”
Forrester advises retailers to consider building their own media network, but don’t bite off more than they can chew: “Consider partnering with companies like Criteo Retail Media and Intent Media, which have turnkey offerings to help commerce companies get set up and mine their first-party data to intelligently showcase ads to different audiences.”
March 2020 update: this report was subsequently updated, head here to read more.
