This is the final post in our Ensuring the long-term success of your RMN series, which is focused on helping retailers stay ahead of the retail media curve.
Retail media is wildly successful, and yet there is still more opportunity to continue to push the boundaries. In fact, the bricks are already being laid on the path to the next level and the evolution is underway.
What we’ll call “Retail Media 1.0” was triggered by the success of Amazon. It centered on product search and display, where retailer asset monetization meets the demand for first-party data and digital closed-loop measurement. Retail Media 2.0, where we’re headed now, is about full-funnel and the convergence with other channels.
In Retail Media 2.0, the new growth drivers are in-store monetization, omnichannel measurement, and creative innovation. Once you’ve tapped into the full potential of sponsored products, onsite display and offsite, these are the next level of revenue opportunities. Let’s explore them now.
In-store monetization
In Retail Media 2.0, retailers will be able to monetize in-store assets along with their onsite assets. This would entail physical store-level media management ranging from in-store activations such as digital screens, point-of-sale displays, and sampling to out-of-store activations like inbox sampling and inserts, and online activations such as digital circulars, email, and social.
A holistic solution would enable retailers to easily create and package in-store and online inventory together for a complete retail media offering and allow advertisers to buy all inventory and audiences in one place.
Retailers will at last be able to unify their entire ad sales business for a complete view of their omnichannel media, while offering their brand partners a wider range of offline media inventory and enhanced targeting capabilities.
Omnichannel measurement
Hand-in-hand with the ability to unify media assets is the ability to have one single view of attribution to measure omnichannel outcomes. This includes onsite, offsite, in-store, and out-of-store.
The next evolution of retail media will make it even easier for retailers to add value to their brands, by providing closed-loop omnichannel measurement. Granular attribution at the SKU, brand, and category levels will enable advertisers to understand what performs, when, and why across both digital and physical media. And real-time insights refreshed every few hours will make it possible to optimize campaigns quickly and effectively.
Retail media, already beloved for its closed-loop measurement, will become an indispensable omnichannel strategy. This is supported by a recent Path to Purchase Institute survey, in which more than half of ad agency professionals cited omnichannel audience tracking as “the next big thing in retail media.”1
Engaging interactive experiences
The success of retail media is inextricably linked to the value that it provides to consumers. As the category matures and moves up the funnel, continuing to deliver value means engaging consumers with more interactive and entertaining ads.
The next iteration of retail media will come with more creative flexibility, moving away from purely static, template based creative while maintaining best-in-class shopper experiences.
Enhanced creative workflows will ensure seamless onsite and offsite experiences. Dynamic creative and A/B testing capabilities will allow retailers and brands to ensure that the experiences they’re creating are relevant and engaging for consumers.
Exciting new formats, like shoppable video, will bring richer experiences to consumers with the same targeting and closed-loop measurement as onsite retail media. In the aforementioned Path to Purchase Institute survey, the largest share of respondents said that the next big thing in retail media would be “shoppable video”.
Take your monetization to the next level
With new revenue-earning opportunities like in-store and omnichannel, retail media continues to be the gift that keeps giving. Ready to explore the future of retail media now? Begin your retail media 2.0 evolution with Commerce Yield–a comprehensive stack offering 360-degree media management yield optimization solutions.
1 https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/5-charts-on-current-future-state-of-retail-media
