Retail media has spent the last few years selling one promise: show an ad, close the loop, prove the sale. That performance logic made the category attractive. It also made it easy to mistake retail media for a lower-funnel channel with better data.
That definition is starting to look too small. As Digiday reports, agency and brand executives are pushing retail media toward a broader role that includes brand building, websites, physical stores, and more independent measurement.
The store is still the biggest commerce surface
Dentsu’s Aisha Khan pointed to a basic imbalance: more than 80% of sales still happen in stores, while less than 5% of retail media spending goes to in-store media. That gap is the clearest opportunity in the discussion.
The next phase of retail media may therefore be less about adding another sponsored placement to an app and more about digitizing the moment before purchase. In-store screens, shopper marketing, and other physical touchpoints could give retailers more inventory while helping brands reach consumers closer to the decision itself.
There is a practical tension here. Khan also described retail media as effective but expensive at the bottom of the funnel. Bringing more activity into stores could improve efficiency, but only if retailers can make physical media measurable without turning every interaction into another opaque performance claim.
Closed-loop measurement is losing its monopoly
The other shift is happening around the measurement promise. Retail media grew partly because retailers could show what happened after an ad was served. But advertisers are increasingly building their own capabilities across retailers, using AI-powered media mix modeling and incrementality analysis to compare channels themselves.
That could compress the premium retailers charge for closed-loop measurement. It also changes the balance of power. If retailers are no longer the only party able to explain the sale, their value has to come from more than access to transaction data.
Instrument’s Laurel Burton made a related point about websites. With brands arriving through search, social platforms, apps, and increasingly AI interfaces, the website remains the central place where those experiences need to connect. Crocs CMO Carly Gomez similarly argued that every entry point should feel cohesive.
The implication for marketers is straightforward: retail media is becoming part of a connected commerce system, not a self-contained conversion channel. Creative, physical experience, owned destinations, and measurement now have to work together. Retailers that can offer only attribution may find that advertisers are willing to pay less for the proof and more for the experience.