The advertising ecosystem is rapidly evolving and one phrase keeps coming up in boardrooms and trade publications alike: retail and commerce media. Once niche categories, these channels are now among the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising, reshaping how brands, agencies, and publishers approach customer engagement.
At MediaRadar, we’re seeing this shift firsthand. From global retailers like Walmart and Amazon to data-rich intermediaries like Instacart and PayPal, the line between commerce and media is blurring—and advertisers are paying attention.
Retail Media vs. Commerce Media: What’s the Difference?
Though often used interchangeably, retail media and commerce media aren’t identical.
- Retail Media: Advertising within a retailer’s ecosystem. Think of sponsored listings on Amazon, display ads on Walmart.com, or promotions inside Instacart. These placements are powered by retailers’ first-party customer data and can extend beyond their own platforms (off-site) through partnerships with Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), Ad Exchanges & Server Side Platforms (SSPs) and Walled Garden Hybrids where retailers have proprietary integrations with preferred partners.
- Commerce Media: Advertising powered by transactional data outside traditional retail. Travel platforms like Expedia, financial apps like Chase or PayPal, and even fitness companies like Planet Fitness are leveraging purchase data to create authenticated, targeted ad opportunities—almost always off-site via partnerships.
What unites both is the power of deterministic data: real, verifiable purchase behavior tied back to individuals or households. Unlike probabilistic targeting, which relies on inferences, retail and commerce media offer advertisers closed-loop attribution—proving ROI in ways that many other digital channels can’t.
The Growth Story: Billions in Play
The numbers speak for themselves.
- Retail media spending is projected to surpass $100 billion by 2028, outpacing nearly every other advertising channel with a compound annual growth rate of about 17%.
- Walmart Connect alone reported 31% revenue growth in Q2, compared to just 4.8% growth in Walmart’s broader business.
- Non-retail commerce media—covering travel, financial services, and other intermediaries—is expected to exceed $13 billion by 2027, growing faster than many traditional retail media networks outside of giants like Amazon and Walmart.
As Eric Seuferd, the advertising industry analyst, put it: “Everything becomes an ad network.” Retailers, financial platforms, and even fitness companies are realizing the untapped potential of their data.
Why Brands and Agencies Are Paying Attention
For brands and agencies, the opportunity—and the challenge—lies in visibility.
Most advertisers can’t access raw retail media data directly. Instead, they often receive packaged reports from walled gardens, making it difficult to connect media spend to true ROI. This lack of transparency drives demand for third-party insights.
That’s where MediaRadar comes in. By tracking placements across dozens of retail media sites, we help brands:
- Plan smarter: Identify which retail partners and networks align best with their campaigns.
- Activate strategically: See how retail media spend complements broader digital campaigns.
- Measure effectively: Feed our data into ROI models and marketing mix analyses.
- Optimize continuously: Refine budgets by understanding where competitors are spending and how campaigns are performing.
Publishers & Platforms: Expanding the Ecosystem
It’s not just brands and agencies paying attention—publishers and platforms are also getting in on the action.
Take Instacart. Once viewed solely as a retail media network, it has evolved into a full advertising ecosystem. With partnerships spanning Roku, Pinterest, Meta, and The Trade Desk, Instacart leverages its first-party shopper data to offer advertisers powerful off-platform solutions.
By combining MediaRadar insights with their own purchase data, Instacart has unlocked new go-to-market strategies, helping advertisers understand not just what’s happening in retail media, but how those investments tie into streaming, social, and beyond.
This hybrid approach—pairing commerce data with broad media reach—is quickly becoming the norm.
The Future: From Buzzword to Business Imperative
Retail and commerce media are no longer fringe concepts. They are core pillars of modern advertising, offering unmatched targeting precision and measurable ROI.
For CMOs under increasing pressure to prove performance, these channels offer something traditional digital advertising often lacks: incrementality—the ability to prove the additional impact of media spend, without over-crediting other channels.
As walled gardens, retailers, and intermediaries continue to expand their networks, advertisers who ignore this trend risk falling behind.
At MediaRadar, we’ll continue tracking this space closely—helping our clients connect the dots, cut through the noise, and maximize the value of their investments.
Want to learn more? Explore our Instacart case study and stay tuned for upcoming insights into sports, political, and seasonal advertising trends.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Caroline McCrory, Chief Commercial Officer
Caroline joined MediaRadar in 2024 as Chief Commercial Officer, leading Sales, Client Engagement, Marketing, and Revenue Operations. Caroline brings an exceptional record of accelerating revenue growth and scaling commercial teams within the data and information services industry, including notable tenures at S&P Global Market Intelligence, Green Street, and SNL Financial.
