The moment. Walmart’s advertising business grew 38% and lifted full-year guidance in the same quarter its core sales growth hit a six-year low. Commerce media spend reached $83.71 billion and accelerated to 25% growth in Q2, outpacing retail itself, while WARC put retail media above $200 billion for 2026 with growth slowing to single digits. Simon Property Group and Topgolf both launched networks.
The tension. Retail media is growing considerably faster than the retail underneath it, which makes the ad business the growth story and the shop the inventory. The newest entrants are selling square footage and tee times rather than shelves, and calling it commerce.
Who’s moving. Walmart and Target, both posting double-digit ad growth. Simon Property Group, turning malls into a network. Topgolf, selling out-of-home as commerce media. TikTok Shop, seeding demand that Amazon then closes.
What the desk is watching. Whether frequency capping ever starts working, since it still fails with mature data tools, and whether mall and golf inventory is commerce media or out-of-home with a loyalty file attached.
ANA is urging marketers to lean more on independent third parties rather than trust retail media networks’ own numbers. The warning comes as truly neutral measurement vendors in the space grow scarcer.
Aug 19Epsilon argues AI shopping agents lean on retailers’ first-party data to decide what to recommend, so brands with weak retail media presence cede control over how they’re described to third-party feeds.
Aug 19Walmart finalized its acquisition of Vibe.
Aug 16Citi acquired Kard Financial, instantly giving it a financial media network to rival Amex, Chase and PayPal. It can now monetize transaction data from 35 million cardholder accounts via targeted merchant offers.
Aug 15Academy Sports + Outdoors debuts its own ad business and strikes an Instacart Marketplace deal for same-day delivery. It’s another mid-size retailer proving retail media has spread well past grocery and mass merchants into specialty categories.
Aug 14Criteo finds 39% of electronics shoppers research two-plus weeks before buying, far longer than fashion or beauty. That gives challenger brands a real window to win consideration before Black Friday or Prime Day discounting even starts.
Aug 14Big-box retailers are elevating execs who built AI, retail media and e-commerce units over traditional merchandising leaders. It signals org charts built for buying and selling inventory no longer match where the growth and power actually sit.
Aug 14EMARKETER data shows Walmart’s and Amazon’s private labels top ChatGPT mention rates, but gaps to name brands stay narrow across most categories. Grocery brands can still compete by optimizing content for LLMs and striking retailer partnerships before ground is ceded.
Aug 14Walmart Connect now lets sponsored-products advertisers exclude search terms, six years after Amazon added the feature. It curbs wasted spend on irrelevant or branded queries, a change brands and agencies had pushed for since the pandemic e-commerce boom.
Aug 13Delivery apps like DoorDash and Instacart are positioning game-day ordering data as a commerce network for advertisers targeting sports fans. It gives marketers a closed-loop way to reach fans mid-event and tie ad spend directly to purchases.
Aug 13Walmart Connect now lets brands buy TikTok, Snapchat and Roku inventory through its own platform, keeping first-party data and measurement in-house. It’s a bid to chase Gen Z dollars and close the gap with Amazon’s ad business.
Aug 12Banks, airlines and pharma firms are targeting shoppers who’ll never buy their products through Amazon, using its consumer-behavior data instead.
Aug 11Walmart finalized its acquisition of streaming adtech startup Vibe.co, reportedly for $1.4 billion. The deal signals retail media’s biggest player is now racing to build its own ad-supported streaming stack to compete directly with Amazon.
Aug 11In a three-part video series, Stingray CRO David Purdy argues in-store audio and CTV audio ads are underused opportunities, while flagging Europe’s slow FAST growth. His pitch: captive audiences alone don’t work without format tweaks.
Aug 11Ace’s new retail media network skips legacy tech debt by plugging straight into Pacvue and CitrusAd, and leans on in-store signage since most sales still happen in physical aisles.
Aug 10Guideline’s Q4 forecast says retail media and programmatic CTV prices keep climbing into the holidays, while national TV scatter pricing is softening. Buyers who lock in early on retail/CTV but hold off on broadcast could save money this quarter.
Aug 10Academy Sports + Outdoors debuts Academy Retail Media, linking 320+ stores, e-commerce and first-party data to track ads from exposure to purchase. It’s another specialty retailer joining the closed-loop measurement race reshaping retail media beyond Walmart and Amazon.
Aug 10Walmart’s Sparky drives 35% higher average orders, and Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping now converts 44% of sessions, up from 34% a year ago. Retail media operators now have early proof AI assistants outperform traditional search, not just replace it.
Aug 10Vusion is buying Barcelona-based In-Store Media, pairing its shelf-tech platform with ISM’s retail media network relationships across 90 banners and 1,600 brands. It’s a bet that in-store screens and shelf edges become the next retail media inventory after online.
Aug 10Perion has joined the Walmart Connect Partner Network, pairing its AI-driven creative optimization with Walmart’s first-party shopper data and closed-loop sales measurement.
Aug 10