Essential Factors for Achieving Success in Retail Media Network

In the recent blog, we were able to understand what retail media is and the associated benefits for retail brands. The e-commerce industry is booming for two reasons: firstly, customers' willingness to trust online retailers has grown significantly in recent years with secured payment gateways and with more options to buy products in one place, and secondly, retailers' capacity to deliver products quickly with better customer service/experience. The retail media networks are not just for the retailers but for any B2C businesses like telcos and finance who want to reach a wider pool of consumer audiences in one place.

Five points to make your retail media network stand out

Broader customer base

A wide customer base is a prerequisite, but this also poses challenges like marketing spillage when we try to reach the right audience segment, hence the retail media network should provide a comprehensive view of the customer data at different touchpoints, channels, and devices to run more optimized ads. First-party data is no good if the advertisers are not provided with the right customer demographic information to target better. If you are a retailer selling multiple products it is best suggested to choose retail networks like Amazon Advertising or Walmart Connect which has a wide range of customers based and on the other hand, if you are selling a niche product like furniture then it would be ideal to choose retail media networks like Home Depot or Wayfair.

A connected platform

Off-site and on-site media options – the retail media network’s first-party data can be used by the advertisers to place display media, social ads, and other off-site ads on publisher sites to get traffic back to the retailer. The e-commerce site cannot be crowded with ads from different advertisers; hence a well-balanced network must allow programmatic advertising capabilities that can target ads to shoppers on other brand-safe sites across the internet world. Seamless connectivity and optimization between all retail media channels - on-site, off-site, and in-store is the right approach.

Self-service and managed service options

A retail media network should allow marketers/advertisers to run self-service programmatic ads to have direct access for better tracking of their ad campaigns in real-time, empowering them with better control and ownership. Self-service provides the following options to the mafrketers:

Ad group modifications and creative changes
Pricing and bidding adjustments
Site preference and targeting optimizations

Advertisers who don’t have the bandwidth or expertise to run self-service programmatic ads can utilize the managed service options available which have got the right metrics and reporting system in place to understand the return on Ads spent (ROAS) better. Currently, only a few platforms like Amazon Advertising and Walmart connect provide both the options with a rich user interface and user experience, while most others are strong with the managed service option, they are still catching up in the race in providing a comprehensive platform.

“Both self-service and Managed Service should allow brands to track their spending to the SKU level”.

Real-time reporting

Measuring the success of ad campaigns is the most crucial challenge to address, while branding is one of the major focuses of advertisement, a brand will fail if they are not able to make product/service purchase conversions. A granular level tracking of the advertising spends, real-time analytics to optimize campaigns, dashboards & reporting system to measure goal conversion should be the important aspects of a good retail-media networking platform. Apart from the ad campaign metrics, if the platform can provide reports on which are the recently bought products, frequently bought products, more sale happening points, etc. could help advertisers to place personalized shoppable ads.

Operational efficiency

Retail-media ad operations could be an evolving thing, but other digital ad operations have gone to the level of AI-based and automation-led ad operations. While choosing the retail-media networks, marketers should focus on platforms that allow programmatic ads of different media types like image, text, and video. A well-structured technical support team that provides 24/7 support and suggestions to optimize their return on ad spend make the ad operations more efficient.

The above steps can help retailers choose the right retail media network, but to generate a better return on ad spend (ROAS), the advertisers should be clear about their goals which help to identify the platform that ticks most of the checkboxes to success.

Let’s take a quick tour to find some of the top retail media networks out there in two broad categories and how they approach.

Top Retail Media Networks

Platform Details:

Amazon Advertising
Owned by - Amazon
Loyalty Program – Amazon Prime
Ad Tech – Amazon Web/API

Type: e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 200 Million+

Offerings:

Sponsored Products
Sponsored Brands
Sponsored Display etc

Walmart Connect

Platform Details:

Owned by Walmart
Loyalty Program – Walmart +
Ad Tech – Web/API

Type: Retail out network and e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 100 Million+

Offerings:

Sponsored Products
Programmatic Display
Social, onsite, and offsite display
In-store advertising

Roundel

Platform Details:

Owned by Target
Loyalty Program – Roundel Plus
Ad Tech – Criteo

Type: Retail out network and e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 120 Million+

Offerings:

Sponsored Products
Google search display
On-site and offsite display
Connected TV

Retail Media+

Owned by Home Depot
Loyalty Program – Pro Xtra
Ad Tech - PromoteIQ

Type: Retail out network and e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 183 Million +

Offerings:

Sponsored Products
Email
Social and Search
onsite and offsite ads

Kroger Precision Marketing

Owned by Kroger
Loyalty Program – Club Card
Ad Tech – PromoteIQ

Type: Retail out network and e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 100 Million+

Offerings:

Sponsored Products
Banners
Coupons

eBay Ads

Owned by eBay
Loyalty Program - N/A
Ad Tech – Web/API

Type: e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 180 Million+

Offerings:

Promoted Displays
Email
Displays

CVS Media Exchange

Owned by CVS
Loyalty Program – Extra Care
Ad Tech – Criteo

Type: Retail out network and e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 150 Million+

Sponsored Products
Programmatic display
Social

Wayfair Advertising

Owned by Wayfair
Loyalty Program – No
Ad Tech – Web

Type: Retail out network and e-commerce – General RMN

Avg. Monthly Unique Visitors: 39 Million+

Offerings:

Sponsored products
onsite and offsite advertising
promotions

The key to a strong retail media network is a 360 experience for the brands

The future of retail media is bright and prospective, the other retail brands that want to make use of this opportunity should first build a strong customer base with first-party data to use for their own and to build an efficient retail-media network. The underlying fact is that retailers should not just focus on retail media ads but build a comprehensive goal-based strategy of covering, on-site, off-site, and in-store ads to scale ad operations and build an everlasting brand of their own. A successful retail media network must have a positive brand image and a wider customer base with first-party data to reap maximum benefits.

If you are looking for a comprehensive solution for retail media advertising operations support or automation, reach iOPEX at [email protected] or contact us