Unlocking the Power of Retail Media & Data

The digital industry is already getting prepared for a cookie-less future by creating a digital identifier that is meaningfully & better than the third-party cookies.?In a cookie-less world, Retail media which is one of the digital identifiers, will be playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of digital advertising. RMN(Retail media networks) offers a dependable and effective alternative to traditional cookie-based tracking by utilizing purchase-level data. This data provides invaluable insights into consumer behavior, enabling brands to refine their strategies and connect with their audience more authentically.

Retail Media: - Retail media involves retailers offering advertising services & capabilities harnessing its onsite, in-store & offsite data to unlock consumer reach. Retail companies are using Ad-tech platforms to build their own advertising technology known as RMN (Retail media networks). RMNs are utilizing retailer’s first-party data to allow brands to show personalized ads to their target audience on open internet or walled garden platforms.?While Amazon is leading the pack in RMN, globally there are many other networks like Walmart Connect, Walgreen advertising group, Target Roundel, Korger precision marketing, Best Buy retail media+ & Alliance retail group.? In India, companies like Reliance have already established a retail media network called Reliance retail which offers advertising solution based on retail signals, DMart and Tata are in the process of launching their own advertising networks.

There are three broad type of retail media offering.

??On-site: - Advertising that is placed within a retailer’s own digital ecosystem, such as on its website, app & social media.?Onsite advertising will include advertising offering like sponsored search, display ads, Coupon codes, scratch cards, product Sampling & live commerce. Brands are using coupon codes or scratch cards to target deal seekers or seasonal shoppers. A scratch card/coupon code is an on-site ad slot that provides an exclusive branded offer to the users post their transaction?on app. It’s an excellent way to?build loyalty, brand awareness, drawing new customers in, upselling, and running promotions. Retailers are also offering on site Display & native ads which help brands reach transacting audience at scale. These ads are generally placed on homepage or category pages, cart & thankyou pages, or ads right below the order tracking map. Paid Retail Search is another type of solution on a retailer's website, akin to Google AdWords. Advertisers bid on specific keywords so that when a shopper searches for those terms on the retailer's search engine, the advertiser's product or brand ad appears above or alongside the organic results. Retailers are also doing Live commerce which has an ability to blend entertainment with instant purchasing. livestream shopping also stimulates the fear of missing out which is one of the driving forces of?impulse buying. It will enable customers to purchase goods via a live broadcast, without having to navigate away from the stream completely.

???In- store: - Advertising placed within a retailer’s physical environment, such as in –store screens, branding around Pillar, Aisles, Cash Counters, trolleys, audio ads across the store?or sampling within the store. In-store advertising brings contextual relevance & customer impact for prime customer while they are in purchasing mindset. One of the effective ways to do sampling is also in-store as brands can do sampling based on shopping basket value & can get the analytics on the shoppers that are new to brand, new to category as well as repeat buyers. As retailer stores are adopting IOT (internet of things) & digital signage, advertising within the stores is becoming more personalized. It can detect customer movements or action, understand audience behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns & then trigger relevant content. Imagine walking into a store and seeing product recommendations tailored just for you or getting real-time updates on inventory right on the shop floor. With sensors and RFID tags tracking things like inventory levels, customer movements, and shopping habits, the data collected helps keep digital displays current and relevant. This means you get to see the latest promotions, ads, and stock information that matter to you, right when you need it.

???Off-site: -?The real power of retail media lies in its ability to connect retailer first-party data with other platforms like open web or walled garden platforms to reach shoppers based?on brands, category, or?competitive products purchased offsite across the web. Retail data encompasses a wealth of information owned by retailers, providing deep insights into shopper behaviors such as average spending, product preferences, purchase frequency, shopping cart contents, and loyalty program participation. This rich retail data provides a goldmine of specific, verifiable information about consumer behavior and preferences, thanks to its purchase-level detailing. Major global retailers such as Target, Walmart & Best Buy have forged partnership with AdTech platforms to enable data driven digital buying on premium inventories like connected TV, audio or digital out of home. This partnership leverage signals such as purchase history, browsing behavior, abandon cart data & these data signals can seamlessly integrated with DCO (Dynamic creative optimization) technology to tailor ad creatives in real-time, maximizing relevance & effectiveness. Brands should take a multi- retailer approach via programmatic with holistic frequency capping to build more unique reach to relevant consumer who shops at more than one retailer.

?Retailers & Brands can work together to create audience segments using highly accurate data from verified purchases and loyalty programs. Over the years, retailers gather a wealth of information, including detailed commerce activities and usage of loyalty cards. This enables them to create a customer segment as per brand requirements. For example, imagine a set of customers who frequently buys multigrain breads & other healthy products. By analyzing their purchase history and online behaviors, a retailer can create a cohort of audience who are health & fitness enthusiast. These insights help retailers connect with customers on a more personal level, anticipating their needs and preferences & at the same time Brands can use these audience cohort to sample their new health & wellness products. Even if increasing retail sales isn't brand primary KPI, they can still leverage multi-retail audience segments to achieve upper-funnel goals, such as building brand awareness. By targeting the right customers with precision, brands can ensure their message reaches those who are most likely to be interested in their brand. Additionally, managing the frequency of these messages across multi-retailers via offsite programmatic ads helps maintain a cohesive and effective marketing strategy. This holistic approach not only enhances brand visibility but also optimizes the customer journey, ensuring that potential customers encounter your brand consistently and meaningfully, regardless of where they shop or how they interact with different media.

Retail data empowers brands to gain a deeper understanding of their customers, enabling more effective full-funnel strategies with enhanced insights and measurement opportunities. It's about leveraging concrete purchase information to connect with consumers more authentically and drive better marketing full funnel results.

Awareness: - Use multi-retailer approach to target shoppers who have purchased your brand before or are in market audience for category.

Consideration: - Use multi-retailer approach to target audience who are buying from your category but not from your brand.

Sales: - Use multi-retailer approach to drive sales with brand loyalist or offer discount & promotion to lapsed buyers to convert them as your customer.

Close loop Measurement with Retail media

One of the most important aspects for any advertisers is to understand impact of advertising on its sales. According to NilesonIQ, Coresight research brand have below measurement concern when it comes to advertising on RMNs.

·?????? Lack of reporting standardization across retailer.

·?????? In-ability to separate in-store shelf promotion from retail media.

·?????? Fragmented consumer data & insight

·?????? Can’t trust ROAS.

·?????? Lack of real time insight.??

A distinguishing feature of retail media measurement is its reliance on audiences constructed from retailers' first-party data. This enables brands to implement closed-loop measurement, offering a clearer understanding of how both online and offline shoppers respond to activations, all without depending on cookies. To effectively measure success in retail media, it's essential to establish a comprehensive measurement framework with transparent, attributable methodologies and clearly defined full-funnel KPIs. These KPIs should not only evaluate the effectiveness of advertisements within the retailer's ecosystem but also measure the impact of broader digital initiatives driven by retailer data or first-party shopper data.

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