Retail media doesn’t just perform well. It highlights how loosely defined – and lightly planned – other parts of the mix have become. When one channel can clearly link investment to sales, it becomes much harder to ignore the rest.
As AI becomes embedded in everyday decision-making, it will transform how consumers discover, evaluate, and choose products – disrupting the commerce landscape as we know it, including retail media. Talon.One’s Laurens Van Wiele outlines where loyalty can fit into the picture and promote discoverability, providing the right groundwork is laid early.
Paul Stafford, Head of Very Media Group, lays out why building a successful retail media network demands a coordinated transformation across people, processes, technology, and partnerships – and why its framework needs to incorporate the “5Cs” of curiosity, capabilities, credentials, connectivity, and chaos.
Much of the current influx of spend into retail media is concentrated within point-of-sale and last-click performance. While this can be effective, anchoring retail media in performance marketing risks narrowing the scope of what can truly be achieved within the channel, writes Graham Field, CRO at Outra.
Parweez Mulbocus, Head of Ecommerce at OMD EMEA, writes about why brands need to rethink their approach to commerce in the current era – and why creative commerce is the answer to the conundrum.
While retail media’s growth is impressive, turning that momentum into an effective strategy will take more from retailers, writes Lee Metters, Senior Client Partner, Brand Partnerships & Retail Media at Awin. He outlines the moves retailers will need to make to be on the cutting edge in 2026.
No longer simply a budget line on a marketing plan, retail media has evolved into something far greater, enabling truly omnichannel brand building campaigns that influence shoppers across the entire journey, writes IAB UK’s Olivia McCullagh.
The first thing to understand is that loyalty isn’t about always choosing the same brand in the same category every time, writes Dean Harris. Brands often talk about ‘our customers’ or claim to be ‘their brand’, but shoppers don’t belong to brands, and they don’t get chosen simply because they were chosen last time. Brands are chosen because, in the moment a decision is made, they stand out, both mentally and physically. They win the moment.
Daily online shopping frequency has
Drawing on that data and the work that MiQ is doing with clients around the world, Robert Smolarski offers his pick of the advertising trends that will be especially important in 2026…
Will 2026 be a defining year for commerce media? It increasingly feels that way. Growth remains strong, but the rules of success are changing. As budgets tighten and scrutiny increases, commerce media is shifting from experimentation to maturity. What is emerging is a more connected, collaborative ecosystem, powered by data, creativity and, increasingly, trust.
In a world where consumer attention is increasingly fragmented and retail media is evolving faster than ever, it’s crucial to remember that scale does not equate to quality; what actually matters is the depth of the customer relationship. Without trust, scale is hollow.