By Paul Stafford, Head of Very Media Group
Global retail media spend is growing rapidly, creating a significant opportunity for retailers who want to expand their offering. But building a successful retail media network (RMN) requires far more than simply selling ad space. It demands a coordinated transformation across people, processes, technology, and partnerships.
At its core, a RMN that resonates needs to be built on strong foundations and, I believe, a powerful framework that incorporates the 5Cs.
1. Curiosity
Firstly, any retailer considering building an in-house team or an in-house proposition needs to be curious. I believe unless you have an inquisitive mindset, you’re not going to succeed. You need to be willing to test, learn and adapt, rather than relying on traditional retail thinking.
Since we relaunched our retail media proposition as Very Media Group in 2024, we’ve taken learnings from the past 12 years and are constantly working to evolve and grow our offering for brands.
2. Capabilities
Before retailers can monetise media effectively, they must develop the internal capabilities needed to operate like a media organisation.
A cultural shift
Launching a RMN represents a major cultural change: a willingness to transform into a media company, and in some cases a creative agency. This shift requires new ways of working across multiple departments: finance, legal and data. It also introduces new dynamics internally. Trading teams that traditionally manage supplier relationships may find themselves navigating friction with retail media teams selling advertising to those same suppliers.
Aligning incentives and governance is critical to avoiding internal conflict, ensuring teams work together.
Defining the revenue engine
Building a retail media business also raises fundamental commercial questions:
- How much should your advertising inventory cost?
- What is the overarching revenue model?
- What incremental services can be offered?
- What value-added benefits are included for suppliers?
Retail media must align with broader commercial relationships. Many retailers now integrate retail media into supplier agreements and joint business plans, creating new revenue streams while strengthening brand partnerships.
Building the right team
People are the engine of an RMN. Retailers need to determine the mix of expertise required across areas such as sales, media planning, biddable media and data analytics.
There are also key decisions around operating models. Some retailers choose to build fully in-house teams, while others adopt a hybrid model (like we have at Very Media Group). Others still opt for a fully managed model where an external retail media company operates the network on their behalf.
Each approach comes with different trade-offs in speed, control and cost.
3. Credentials
Once the core capabilities are in place, retailers must demonstrate why brands should invest in their retail media ecosystem.
The gold dust of retail media
The biggest asset retailers possess is first-party shopper data: purchase behaviour, browsing patterns and intent signals that are incredibly valuable for advertisers.
However, retailers must strike a careful balance between monetisation and protection. They must safeguard sensitive commercial information, ensure privacy compliance, and determine which audiences and insights should be made available.
Retailers can package this into a range of offerings including insights, audience segments, and data packages. Some retailers also make this available to non-endemic brands for campaigns on the open web or connected TV (CTV).
Defining what you sell
Retail media inventory spans multiple touchpoints across the shopper journey. Typically, this includes onsite and offsite media, and in-store advertising. Retailers must carefully structure this inventory to avoid overlap with, for example, paid social campaigns already being run by internal marketing teams.
Another key decision is how quickly to scale. Some retailers launch with a full omnichannel media offering – while others start with core on-site placements and expand over time.
Proving the value
Measurement is central to the credibility of any RMN. Brands want clear evidence of the impact their advertising has delivered, particularly as budgets shift from traditional media channels.
Standard metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions are essential, but many networks are going further. Advanced measurement approaches now incorporate data science and techniques such as marketing mix modelling (MMM) to understand the broader impact of retail media on category growth and brand performance.
Transparency is essential, but retailers must balance openness with the need to protect proprietary data and competitive insights.
4. Connectivity
Even with strong capabilities and credentials, RMNs cannot thrive in isolation. Success requires deep connectivity across technology, partners, and long-term strategy.
Planning for the future
Retail media is fast-moving and constantly evolving. What works today may not be sufficient tomorrow, so retailers must continuously plan one, two or five years ahead.
As networks grow, retailers need to invest in the brand identity of their retail media offering, ensuring advertisers clearly understand the value it delivers in an increasingly-competitive market.
A new advertising ecosystem
Retail media operates within a broader advertising ecosystem including agencies, technology platforms and programmatic partners.
Strong partnerships with global agency holding groups, demand-side platforms and programmatic marketplaces help drive demand and expand the reach of retail media campaigns. These relationships enable retailers to attract not only existing suppliers but also new advertisers looking to reach highly engaged retail audiences.
The engine of retail media
Retail media is fundamentally data-driven, and technology is what powers the entire ecosystem.
Retailers must decide whether to build their own tech stack or partner with external providers. This includes selecting the right ad-serving platforms, reporting tools and billing systems.
Integrating these new capabilities with existing retail technology can be one of the biggest challenges, particularly for large organisations with complex legacy systems.
5. Chaos
Building something from the ground up is not easy. Innovation and change are often uncomfortable. Friction is also inevitable but it’s important that retailers embrace a little bit of chaos to unlock new ways of thinking and use early learnings to build better for the future.
When it all works together
What does a successful RMN look like? For me, it’s about collaboration. For retailers, it’s about unlocking high-margin revenue streams, while in turn, brands gain access to high-intent shoppers.
But ultimately, it’s about shoppers receiving an individual and tailored experience, being delivered relevant pieces of content whether they are looking to buy now or further down the line. Our focus at Very Media Group is on delivering these highly-personalised, omnichannel experiences, all backed by strong data that informs shopper behaviours and patterns.
Read more expert insight into retail media’s key issues from our Retail Media Age columnists.
