What Are Retail Media Networks and Why Should You Care?

Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have been around for quite a while and we, as have many others, have been banging on about them for ages. But do you know what they are? And should you care? Well, let's dive in and find out.

Retail media networks: what are they?

At their simplest, a retail media network is an advertising platform owned by a retailer that allows brands to advertise using the retailer’s own customer data.

Think Tesco, Boots, Amazon, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons or Ocado. These retailers know what millions of people actually buy, how often they shop, which products they compare, when they purchase and increasingly how they behave both online and in-store.

If this sounds relevant to your brand, then we should really start talking about this...

And to continue, rather than relying on third-party cookies or inferred audiences, RMNs are built on first-party transactional data. That means advertisers can target people based on real purchasing behaviour rather than assumptions.

If someone regularly buys premium skincare at Boots, shops for baby products at Tesco or purchases pet food every month through Ocado, those signals become incredibly valuable for advertisers.

Why are they becoming so important?

For years, digital advertising relied heavily on third-party cookies to identify audiences across the web. As privacy regulations have tightened and browsers have moved away from cookie tracking, marketers have been searching for new ways to reach relevant audiences whilst still proving commercial impact.

Retailers already own something many publishers don’t and that is customer relationships and purchase data.

Because purchases happen within their own ecosystem, they can connect advertising exposure directly to sales in a way that many traditional digital channels simply cannot.

That ability to close the loop between advertising and revenue is driving significant investment. Recent UK data suggests retail media now accounts for around 18% of all digital advertising spend, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of media planning.

What does this look like in practice?

For UK marketers, RMNs are becoming far more accessible than many realise.

A food brand launching a new breakfast cereal could use Tesco Media to target households already purchasing similar products.

A cosmetics brand might use Boots Media Group to reach customers who regularly buy premium beauty products but haven’t yet purchased their range.

A drinks manufacturer could target shoppers who buy complementary products, encouraging cross-category purchasing both online and in-store.

A museum launching a new exhibition could use retail media to reach people whose shopping habits indicate interests in travel, history, books or arts and crafts, introducing the exhibition to audiences that are highly relevant but may never have visited before.

A theatre looking to diversify its audience could use retailer audience data to identify and reach communities that have historically been underrepresented in attendance, using highly targeted digital messaging to increase awareness in neighbourhoods and audience segments that traditional media often struggles to reach.

The media itself can also vary considerably. Retail media isn’t just sponsored search results on a retailer’s website. Campaigns can include display advertising, onsite search, email, apps, digital screens within stores, connected TV and even off-site advertising using retailer audiences across the wider web.

Should you be paying attention?

Retail media shouldn’t replace every other channel. Brand building still needs channels that create reach, emotion and long-term memory. Search still captures intent. Social still creates engagement and conversation.

Instead, RMNs are another increasingly powerful tool within the media mix.

They offer several distinct advantages:

• Highly accurate audience targeting based on actual purchasing behaviour.
• Closed-loop measurement linking media investment to sales.
• Rich first-party data that isn’t dependent on third-party cookies.
• Opportunities to influence customers close to the point of purchase.

Perhaps most importantly, they provide confidence.

Retail media gives brands access to attribution that’s grounded in real transactions rather than modelled assumptions.

The opportunity ahead

Retail media represents a structural shift in how audiences are bought and measured.

As more retailers build sophisticated advertising platforms and more brands become comfortable activating first-party data, RMNs will become a standard consideration in media planning rather than an experimental budget line.

The danger is that many marketers dismiss them because the terminology sounds technical or because they assume they’re only relevant to supermarket suppliers.

Neither is true.

Understanding what retail media networks are, what problems they solve and where they fit within the wider customer journey will become an increasingly valuable skill over the next few years.