Retail media has changed how brands and retailers reach shoppers while they're actively looking to buy. In this article, we look at the trend, its real impact on businesses, why it’s profitable, and how multi-brand retailers of all sizes can use it to drive revenue and build stronger relationships with customers and partners.
Retail Media has gained considerable traction, with the European retail media advertising market estimated at about €14.3 billion in 2024, and projected to grow to €22.3 billion by 2026 and €31.3 billion by 2028.
For context, the U.S. market remains substantially larger, expected to exceed $60 billion in 2024 and approach $100 billion by 2027.
For years, businesses like Amazon and eBay have dominated the retail media market, with Amazon accounting for roughly 31% of the European market and about 77% of the U.S. retail media market in terms of advertising revenue.
These platforms have shown how valuable it can be to turn shopper intent into high-performing ad placements directly within the commerce experience.
So how can retailers apply these same principles?
Retail media is about monetizing your own digital real estate. This is done by allowing brands to promote their products in places like search results, category pages, and product listings. When implemented thoughtfully, it gives suppliers access to rich, first-party audience data and high-intent moments. At the same time, shoppers get more relevant, personalized results.
This leads to sponsored content that feels helpful instead of intrusive, and a new revenue stream that doesn't depend solely on increasing margin.
An opportunity for every multi-brand retailer
Contrary to popular belief, the tools and technologies that drive retail media success are now broadly available to a large portion of multi-brand e-commerce businesses. This means that almost every multi-brand businesses can tap into this trend and reap significant benefits from it, including new revenue streams and stronger collaborations with partners.
You can learn more about how Relewise can help you with your retail media efforts here.
Seizing this also means that you can improve your business without sacrificing a good user experience. Quite on the contrary, the AI-powered relevance behind retail media creates a win-win situation for businesses and suppliers seeking effective promotional routes.
This is one of the trends that, if properly adopted, has the ability to significantly differentiate an average business from those who are truly successful.
How it's done
It’s critical to align the promoted products or brands with user behavior and preferences. The last thing you want is for users to become irritated with irrelevant sponsored content they feel is being pushed on them just because you’re being compensated for it.
The objective is to promote specific products on your site in a variety of ways that are in alignment with user behavior, the wishes of your vendor, and the strategic goals inherent in your partnership.
- Use Display ads in a variety of formats to highlight hero products or simply brand awareness.
- Use Sponsored products to promote products directly within personalized search results, category listings, and recommendation feeds.
- Mix and match content and promotion types to fit seasonal campaigns, new product launches or any other strategic decisions.
Relewise Retail Media uses real-time behavioral data and machine-learning to make sure campaigns always appear in the most relevant contexts to facilitate conversions and minimize noise.
Summing up
Recognizing retail media as a key revenue stream and making it an integrated part of your strategy will become increasingly important for retailers looking to gain strategic advantages in the coming years. It’s a way of further exploring your e-commerce’s potential while remaining competitive and offering users a seamless experience.
What are the steps involved to get Relewise on your site?
Below you can get an overview of the 6 steps you will go through together with our team to get Relewise implemented on your site. It's also the place for getting a free trial and seeing Relewise in action for yourself.
