What is retail media? Learn how retailers use first-party data and on-site advertising to create new revenue without disrupting the shopping experience.
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 moved from fast-growing trend to serious commercial channel. In Europe, retail media ad spend is projected to reach €31.3 billion by 2028, while the U.S. market is expected to approach $100 billion by 2027.
Amazon still sets the benchmark globally, but the opportunity is no longer limited to the largest marketplaces. More retailers are now building their own onsite media propositions around first-party data, sponsored products, and measurable supplier value.
These platforms have shown how valuable it can be to turn shopper intent into high-performing ad placements directly within the commerce experience.
In 2026, the conversation has moved on from whether retail media matters. It's now about how retailers can make it measurable, relevant, and manageable enough to become a real commercial strategy.
For retailers outside the major marketplaces, it's about using the commercial moments that already exist inside their own ecommerce experience. Search results, category pages, product listings, and recommendation feeds all contain valuable shopper intent that can be turned into supplier-funded visibility.
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.
For most retailers, the strongest place to start is onsite retail media. Search results, category pages, product listing pages, and recommendation feeds already contain high-intent moments where shoppers are actively deciding what to buy. That makes them more practical starting points than building a full retail media network from day one.
The point isn't simply to add more advertising to the webshop. It's to make supplier-funded visibility useful inside the shopping experience, with relevance deciding which promoted products are eligible to appear.
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.
Retail media is especially relevant for retailers with a large assortment, meaningful ecommerce traffic, and strong supplier relationships. When many brands compete for attention in the same category, sponsored visibility can create clear value for suppliers and a new commercial layer for the retailer.
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.
Retailers shouldn't have to choose between creating media revenue and protecting the customer experience. A strong retail media setup keeps commercial priority inside clear relevance boundaries, so supplier campaigns can influence visibility without taking over the experience.
This is one of the trends that, if properly adopted, has the ability to give retailers a stronger commercial position in supplier conversations while improving the way shoppers discover relevant products.
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.
Sponsored Products deserve particular attention because they are one of the most practical and measurable retail media formats. They connect supplier investment to specific catalogue products and can be placed close to purchase intent, such as search results and PLPs.
Display Ads still play an important role, especially for broader brand visibility, campaign storytelling, launches, and awareness in controlled onsite placements. The two formats work best when they have clear roles instead of being treated as interchangeable ad space.
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.
Measurement is now central to the retail media conversation. Suppliers want to understand what they are getting from their investment, and retailers need evidence they can use in future commercial discussions. Depending on the campaign type and tracked events, reporting can include impressions, clicks, product views, attributed sales, units sold, revenue, and performance over time.
This is also where first-party data matters. As privacy expectations rise and third-party identifiers become less reliable, retailers’ own behavioral and product data becomes more valuable. It allows them to create relevant onsite placements in an environment they control.
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.
Retail media has moved from trend to commercial strategy. The opportunity for retailers is to build a measurable onsite media business around search intent, product relevance, and supplier-funded visibility. Done well, it helps shoppers find relevant products faster, gives suppliers visibility in moments that matter, and creates a revenue stream that strengthens the ecommerce 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.
