Retail Media is undoubtedly a hot topic right now – and for good reason. More major e-commerce players are adopting retail media as a new business avenue and are already reporting strong results.
This blog post was created in collaboration with our partner, Vertica.
But what exactly is retail media, you ask?
Many e-commerce multi-brand stores (digital shops selling products from various brands and suppliers) have thousands of products on their shelves. Traditionally, brands and suppliers have gained branding value and revenue simply by selling their products through these webshops.
With retail media, however, the model shifts. Retailers can create a new revenue stream by allowing brands and suppliers to pay for having their products highlighted on the shopping platform through sponsored product placements.
Say you’re a shoe store...
On your e-commerce site, you sell shoes from many suppliers and brands, offering everything from boots to sandals. When a customer searches for shoes, they land on a product listing page (PLP) or a site search results page. Results are typically ranked by date added, keyword matching, or relevance models.
For suppliers, this means their products can easily end up at the bottom – or maybe even page two or page 28 simply because of volume and competition. In a physical store, brands want their shoes in the front display, not hidden in a corner. Online, the need is the same.
This is where retail media comes into play.
So, what changes for my store with retail media?
With a tool like Relewise Retail Media, you can offer brands premium, relevance-based placements where their shoes appear first in search results or PLPs, or in banners that promote their brand or campaigns in relevant areas of your site. These sponsored placements are powered by your personalization engine, using first-party behavioral data to decide when sponsored content should appear.
Brands can bid for these positions, and the highest bidder receives the placement. Their position depends on the strength of their bid and the level of competition. Brands and suppliers gain greater visibility and higher conversion rates, while your business benefits from a new revenue stream.
Once third-party cookies disappear, first-party data becomes essential
You might wonder whether suppliers will buy into the concept. Many already do.
A study from IAB Europe shows that 91% of advertisers consider retail media a crucial part of their future advertising strategy, largely because we’re moving toward a future without third-party cookies.
Without third-party cookies, advertisers lose a major method for tracking users across websites. It becomes harder to understand customer behavior, target audiences, or measure performance on traditional advertising platforms.
Multi-brand e-commerce retailers, however, hold large amounts of first-party data and behavioral data. When collected and used correctly, this data powers predictive personalization and makes it possible to deliver targeted, high-intent retail media ads directly on your site.
This is where a well-structured retail media setup becomes highly valuable.
Retailers can offer detailed insights into buyer behavior while giving suppliers access to relevant exposure at a critical point in the buying journey.
Personalization is at the heart of retail media
Retail media isn’t only valuable for retailers and suppliers. It can also improve customer experience.
Consumers are exposed to countless ads every day, many of which are irrelevant or poorly timed. With AI-powered personalization and behavior-aware ad placement, you can ensure customers only see content that matches their behavior, preferences, and real-time intent.
Relevant ads reduce frustration, keep customers on your site, and increase the likelihood of engagement or purchase.
When the ads are relevant to customers, they are more likely to click or buy, which also leads to higher engagement and a better experience with you as the retailer.
Where should my retail media placements be?
Retailers decide which placements make the most sense. The most common are:
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PLPs and category pages
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Search results
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In-app placements
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Email placements
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Other high-intent digital channels
The key is ensuring placements remain situationally relevant. If a customer searches for glasses, only glasses should appear, not mugs.
With detailed product information and first-party user data, retailers can ensure sponsored products or banners match each user’s context, whether in B2B ecommerce or B2C. This guarantees relevance and maximizes the effectiveness of the ads.
3 tips to get started
Here are a few good tips to help you get the most out of retail media:
- Place ads where intent is highest and let AI do the rest: PLPs and search pages are strong defaults, and you can reuse the same AI-driven selections across apps, emails, and your display campaigns. Relewise can output products, categories, or content to promote whatever performs best for each audience. The engine is self-learning and updates relevance automatically.
- Ensure real-time relevance: Update relevance continuously based on live behavior so that every view, click, cart or purchase reshapes what’s shown. By letting self-learning models like in the Relewise engine pick the best products, categories or content for each shopper, your ads stay aligned with current intent and perform better.
- Keep your suppliers informed: Share clear updates on how their campaigns perform and where their ads are shown. Provide insight into what’s working and notify them of any planned adjustments. This keeps collaboration smooth and helps suppliers refine creative or goals so campaigns stay effective.
What else is inside Relewise Retail Media?
Click below to learn more about how Relewise Retail Media can create a new, high-margin revenue for your store.
