See how personalized retail media uses real-time data, tailored search, and relevant product recommendations to help shoppers find what they need faster.
Retail Media has become a serious commercial channel for multi-brand retailers, and for good reason. Retailers are using their own ecommerce environments to create supplier-funded visibility in the moments where shoppers are already searching, comparing, and deciding what to buy.
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.
When it's done well, retail media makes relevant products more visible at the exact moment shoppers are already comparing, searching, and deciding what to buy.
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 their bid can influence visibility when their products are relevant to the shopper’s context. Placement should not be decided by bid alone. A sponsored product still needs to match the search, category, or behavior behind the session. Brands and suppliers gain greater visibility and higher conversion rates, while your business benefits from a new revenue stream.
This is what separates useful personalized retail media from intrusive advertising. The retailer keeps control of the shopping experience, while suppliers gain access to valuable moments where their products are genuinely relevant.
As privacy expectations rise, 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, with first-party data, measurable performance, and access to high-intent ecommerce moments being key reasons for that interest.
The third-party cookie conversation has changed, but the strategic point still stands. Even as browser timelines shift, third-party identifiers are becoming less reliable, more restricted, and more dependent on user consent. Advertisers still need better ways to understand intent and measure performance in environments where the retailer owns the customer relationship.
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.
It also gives retailers a stronger supplier proposition. Instead of selling exposure alone, they can show how campaigns perform through impressions, clicks, product views, attributed sales, units sold, revenue, and performance over time, depending on the campaign type and tracked events.
Sponsored Products are especially valuable here because they are connected to specific catalogue products and can support product-level performance conversations. Display Ads, on the other hand, are often better suited for broader brand visibility, campaign storytelling, launches, and awareness across controlled onsite placements.
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.
This matters most in search. Search is one of the clearest signals of purchase intent because shoppers tell you what they need in their own words. They may search for a product name, a brand, a category, a technical specification, a partial product number, a use case, or a problem they need to solve.
A relevant sponsored product can support that journey. An irrelevant one weakens it. If a customer searches for glasses, sponsored glasses may help them compare options. Sponsored mugs will only make the experience feel less trustworthy.
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 improves the effectiveness of the ads.
For many retailers, onsite retail media is the strongest place to start. Search results, PLPs, category pages, and selected display placements already contain high-intent traffic, controlled inventory, and direct links to product discovery. You do not need to build a full media network from day one to create supplier-funded value.
This is also relevant for B2B ecommerce. Buyers often search by product numbers, dimensions, materials, compatibility requirements, or professional terminology. In those journeys, sponsored visibility only works when it matches the exact buying context.
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.
Start focused and expand from there: Begin with the onsite placements closest to purchase intent, such as search results, PLPs, and category pages. Once suppliers see the value and your internal setup matures, you can expand into more placements, formats, and campaign types.
Retail media works best when it creates value for all three sides of the experience. Shoppers find relevant products faster. Suppliers gain measurable visibility in moments that matter. Retailers create a new revenue stream while keeping control of the customer journey.
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.
