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Retail media spending in the U.S. alone is set to hit $60 billion this year and will rocket past $100 billion by 2028, outpacing nearly every other digital channel. Retail media is growing quickly, even with tough economic challenges and changes in marketing. Infact, it’s growing five times faster than total ad spending. This isn’t just a trend; it’s looking likely to be a full-blown revolution and it’s transforming how brands, retailers, and shoppers connect across the globe.
So, What Is Retail Media, and Why Should You Care?
Think of retail media as the 21st-century version of prime shelf space - except the "shelf" is everywhere. It’s digital, physical, and everything in between. Retail media lets brands promote products at the very moment shoppers are ready to buy, whether they’re scrolling through an app, browsing a store’s website, or even walking the aisles of a big-box retailer.
At its core, retail media is about precision. By leveraging first-party data, information retailers collect directly from their own shoppers, advertisers can target with uncanny accuracy. The result? Ads that are not only seen, but acted on.
Enter the Retail Media Network (RMN). It is a platform owned by retailersthat connects brands with their audiences.
Amazon, Walmart, and a growing cast of players have built sophisticated ecosystems that not only display ads, but also capture and analyze the impact of every impression, click, and purchase. These networks are becoming essential for any brand that wants to stand out and sell in today’s busy market.
U.S. Retail Media: Where the Growth Is Explosive and the Stakes Are Rising
Let’s be clear: the U.S. is leading the global charge on retail media. According to Nielsen 2025 Annual Marketing Report, 74% of North American marketers say RMNs are more important now than last year. Compare that to Europe’s 48%, and it’s obvious where the action is.
Why This Surge of Interest? Here’s What’s Fueling The Fire:
- The Demise of Cookies: With third-party cookies on their way out, brands need new ways to reach and understand consumers. Retailers’ first-party data fills the void delivering privacy-compliant, high-quality targeting.
- Omnichannel Reach: The lines between online and offline shopping have blurred. Retail media lets brands target shoppers across every touchpoint, from mobile apps to in-store screens.
- Closed-Loop Measurement: Forget fuzzy metrics. RMNs can follow a shopper’s path from seeing an ad to making a purchase. This gives marketers what they want: proof that their ads lead to real sales, not just clicks.
It’s no wonder that 80% of U.S. advertisers plan to ramp up retail media investments this year.
What Retail Media Looks Like: Formats, Channels, and Real-World Success
Retail media is a playground for both experimentation and results. Let’s break down how it appears across the U.S. landscape:
- Onsite Sponsored Ads: Amazon’s Sponsored Products and Walmart Connect’s ad placements put brands in front of shoppers exactly when they’re ready to buy.
- Offsite Targeting: Retailers use their customer data to push ads beyond their own sites reaching consumers across the open web with pinpoint accuracy.
- In-Store Digital Screens: Dynamic displays and contextual ads bring digital precision into brick-and-mortar locations, creating unified experiences wherever shoppers roam.
- Not Just Major Technology Companies: Sam’s Club, for example, has woven digital and physical activations together, using everything from parking lot events to AI-driven exit screens. The results? Higher sales, stronger brand engagement, and closed-loop insights that tie every campaign back to real-world purchases.
The AI Acceleration: Fueling Retail Media’s Next Growth Spurt
Here’s where things get truly exciting and just a bit dizzying. Artificial intelligence isn’t just a “nice-to-have” for retail media anymore. It’s the engine driving the sector’s speed, scale, and effectiveness.
Smarter Targeting and Hyper-Relevance
Gone are the days of broad, loosely targeted ads. AI enables brands to segment audiences with surgical precision, predicting not just who’s likely to buy but what, when, and why. Amazon uses AI to analyze purchase history and browsing behavior at scale, serving up eerily relevant recommendations and ads.
Real-Time Optimization
AI doesn’t just plan, it acts. Campaigns can now be optimized on the fly, with algorithms automatically adjusting bids, creative, and placements to maximize impact. Marketers no longer wait weeks for performance reports; insights and optimizations happen in real time.
Personalized Shopping Experiences
AI-powered platforms are taking personalization to the next level, delivering tailored product recommendations, dynamic pricing, and even AI-generated creative assets. Adobe’s new AI “concierge” agents, for instance, can provide one-on-one shopping assistance at scale.
Performance Measurement Now With Superpowers
Measurement has always been retail media’s calling card, but AI supercharges it. Sam’s Club is a great example as it is taking it further with AI-powered precision. Their proprietary Omni Impact tool goes beyond standard reporting, combining multi-touch attribution with marketing mix modelling to track a member’s full year of purchases at the SKU level. Every in-store and digital interaction feeds into a unified system, offering a closed-loop view that few retailers can match.
This doesn’t just quantify results it predicts them, helping brands identify what’s working and scale it quickly. In a space where ROI is everything, Sam’s Club has turned measurement into a competitive advantage.
Tackling Fragmentation and Integration Challenges
The explosion of RMNs over 70 in North America means brands face a fragmented landscape. AI is the key to unifying campaign planning, data integration, and measurement across multiple networks. Early adopters using agentic AI and real-time bidding are already compressing campaign timelines from weeks to hours.
The Roadblocks: Growth Pains and the Path to Maturity
No revolution is without its speed bumps, and retail media is no exception. Growth is still strong (15.6% projected for 2025), but it’s slowing as the market matures. Rising costs, ecosystem fragmentation, and measurement inconsistencies threaten to frustrate even the most seasoned marketers.
Implementing AI at scale isn’t plug-and-play, either. Data silos, technical fragmentation, and privacy concerns must be tackled head-on. The winners in this space will be those who invest in data infrastructure, standardization, and cross-functional collaboration, breaking down silos between brand, media, and merchant teams.
The Future: A Bold, AI-Powered Retail Media Ecosystem
So, what does the future hold? By 2030, retail media will look dramatically different. Campaigns will launch at lightning speed, data will flow seamlessly across platforms, and AI will orchestrate every step freeing human teams to focus on strategy and innovation. Brands and retailers willing to get the fundamentals right integrated data, transparent measurement, and a relentless focus on relevance will win big.
In-store innovation is just getting started, and while it may never eclipse digital, it will offer creative new ways to connect with shoppers, drive sales, and gather rich, actionable insights.
Final Thoughts
Let’s recap: Retail media is no longer an “add-on” to digital advertising. It’s the centerpiece, powered by first-party data, omnichannel strategy, and closed-loop measurement. AI is propelling this transformation, enabling smarter targeting, campaign automation, personalized experiences, and real-time performance insights. Challenges remain fragmentation, rising costs, and measurement headaches but U.S. retailers and brands who invest wisely and act boldly are positioned to lead the next wave of advertising innovation. The time to get in the game is now. Don’t just watch the retail media revolution. Be a part of it.
