Retail Media Is Growing Up: The Next Era Will Be Won by Measurement, Collaboration, and Commerce

For years, retail media has been the fastest-growing channel in advertising. The promise was simple: reach shoppers closer to the point of purchase using first-party transaction data.

Now the conversation is changing.

At eMarketer's Cannes Lions session on the future of retail media, one message came through loud and clear: retail media no longer needs to prove it works. It needs to prove it can operate at the same level of accountability as every other major media channel. The era of hypergrowth is giving way to one of operational maturity.

Retail media is entering its next chapter

According to Sarah Marzano of eMarketer, retail media's rapid growth has been fueled by retailers' access to something few platforms can match: transaction data. Amazon alone accounts for roughly 40% of U.S. ecommerce, demonstrating just how influential retail ecosystems have become.

But as investment grows, so do expectations.

Brands are asking tougher questions around measurement, reporting, incrementality, and business impact. Retail media is no longer being evaluated as an emerging channel—it is increasingly being held to the same standards as television, search, social, and digital video.

The opportunity remains enormous, but trust must now be earned through transparency and operational excellence.

The biggest challenge isn't technology. It's alignment.

One of the most insightful discussions centered on a surprisingly common problem: everyone uses the same words but means different things.

Angela Myers of Goodway Group noted that brands often focus on sales growth while retailers emphasize different success metrics, making conversations around incrementality and market share difficult.

Claudia Johnson of Flywheel offered one of the best analogies of the session:

"It's like eating steak with a fork while someone else is brushing their hair with one. You're using the same tool but for completely different purposes."

The solution?

Stop optimizing for organizational silos and start optimizing for the consumer journey. Retail media teams, merchandising teams, agencies, ecommerce leaders, and brand marketers must begin speaking a common language centered around customer behavior rather than internal reporting structures.

Discovery starts long before the store

Consumers aren't beginning their shopping journey on retailer websites anymore.

Discovery increasingly happens on TikTok, creator content, connected TV, streaming audio, and social platforms before shoppers ever visit a retailer.

That reality is changing how marketers think about retail media.

Rather than viewing it as the bottom of the funnel, leading brands are treating retail media as part of an integrated commerce strategy spanning awareness, consideration, purchase, and loyalty.

This is particularly true for younger consumers, whose shopping journeys are fluid across platforms, creators, and devices.

Three takeaways for marketers

1. Retail media is becoming a business capability not just another media channel.

The organizations succeeding today invested years ago. Tomorrow's winners will build cross-functional capabilities spanning media, merchandising, analytics, ecommerce, and customer experience.

Operational readiness, not platform access, will become the competitive advantage.

2. Measurement must evolve beyond ROAS.

Several speakers challenged the industry's continued dependence on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) as the primary success metric.

The future lies in incrementality, customer lifetime value, share growth, and behavioral insights.

As one panelist noted, measurement isn't about proving success, it's about learning enough to improve the next decision.

3. Commerce media is bigger than retail media.

Andrew Lipsman highlighted that future growth will increasingly come from new advertisers entering the ecosystem, with dollars shifting from traditional digital channels like the open web and Meta.

He also pointed to two areas CMOs should watch closely:

• Performance TV with closed-loop measurement

• In-store retail media

Both bridge the gap between media exposure and real-world commerce in ways marketers have long wanted.

Interestingly, while agentic commerce has captured headlines, it has yet to meaningfully replace traditional shopping behavior. Instead, AI assistants like Amazon's Rufus and Walmart's Sparky appear to be complementing existing commerce journeys rather than replacing them.

One emerging challenge, however, is "dark search." As consumers increasingly use AI assistants to discover products, marketers lose visibility into where traffic originates. Shopify shared that shoppers arriving via AI spend 55% more time on product detail pages than those coming through traditional search, suggesting AI-assisted discovery may produce more engaged shoppers—even if attribution becomes more difficult.

Retail media's future is about integration

Retail media isn't replacing traditional advertising.

It's becoming part of a broader commerce ecosystem where connected TV, social, creators, AI, in-store experiences, and retailer networks work together to influence purchasing decisions.

The marketers who succeed won't be those chasing the newest retail network.

They'll be the ones who invest in measurement, educate their organizations, align cross-functional teams, and understand how consumers actually shop.

Retail media has officially grown up. Now the industry has to do the same.