Retail Media’s Next Battle: Turning Shopper Data into Brand Growth

Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have spent the last decade proving they can drive conversion. Their original proposition was simple: reach consumers close to purchase, use retailer data to identify likely buyers and connect advertising directly to sales.

The next challenge is bigger: Can RMNs become genuine full-funnel media platforms—and justify a share of brand-building budgets?

The answer may depend less on advertising inventory and more on the quality of shopper data they can unlock for advertisers.

Retailers don't just own websites. They own stores, shelves, apps, screens and, most importantly, first-party purchase data. Unlike conventional audience targeting, this data is based on actual purchase behaviour. As one expert quoted by Digiday put it, retail audiences are effectively “modelled off a receipt.”

This creates a powerful proposition:

Commerce data + media reach + closed-loop measurement.

The shift is already visible. Digiday reports that 60% of Walmart's self-serve display spend in Q4 2025 went to off-site inventory, demonstrating how retailer audiences are increasingly being activated beyond retailer-owned properties.

The Retail Meida measurement challenge

However, a fundamental contradiction remains. RMNs want brand budgets, but much of their inventory and measurement infrastructure remains designed for performance marketing—conversion optimisation, auction-based buying and attribution.

Brand building requires different metrics: awareness, consideration, reach, household penetration and long-term growth. Digiday notes that some RMN data and upper-funnel measurement capabilities can also sit behind spending thresholds or Joint Business Plans.

This is where the JBP could become strategically important.

Traditionally, Joint Business Planning has focused on sales targets, promotions, assortment and trade investment. Retail Media is potentially transforming it into a data and growth partnership:

Advertiser investment → JBP → Shopper data & audience access → Media activation → Measurement → Business growth

The KPI framework therefore needs to evolve—from sales and ROAS alone to incremental reach, new-to-brand shoppers, brand lift, incremental sales and incremental ROAS.

Does Retail Media's shopper data improve ROAS?

Case studies suggest it can. NIVEA and Walmart Connect, for example, reported more than 80% improvement in ROAS after incorporating in-store attribution and shopper data into activation and optimisation. Other retailer case studies have reported significant improvements in ROAS when first-party audiences and omnichannel purchase data are used.

These should be viewed as case-study results, not universal industry benchmarks. More importantly, shopper data creates value in two ways: better targeting and better measurement. It can identify higher-value audiences while also connecting digital exposure to purchases that might otherwise remain invisible—particularly offline purchases.

Retail Media's bigger opportunity

The next generation of RMNs could therefore move beyond being retail advertising platforms to becoming data-powered media ecosystems.

The JBP could become the bridge connecting:

Shopper data + audience activation + brand building + commerce + measurement.

For advertisers, the question may increasingly shift from:

“How much should we spend with this retailer?”

to:

“What shopper intelligence, audience access and incremental business value do we receive in return?”

The real competitive advantage of an RMN may ultimately not be its inventory, but its ability to connect shopper intelligence with media and measurable incremental growth.

The future of Retail Media may therefore be less about selling advertising—and more about selling access to the entire commerce ecosystem.