What is retail media? A plain-English explainer covering the definition, how retail media networks work, revenue models, and the difference between in-store and online retail media.
Retail Media: The Complete Explainer
Retail media is one of the fastest-growing advertising categories globally. At its core, retail media is the practice of retailers monetising their customer touchpoints — including in-store screens, audio, digital channels, and customer data — by selling advertising inventory to brand suppliers.
The term encompasses a wide range of formats. In-store retail media includes digital screens, audio advertising, and interactive kiosks. Online retail media includes sponsored product listings, display advertising on retailer websites and apps, and email marketing. The fastest-growing segment is in-store digital retail media, driven by the deployment of commercial screens and audio systems connected to programmatic buying platforms.
Why Retail Media Matters
Retail media is valuable because it reaches shoppers at the highest-intent moment — immediately before and during the purchase decision. Unlike online advertising, which reaches consumers across a wide range of contexts and intent levels, in-store retail media reaches shoppers who are physically present in the store, actively browsing and purchasing. This proximity drives significantly higher conversion rates and ROAS for brand advertisers.
For retailers, retail media represents a high-margin revenue stream that leverages existing assets: the store network, the customer base, and the first-party purchase data.
How Retail Media Works
A retail media network operates by connecting advertising inventory (screen time, audio slots) to brand advertisers via a commercial infrastructure. Direct-sold campaigns are negotiated directly between the retailer’s commercial team and brand advertisers. Programmatic campaigns are sold via real-time bidding through DSP connections, enabling automated buying and selling at scale.
onQ Digital’s programmatic SSP connects in-store screen inventory to 35+ DSPs, enabling brands to buy in-store advertising programmatically via real-time bidding. This drives CPM uplifts of 30–80% versus direct-sold-only models and significantly increases fill rates.
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