Retail media’s stellar growth continues as ecommerce giants open their platforms to advertising

Retail media has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past eight years. In 2014 this digital segment generated $6.8bn in advertising revenue and had a 1.6% share of the global advertising market. In 2022 it commands $110.7bn in revenue and a 14.2% share.

It was the only medium which received an upward revision to its forecast at the end of 2022 by Group M, and the agency forecasts that over the next five years it will be the fastest growing digital segment.

Zenith too predicts a blistering 17.8% compound annual growth rate for the segment between 2022 and 2025. WARC predicts that growth for media retail networks might be as high as 28.4% in 2023. While the forecasts may differ, the conviction in the growth potential of this segment is consistent.

The segment is set to be further boosted by ecommerce giants like Amazon and Walmart opening up their ecommerce platforms to advertisers.

These platforms not only serve up huge audiences of consumers already in a buying mindset, but a wealth of first-party data.

As marketers’ ability to measure, optimise and target is being hampered by tightening consumer privacy standards that impact the effectiveness of tracking tools like third-party cookies, retail media could offer a potentially attractive proposition.

This insight article is part of the FIPP report Digital Advertising Futures 2023 H1, available only to FIPP members. You can download the full report here.

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