In this context, retail media has become even more relevant than before. It’s an advertising technique, which consists of positioning targeted advertisements directly on your consumers’ buying journey, to encourage them to buy your product. 
It’s no surprise that retail media exploded the way it did. According to the Retail Media Advertising 2021 study, there was a 27.8% increase in ad spending on this format, making it reach 23.92 billion US dollars in 2021.

Want to discover more about it? Learn in this post the keys to retail media, and all its benefits for your own brand.

‍What is retail media?

As you have read above, retail media consists in placing advertisements on the consumer's shopping journey. 
Retail media can now be done in omnichannel, and you can distinguish two different types of strategies: 

• On one hand, in-store retail media, also known as point-of-sale advertising (or POS). This type of strategy consists in positioning physical advertisements in the retailers' own stores. This is achieved through ads that are displayed on different touch points, for example when the consumer scans his products in the store via a scanner, or at the checkout, at the end of his shopping experience.
• On the other hand, digital retail media (also called e-retail media). These marketing actions consist of placing advertisements on the e-commerce sites of distributors who offer this auction system.

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Complementary marketing strategies that can help you generate sales or retain existing customers, while enhancing the customer experience you create around your brand!

How has retail media evolved over the years?

The concept of retail media is not new. In fact, "traditional" retail media is already old: many retailers have been offering devices for brands to communicate in their stores for a long time. 
E-retail media, on the other hand, appeared in the early 2000s, with firms such as Rakuten (from 2005) developing their own digital advertising devices. But digital retail media will explode only with Amazon which, in 2010, provides brands with a system of auctioning advertising space on its e-commerce site (Amazon Advertising). 
Since then, the concept, both in its physical and digital forms, has come a long way, and has developed at the same time as the appetite of your audience for digital. 
Now, to monetize their web audiences, many e-commerce sites have launched their own advertising network: 

• Marketplaces
• Consumer goods stores
• Specialised retailers

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And the good news is that the more this digital advertising device has evolved, the more these retailers have given advertisers access to data, to help them personalize their messages and generate more visibility for their brand, as well as additional sales. 
So many Big Data levers to activate to ensure that you achieve your marketing goals on the customer journey that your targets go through!

Why should you embark on your own retail media strategy?

Are you thinking of adding a retail media device to your digital strategy? Here are some good reasons to get started!

A technique that your consumers and prospects like

First of all, you should know that retail media is an advertising technique that adapts well to your targets' expectations. Not as intrusive as other techniques, very personalised, your retail media ads allow you to create an optimal user experience for your potential customers. 
Indeed, your audience uses e-commerce sites as sources of information, or even as comparators: your prospects and customers are already well engaged in their purchasing process, and well-targeted ads can help them in their decisions.

A very diverse set of marketing goals you can reach

Of course, retail media allows you to generate additional sales. However, this advertising technique is also suitable for other types of marketing objectives: awareness, loyalty or drive-to-store. However, you will have to adapt your segmentation and personalisation methods to reach these different objectives. 

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A very fine targeting

Among all the webmarketing advertising devices, retail media is undoubtedly one of those that allows marketing teams to access the most granular audiences. Indeed, e-commerce sites' advertising networks provide their advertisers with a huge amount of customer data. 
You can take advantage of the transactional, declarative and behavioral data available, both online and offline: shopping cart content, location, product type, buyer profile, purchase mode, purchase frequency... 
The goal being to create ultra-targeted programmatic ads, where you can optimize the message for better performance. 

An ROI oriented technique

Are you looking for advertising channels that allow you to spend your marketing budgets wisely? Then retail media is for you, as it is a communication strategy that is ROI oriented by nature. 
Thanks to it, you can easily track the key metrics related to your advertising campaigns and continuously optimize your device for better performance.

A brandsafe advertising method

As any marketer implementing advertising campaigns knows, it's crucial for a brand to ensure that an advertising device is brandsafe. 
In a retail media strategy, no worries: you know exactly where you are communicating (on the distributor's sites selected by you), and you make sure that your ads and their environment will not harm your brand image.

A wise strategy in a cookieless world

You may have already heard that the world of digital marketing and communication is slowly becoming "cookieless": third-party cookies are bound to disappear, undermining some digital marketing strategies. 
However, retail media will not be affected by this world without third-party cookies! Indeed, in a retail media strategy, the advertiser has direct access to the first-party data of the site on which he wants to communicate, which allows him to avoid using third-party cookies. 

You now know the ins and outs of retail media. Want to take advantage of an extended audience to launch your own retail media campaigns? Discover Valiuz’s offer, and start reaching your target-audience at the best moment: directly on their buying journey!