Written by Paul Lynch, Integrated Solutions Lead, Retail & Commerce
Look closely at your retail media network and ask one uncomfortable question: is it designed around how your customers actually shop, or around what you can monetise?
For many retailers, the answer is not as clear as it should be. Sponsored search, off-site media, CRM, loyalty, app, social, store and ecommerce activity are often planned as separate commercial opportunities. Each may make sense in isolation. Together, they can create a journey that feels fragmented for customers, hard to evaluate for advertisers and difficult for retailers to scale.
That is the challenge the next phase of retail media has to solve.
Growth will not come simply from adding more media surfaces or monetising more touchpoints. It will come from building retail media networks around how people actually shop: searching, browsing, comparing, visiting stores, responding to offers, using loyalty schemes and buying in whatever way suits them.
In other words, retail media needs to stop thinking in channels and start thinking in journeys.
Fragmentation is a strategy problem
Many retailers and brands are wrestling with similar challenges: disconnected activity, inconsistent measurement, pressure to monetise quickly, advertisers demanding clearer proof of return, and technology choices that can feel overwhelming.
These issues are often treated as delivery problems. At root, they are strategy problems.
Fragmentation happens when commercial ambition, customer experience, category priorities, channel planning, data, technology and measurement are developed separately. Each part may work in isolation, but the network as a whole becomes harder to scale. Value leaks out of the system; customers see disconnected messages. Advertisers lack confidence, and retailers miss the bigger opportunity.
A stronger retail media network starts with a clearer strategic question: what role should retail media play in the business?
Is it primarily a new revenue stream? A way to strengthen supplier partnerships? A driver of category growth? A customer experience opportunity? A loyalty accelerator? A platform for brands to build deeper relationships with shoppers?
For most retailers, the answer will be a combination of these. But the priorities need to be explicit, because they shape every decision that follows: the proposition, the operating model, the technology, the measurement framework, the commercial model and the way the network goes to market.
Start with the customer journey
Retail media works best when it improves the experience, not when it interrupts it.
That sounds simple, but it requires a different way of planning. Customers do not move through neat media channels. They search, browse, compare, click, visit, redeem, abandon, return and buy across a mix of environments.
They do not think in onsite, offsite, CRM, loyalty or in-store. They think in needs, moments and decisions.
Retail media needs to reflect that reality. Sponsored search, loyalty audiences, CRM, off-site media, social, app, website and store activity should not be treated as disconnected revenue lines. They are connected moments in one customer journey.
Planned well, they can help shoppers discover relevant products, make better decisions and receive more useful offers. They can also help advertisers understand what genuinely drives behaviour, not just what happened in the final click.
Customer experience must be designed into retail media strategy from the start. Omnichannel is not merely a media planning principle. It is what makes retail media more valuable, more measurable and more sustainable.
Design the operating model before the media plan
Before retailers add more channels, they need to define how the network will operate. Who owns the customer experience? How are supplier conversations connected to category priorities? How do media, ecommerce, loyalty, CRM and store teams work together? What decisions sit centrally, and what should be managed by category or brand teams?
Retail media cannot scale through inventory alone. It needs an operating model that connects commercial ambition with customer value.
The strongest networks create clarity for everyone involved. Retailers understand what they are building and why. Advertisers understand what they can buy, how it connects to their objectives and how success will be proven. Customers experience media that feels relevant, useful and connected rather than fragmented or intrusive.
That operating model also creates the foundation for the next layer of growth: the infrastructure needed to make retail media easier to plan, activate, optimise and measure across channels.
Measure what matters
A strategy-led retail media network should be able to show whether it is creating value for three audiences: the retailer, the advertiser and the customer:
- For retailers, that means sustainable revenue growth, stronger supplier relationships, better media yield, operational confidence and contribution to wider category or business goals.
- For advertisers, it means clearer proof of effectiveness: incremental sales, sales lift, new-to-brand customers, conversion, basket growth, category share and closed-loop attribution.
- For customers, it means more relevant experiences, smoother journeys, better offers and less friction. Metrics such as engagement, loyalty participation, offer redemption, search-to-purchase conversion, repeat purchase and satisfaction signals all help show whether retail media is adding value or simply adding noise.
The scorecard should work like a strategy test. If a metric does not help prove retailer growth, advertiser confidence or customer value, it should not lead the conversation.
From strategy to scale
Once the strategic role of retail media is clear, the next challenge is making the system work at scale.
That is where infrastructure becomes critical. Retailers need connected systems and workflows that can support planning, activation, optimisation and measurement across onsite, offsite and in-store environments. Without that foundation, networks can become harder to manage as they grow.
Experience matters too. The physical store remains one of retail media’s most powerful environments, but it needs to be treated carefully. In-store media should not simply add more screens or noise. It should create useful, engaging moments that support discovery and help customers make decisions.
These two areas, scalable commerce media infrastructure and more creative in-store customer experiences, are explored in more detail in the next articles in this series.
Why choose dentsu New Stream Media?
Dentsu’s New Stream Media offering helps retailers and brands build retail media networks that are connected, measurable and designed around the customer.
We bring together retail media strategy, media expertise, category understanding, data, technology, measurement and demand generation to help clients make the right choices: what to build, how to connect it, how to measure it and how to scale it without adding unnecessary complexity.
That means helping retailers define the role of retail media in the business, design a proposition advertisers can understand and buy, build the right operating model, connect activity across channels, and create measurement frameworks that prove value beyond short-term performance.
Retail media’s next phase will not be won by the organisations that simply add the most inventory. It will be won by those that get the strategy right first, then align channels, technology, measurement and customer experience behind it. To find out how dentsu’s New Stream Media solution can help you build a more connected, customer-centred retail media network, contact us.
