Written by Leanne Naughton, Managing Partner, Retail Media Monetisation
Retail media has grown quickly. What began as a promising new revenue stream is now becoming a serious commercial engine for retailers, brands and commerce platforms.
But growth has exposed a problem. Many retail media networks were built for speed, not scale. “As commerce media matures, success will not be defined by who launches the most ad products,” says Osmos, which is a dentsu partner that helps retailers unify commerce media planning, activation, optimisation and measurement. “It will be defined by who builds the most scalable business.”
In the early stages, speed rather than scale made sense. Retailers needed to get propositions into market, create new media inventory, prove advertiser demand and build confidence with brand partners. Many did this by adding point solutions for sponsored products, display, off-site activation, in-store media, reporting and measurement.
Those choices helped retail media move faster. They also created a more complicated operating reality. Many networks now rely on fragmented technology stacks, disconnected workflows, inconsistent reporting and channel-specific measurement. What helped retailers launch can start to hold them back as advertiser expectations rise and the network becomes more complex to manage.
The next phase of commerce media will be defined by the retailers and network owners who can make the whole system work together.
Retail media needs infrastructure, not more complexity
Commerce media infrastructure gives retailers stronger foundations for growth. Instead of optimising individual channels in isolation, it connects planning, activation, optimisation and measurement across onsite, offsite and in-store environments. The strongest programmes improve product discovery, strengthen supplier partnerships, support category growth, increase loyalty and drive incremental sales across digital and physical channels.
To do that consistently, retailers need technology and operating models that connect customer insight, media activity and commercial outcomes. A scalable retail media network needs more than a collection of ad products. It needs a connected system that makes campaigns easier to plan, easier to activate, easier to optimise and easier to measure.
Fragmented tech stacks make retail media harder to scale
Advertiser investment is growing, but so are expectations. Brands want clearer proof of what retail media delivers. They want to understand which activity changed customer behaviour, what drove incremental sales and how onsite, offsite and in-store activity worked together.
Those questions are hard to answer when channels are planned separately and measured in different ways. They become harder still when advertisers have to manage campaigns across multiple retail media networks, each with different buying processes, reporting standards and performance methodologies.
For retailers, that fragmentation creates commercial drag. It slows teams down, complicates advertiser conversations, limits visibility across the customer journey and makes it harder to prove value beyond short-term media metrics.
The networks that simplify this experience will have an advantage. Advertisers are crying out for retail media that is easier to buy, easier to optimise and easier to evaluate – giving them confidence and consistency. Can your network deliver?
Why commerce media operating systems matter
A stronger infrastructure approach helps retailers move from disconnected activity to connected growth.
That means being able to bring together inventory, audience data, campaign planning, activation, optimisation and reporting in a more unified way. It means helping teams work from a shared view of performance rather than separate channel dashboards. It also means giving advertisers a clearer understanding of not just where their ads appeared, but what those ads achieved.
This is where commerce media operating systems are becoming increasingly important. The right operating system should help retailers connect existing commerce systems, activate first-party data more effectively, orchestrate campaigns across channels and provide a more consistent view of performance. It should support the strategy, not dictate it.
The aim is not to replace every system overnight. It is to create the connective infrastructure that allows retail media to scale with more control, more transparency and less operational friction.
Turning first-party data into measurable growth
First-party data is one of retail media’s greatest advantages. Retailers have valuable customer, transaction and behavioural signals that can help brands reach shoppers in more relevant and commercially meaningful ways. But data only creates value when it can be activated responsibly, measured clearly and connected to business outcomes.
That means moving beyond data as an asset and treating it as part of a wider growth system. Retailers need to understand which audiences matter, how those audiences behave across channels, which media activity influences action and which outcomes prove real commercial impact.
Good commerce media infrastructure helps make those connections visible. It turns first-party data into something advertisers can plan against, optimise with and evaluate confidently.
How dentsu New Stream Media and Osmos help retailers
This is where the partnership between dentsu New Stream Media and Osmos creates value to retailers. Dentsu brings retail media strategy, audience intelligence, go-to-market planning, commercial design and programme management. Osmos provides an omnichannel retail media operating system that helps unify planning, activation, optimisation and measurement in a single platform.
Together, the partnership helps retailers and network owners answer one of the most important questions in commerce media: how do you scale without adding more complexity?
For some retailers, that may mean connecting existing systems more effectively. For others, it may mean improving advertiser workflows, strengthening measurement, enabling more consistent activation or creating a clearer operating model for growth. The common thread is the same: retail media performance depends on the infrastructure behind it.
Commerce media’s next chapter will not be won by the retailer with the longest list of ad formats. It will be won by those with the strongest foundations: connected systems, clearer measurement, better advertiser experiences and the ability to turn first-party data into measurable growth.
To find out how dentsu’s New Stream Media solution, in partnership with Osmos, can help you build more connected, measurable and scalable commerce media infrastructure, contact us.
