Sarah Marzano

Table of Contents Executive Summary Commerce media is now a foundational digital advertising channel The growing role of commerce media is outpacing organizational maturity Commerce media is becoming a larger and more strategic part of advertisers' media plans Retail remains dominant, but nonretail verticals are making impressive gains in commerce media Not all nonretail verticals are growing alike The playbook that fueled commerce media's rise may not be enough for its next phase...

Retail media is settling into a clearer hierarchy as Amazon remains dominant and a scaled second tier begins to take shape beneath it. Meanwhile, the crowded long tail is falling further behind. Channels that could help emerging RMNs break through, particularly in-store, remain underdeveloped, reinforcing the advantages of already scaled players.

Physical stores drive most retail sales, but they capture just under 5% of non-Amazon retail media spend. Ecommerce-first measurement, fragmented infrastructure, and misaligned incentives limit scale. Solving attribution and integration gaps is key to unlocking full-funnel retail media growth. Key Question: Why do retail media ad buyers continue to underinvest in in-store retail media, and what must change for advertiser spend to scale?