Commerce Media’s Moment: Navigating New Channels to Drive Sales
Savvy brands are tapping into commerce media to unlock fresh inventory and drive customer acquisition.
At this year’s EMARKETER Summit, Fluent’s PJ Triboletti, VP of Business Development, joined industry experts from PepsiCo and the IAB to highlight the opportunity for advertisers, discussing how industry platforms, first-party data, and non-endemic ads are reshaping sales strategies for 2025.
Check out our key takeaways below, or watch the full recording on-demand here.
1. Commerce Media Expands Beyond Retail
The rise of retail media is empowering non-retail companies across financial services, travel, and beyond to establish their own commerce media offerings.
With access to cross-merchant insights and valuable first-party data, these networks offer a unique window into consumer behavior and spending patterns across multiple channels.
And advertisers are taking notice! Over 50% of brands and agencies are ready to invest in commerce media placements outside of traditional retail.
2. Merchants Are Under Pressure to Prove Performance
As they ramp up their commerce media campaigns, brands are demanding clear proof of performance to justify their media investments.
For example, according to panelist Cely Moreno-Mosier, PepsiCo evaluates RMNs based on their scale, precision, and ability to target true addressable audiences with advanced creative capabilities, such as dynamic creative optimization.
Ensuring that the right ads reach the right consumers is especially important for CPG campaigns where price sensitivity and product types—like large family packs versus single-serve items—can impact success.
3. Standardization Will Be Key for Scaling Ad Buys
Retail media is still the Wild West. The lack of standardization and transparency across platforms makes it difficult for advertisers to scale ad buys. In fact, 55% of marketers cite this as their biggest challenge related to RMNs.
The IAB’s Retail Media Measurement Guidelines seek to address this challenge by providing consistent standards for creative specs, transparency, and automated ad buying across RMNs.
The aim is for standardization to lighten the load for advertisers. This will allow them to invest more budget in media while spending less time managing campaigns across multiple RMNs.
4. Non-Endemic Advertisers Enter the Chat
Commerce media is also branching out to include non-endemic advertisers. Retailers are increasingly seeking partnerships with complementary brands outside their core offerings, and 53% of US brands have advertised with retailers where they are not endemic brands.
Post-transaction ads unlock an exciting new opportunity for non-endemic brands to get involved in commerce media. Seamlessly enhancing the customer journey, these placements not only open new revenue streams for retailers, but also allow advertisers to connect with consumers already in a shopping mindset.
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5. In-Store Commerce Media Bridges Online and IRL Experiences
With 45% of consumers primarily shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, retail media can help to create more cohesive online-to-offline shopping journeys.
Digital advertising in physical spaces is all about bringing the brand experience to life. This includes influencing the path to purchase through dynamic, customizable experiences based on shopper demographics, locations, and trending products.
While in-store displays can help bring the full brand experience to life, Jeffrey Bustos of the IAB warns that the in-store shopping experience shouldn’t “feel like Times Square.” The goal is to avoid overwhelming in-store environments by keeping ad formats simple yet effective.
Next Steps for Commerce Media Success
As brands and advertisers compete for consumer attention and basket share, all commerce media players—including traditional retailers—are under pressure to prove the effectiveness of their media offerings and deliver measurable results.
To meet advertisers’ expectations, the following will be essential:
- Cross-platform collaboration
- Adoption of standardized measurement tools
- Inclusion of non-endemic advertisers
Commerce media networks that can clearly showcase incremental brand growth and create seamless customer journeys will be best positioned to capture advertising budgets.
Check out more resources to get fluent in:
Commerce Media | Retail Media | Post-Transaction Advertising
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