A retail media network is the advertising business of a retailer. It sells brands placements on its own channels, from its website and app to its stores, and targets them with the retailer's first-party data on what its customers buy.
RMNs gained relevance when third-party cookies started to disappear: in 2020 Google announced their end and Apple announced limits on the IDFA, while first-party data was not affected. As our article on the death of third-party cookies explains, retail media networks are expanding to in-store assets such as screens and end-aisles.
An in-store retail media network sells the store's screens, end caps and displays with audiences and results measured like digital media. Advertisers expect impressions, views, clicks and ROAS; Shoppermotion provides the same metrics for physical placements, following IAB in-store retail media definitions, and attributes sales through ticket matching.
Two tools make that inventory sellable: the in-store rate card, which lists every placement with its verified audience and a suggested weekly price, and smart audiences built from in-store behaviour, which can be activated on screens or synced to the network through pseudonymised loyalty identifiers where the retailer allows it.