Retail Media Landscape in 2025: What Brands Need to Know

As we look ahead to 2025, the retail media landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, driven by shifts in technology, consumer behavior, and market competition. Brands must stay informed and agile to capitalize on opportunities while navigating challenges in this dynamic ecosystem. Here’s what you need to know and consider as you plan your retail media strategies.

The Dominance of Amazon and Walmart

Retail media has grown exponentially, with U.S. ad spending nearly five times higher in 2024 than in 2019. However, this growth is highly concentrated, with Amazon and Walmart commanding more than 84% of the retail media ad revenue. These giants dominate due to their robust buying capabilities, advanced measurement tools, and unparalleled reach, leaving little room for smaller retail media networks to gain significant market share.

For brands, this concentration means a need to focus efforts on platforms that provide the most value. Amazon and Walmart not only offer scale but also increasingly sophisticated ad tech solutions that enable granular targeting, attribution, and optimization.

Challenges for Smaller Players

The rise of retail media networks has introduced a fragmented landscape, with many smaller players struggling to compete. Brands have reported key challenges, such as:

• Lack of standardization across platforms.
• Difficulty attributing media buys to sales.
• Insufficient access to timely data and analytics.

While trade associations have laid the groundwork for standardization, progress has been slow. Brands need to weigh the risks and benefits of investing in smaller networks and focus on partnerships that can provide clear measurement and actionable insights.

Emerging Trends and Predictions

Several key trends are shaping the retail media environment in 2025:

1. Consolidation of Spending: Advertisers will likely narrow their investments to fewer networks, favoring those that offer comprehensive capabilities and measurable ROI.
2. Growth of Off-Site Retail Media: Retailers are increasingly offering off-site advertising options, enabling brands to leverage retailer data for upper-funnel awareness campaigns across the open web.
3. In-Store Media Innovations: Digital screens and other formats are transforming physical stores into advertising hubs. However, these require significant investment in technology, making them more viable for larger retailers.

What Brands Should Prioritize

To thrive in this landscape, brands must adopt a strategic and flexible approach:

• Invest in Platforms with Proven ROI: Focus on retail media networks that offer robust analytics, attribution tools, and scalability. This often means allocating the lion’s share of budgets to Amazon and Walmart, while carefully testing smaller players.
• Diversify Media Strategies: Explore off-site and in-store advertising opportunities to tap into new budgets and connect with consumers across multiple touchpoints.
• Demand Standardization: Push for more cohesive metrics and benchmarks across retail media networks to improve campaign comparability and efficiency.
• Prepare for Economic Normalization: As CPG brands pull back on ad spending after years of double-digit growth, competition for ad dollars will intensify. Efficiency and effectiveness will become even more critical.