What is retail media? A guide for brands

Retail media is advertising sold by retailers. It uses the data they have about what shoppers actually buy, and it runs on their own websites, apps, and ad accounts. A retailer knows which customers buy your product, what they buy alongside it, and how often they shop. Retail media turns that knowledge into space where brands can advertise right where the sale happens.

The short answer

When a retailer sells ad space to brands, that is retail media. The ads can run on the retailer's own website or app, where shoppers are already browsing to buy. Or they can run on Google, Meta and TikTok, powered by the retailer's own shopper data.

A supermarket selling sponsored product placement on its website, a bottle store running brand-funded Google ads to reach customers who have shopped there before, and a fashion retailer letting brands advertise inside its app are all retail media.

Why retail media exploded

Three things converged. First, retailers know what people actually buy, from real transactions and real behaviour rather than guesses or averages. Second, advertising next to the shelf works. A brand's ad on a retailer's website or app reaches someone already thinking about buying that category. Third, the loss of third-party tracking made retailer data far more valuable. When cookies died, retailers became one of the few places brands could reach audiences at scale.

Onsite vs offsite retail media

Onsite retail media is advertising on the retailer's own website or app. A brand pays to feature its product high on search results, or to get a banner placement where shoppers browse beer or skincare.

Offsite retail media is different. The retailer doesn't sell space. Instead, it gives brands access to its audience data, and brands run ads on Google, Meta or TikTok to reach those shoppers. The retailer's data makes the ads work; the platforms provide the space.

How retail media relates to trade marketing

Retail media often comes from the same budget as trade marketing. A brand's trade budget pays for promotions, co-op advertising, and shelf space. It can also fund retail media campaigns. In fact, when a brand pays a retailer to run ads on Google or TikTok using the retailer's shopper data, that is still trade marketing. It is just retail media doing the heavy lifting.

The two overlap completely. Trade marketing is the bigger picture: all the ways a brand invests with retailers. Retail media is one of those ways, and often the most measurable.

The catch for smaller retailers

Building an ad network like Amazon's takes billions and years. Most retailers cannot do it. But any retailer with an online store and ad accounts on Google, Meta and TikTok can offer the offsite version: they can give brands access to their shopper data and let those brands run ads to reach the right customers.

This is why retail media is not just for giants. A mid-sized supermarket chain, a bottle store group, or a fashion retailer can all offer it. The infrastructure is already there. The data is already there. The only missing piece is the connection.

What retail media looks like on Reech

Brands come to Reech and say what they want to sell and how much they want to spend. Reech's AI media buyer, Draper, builds campaigns inside each retailer's own ad accounts on Google, Meta and TikTok. The brand's money sits in escrow. When the campaign runs, every sale that traces back to that ad is verified and locked in. Both the brand and the retailer see the same results in real time.

Reech is live first in South Africa and built for the world. Every retailer that works with Reech can instantly offer retail media to its brand partners. Every brand can run campaigns across all its retailers at once, with one brief and one budget.

Common questions