The news: Advertisers now have the ability to target Amazon customers who also shop at Walmart, Kroger, Dollar General, and numerous other retailers thanks to a new Amazon Ads DVA+ integration with purchase data provider Attain.

Advertisers can use purchase data from tens of thousands of merchants and brands in Attain’s network to segment consumers by retailer or combination of retailers, purchase category, and shopping channel. They can then target those audiences across Amazon’s network, including Prime Video and third-party inventory.

The pitch: The integration makes Amazon a more valuable advertising partner to both endemic and nonendemic advertisers, allowing it to consolidate its grip on retail media revenues and strengthen its positioning as a full-funnel advertising solution.

Brands that already sell on the platform gain enhanced visibility into Amazon customers’ shopping behaviors and preferences, including how they interact with competing retailers. As Brian Mandelbaum, Attain’s CEO, told Adweek, the partnership “gives endemic advertisers context and competitive intel beyond what Amazon’s own view is right now of their own shoppers.” That information is particularly valuable for brands that sell across multiple retailers, such as consumer packaged goods and beauty companies, giving them more reason to consolidate their ad spending with Amazon—and less reason to invest in competing retail media networks.

Attain’s access to transaction data could also make Amazon more valuable to nonendemic brands, which offer products that aren’t sold on Amazon’s marketplace. For example, a brand like Chipotle could use the information to target Amazon customers who visit competing restaurant chains.

Zoom out: Amazon’s partnership with Attain reflects the retailer’s broader ambition to position itself as at the center of commerce, not only for advertisers but also for shoppers, even when transactions happen outside its own marketplace. That goal has taken on additional urgency as Amazon looks to keep AI platforms like ChatGPT and Meta’s Muse from weakening its relationship to consumers and threatening its ecommerce and advertising businesses.

Much as Amazon is using its deal with Attain to broaden its reach beyond its own ecosystem, the retailer is also looking to strengthen its hold on ecommerce by vastly expanding the number of discoverable brands and products on its platform—even if it doesn’t actually sell those items itself. Its newly expanded Shop Direct feature surfaces products sold by other retailers and directs shoppers to those companies’ sites when the items are unavailable on Amazon. The recent rollout of a Shop Direct Merchant Workspace makes it easier for eligible merchants to connect their stores to Amazon’s platform, a move that could strengthen the retailer’s edge in product discovery and keep third-party AI platforms at bay.

Implications for retail: Amazon’s expanded targeting capabilities and Shop Direct merchant tools show how the retailer is playing offense as it looks to keep competitors from encroaching on its turf.

Amazon is relatively secure on the advertising front: We expect the retailer to account for 79.4% of retail media ad revenues this year, giving it a resounding lead over second-place Walmart.

But while Amazon is the dominant player in ecommerce, it is vulnerable to disruption from agentic commerce. Despite its partnerships with third-party AI platforms, its resistance to third-party shopping agents on its marketplace is depriving the company of an opportunity to learn how consumers incorporate those tools into their shopping journeys, while giving competitors like Walmart an opening to gain an edge in discovery and visibility.