The news: Best Buy announced a partnership with Amazon Ads to give advertisers access to more CTV ad inventory and AI-powered campaign planning and measurement tools.

• Beginning in February 2027, Best Buy Ads will use Amazon Ads’ programmatic technology to help advertisers plan, activate, improve, and measure campaigns.
• Best Buy Ads will also sell Amazon Fire TV ad inventory on new and existing Insignia TVs, which advertisers can purchase via Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP).

Zoom out: Best Buy is one of several retailers upgrading their retail media networks (RMNs) to strengthen their appeal to brands and advertisers.

• DoorDash rolled out Brand Center, a centralized portal that gives brands and retailers deeper insights into inventory performance and shopper behavior, along with tools to easily plan, implement, and optimize ad campaigns.
• Sam’s Club introduced AI-powered ad tools that use member data to target customers based on purchase potential and likely long-term value, as well as better measure campaign performance and incrementality.
• Instacart partnered with Gopuff to let Instacart Ads advertisers extend their campaigns to Gopuff or activate campaigns specifically on the quick-commerce merchant’s digital storefront.

Taken together, the moves show that RMNs are focused on providing better measurement and more granular customer insights—a requirement for being able to compete in a crowded market.

• As Arun Ramaswamy, vice president of tech and product at Home Depot, told Modern Retail, incrementality is now a “key ask” as brands demand assurance that their investments will deliver results.
• Companies are also under pressure to show that they have the data and technical capabilities to anticipate—and influence—consumer behavior.

The partnership opportunity: While retail media ad spending continues to grow at a solid clip, RMNs face stricter scrutiny as they try to compete more directly with more established channels like paid search and social media. As EMARKETER principal analyst Sarah Marzano noted in our latest Commerce Media Ad Spending Forecast, these channels benefit from more established measurement standards, mature infrastructure, established planning frameworks, and advertiser familiarity.

By contrast, most commerce media networks are in the early stages of their development, putting them at an operational disadvantage as advertisers seek greater clarity and return on their investments.

That disparity has created an opportunity for companies with established ad businesses—like Amazon and Instacart—to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with smaller commerce media players. These deals give retailers access to more sophisticated ad infrastructure that more closely parallels what brands are used to in other channels, enabling them to deliver a stronger pitch to advertisers.

Implications for retail media: While retail media continues to grow at a healthy clip, momentum is shifting in favor of other commerce media networks: We expect nonretail networks to account for a steadily larger share of total commerce media spending into 2030, reflecting higher standards for RMN spending as well as stiffer competition for ad dollars from commerce intermediaries, financial institutions, and travel companies.

To avoid falling behind—and losing even more share to players like Amazon and Walmart—retailers need to develop stronger measurement, campaign planning, and data tools. Companies also need to better communicate the value of their data and offer brands actionable insights.