Executive Summary

Retail media is one of the largest and fastest-growing ad markets in the US. It took only five years—from 2016 to 2021—for it to ramp up from $1 billion to $30 billion. That’s on par with mobile (also five years) and considerably faster than video (9 years), social networks (11 years), and search (at least 15 years).

KEY QUESTIONS

1. What is retail media?
2. How big is the market and what’s driving growth?
3. What part of the purchase funnel does retail media reach?
4. Why is it important to advertisers, retailers, and ad tech companies?

KEY STAT: Retail media is the second-fastest-growing major ad format in the US, closely behind connected TV (CTV). If current trends hold, retail media ad spending will surpass traditional TV by mid-decade.