The news: Retail media is entering its next phase of maturity—and accountability.. At an NRF panel moderated by EMARKETER principal analyst Max Willens, executives from Costco, Best Buy, and Nordstrom made clear that retail media networks are now being judged on execution quality, not just revenue momentum.

• Panelists acknowledged that macro fears, including tariffs and consumer pullbacks, did not derail retail media growth in 2025 as much as expected. US retail media ad spending still expanded by over $10 billion last year to $60.32 billion, per our forecast cited by Willens.
• But still, advertiser tolerance has changed. Brands and agencies are less patient with slow onboarding, rigid buying processes, and unclear reporting. Several retailers pointed to self-serve tools, faster activation, and cleaner data foundations as priorities going into 2026.
• Best Buy Ads president Lisa Valentino said the company leaned into self-serve to match how media is increasingly bought elsewhere, while also using retail media to support product launches and cultural moments, not just lower-funnel outcomes.
• Costco’s retail media AVP Mark Williamson described retail media as downstream from the company’s core mission of serving members, emphasizing that advertising must support merchandising decisions happening in real time, not override them.
• Nordstrom Media VP Aaron Dunford highlighted curation and relevance as differentiators, noting that retail media needs to feel consistent with how shoppers already experience the brand.

Why it matters: Retail media is no longer judged on performance alone. Now a core part of media mixes, advertisers are benchmarking it directly against paid search, social, and CTV, and expecting comparable flexibility, measurement clarity, and speed.

• Retailers that overload pages with ads or surface irrelevant placements risk eroding shopper trust, which can weaken long-term ad revenues.
• Self-serve has become a baseline expectation rather than a premium feature. Retailers that rely too heavily on managed services may struggle to scale as agencies consolidate buying across fewer platforms.
• Though far from perfect, measurement standards are also rising. While closed-loop attribution remains a key advantage, advertisers increasingly want visibility into how retail media influences the full purchase journey, not just the final click.
• Retailers with strong first-party relationships, including loyalty and membership programs, appear better positioned to balance monetization with customer experience. That edge matters more as budgets face tighter scrutiny.

Implications for marketers:

The biggest risk in 2026 may not be slower growth, but inefficient spend. Retail media remains effective, but only when execution respects both the shopper and the advertiser. Marketers should expect greater divergence among retail media networks, where ease of buying, reporting consistency, and brand fit matter as much as scale.

Brands will need to be more selective and tailor investments by retailer, rather than applying a uniform approach across RMNs. Retail media is also pulling brand, performance, and shopper teams into the same planning conversations, raising the bar for internal alignment. Marketers should push retailers for clearer self-serve roadmaps and data access, prioritizing partners that make testing, pausing, and optimization easier.