2025 Retail Media Trends That Will Transform How Brands Win Consumers

Retail media networks (RMNs) have transformed how brands engage with consumers over the past several years. By offering brands access to first-party shopper data and direct-sales attribution, RMNs have firmly established themselves as a core component of digital advertising strategies. However, as 2025 approaches, the industry faces new opportunities and challenges that will shape the next phase of growth. Let's explore the key trends that defined 2024 and what brands need to consider to stay ahead in 2025.  

2024: A Year of Expansion and Experimentation

In 2024, retail media networks continued their rapid evolution, with several key trends standing out:

1. Upper-Funnel Advertising: Retailers like Amazon and Walmart pushed RMNs beyond transactional, bottom-funnel advertising. Brands began leveraging these networks for upper-funnel objectives, such as building awareness and consideration, using premium ad placements on streaming services, CTV platforms, and high-traffic websites.
2. Retailer Collaboration: The industry saw unprecedented collaboration among retailers to share anonymized data, enabling broader audience insights while maintaining privacy. This trend began unlocking the potential for cross-retailer campaigns.
3. Omnichannel Integration: The integration of online and offline touchpoints became a priority, as brands demanded more cohesive measurement tools to understand consumer journeys from exposure to purchase across channels.
4. Advances in Technology: Retailers invested heavily in AI and machine learning to improve ad targeting, optimize campaign performance, and provide more robust insights to advertisers.

While 2024 laid the groundwork, Jacob Snelson, Chief Media Officer at The Bluebird Group, notes that significant gaps remain. In his words: "The draw of retail media has always been the first-party shopper-targeting data and direct-sales attribution at a single retailer. As retail media continues to push into the upper funnel, before the consumer is ever in the purchase-decision-making mode, brands and retailers have to make an intentional push into measurement beyond the click-to-buy we have been used to over the last seven years."  

The Road Ahead: What to Expect in 2025

As we look toward 2025, several critical shifts are expected to redefine the retail media landscape:

1. Omnichannel Retail Measurement: The single biggest opportunity lies in omnichannel retail measurement. Snelson emphasizes that RMNs must evolve beyond tracking purchases at a single retailer to measure where consumers ultimately buy—be it online, in-store, or even at a competing retailer. The ability to provide brands with a complete view of the purchase journey will be a game-changer for unlocking upper-funnel budgets. For example, if a consumer sees an ad during a high-profile event like Thursday Night Football through Amazon’s advertising platform, it’s crucial to understand whether they purchased the product at Amazon, Target, Walmart, or a local grocery store. Achieving this level of insight requires sophisticated data partnerships and privacy-compliant integrations between retailers.
2. Multi-Retailer Collaboration: To unlock true omnichannel measurement, RMNs will need to foster greater collaboration across the retail ecosystem. Data-sharing initiatives and partnerships between competing retailers will be necessary to provide advertisers with a comprehensive view of consumer behavior. While this requires overcoming significant competitive and logistical challenges, the potential upside for all parties involved is enormous.
3. Investment in Attribution Technology: Retail media networks must invest in advanced attribution models that go beyond traditional click-to-buy metrics. By doing so, RMNs can help brands justify upper-funnel investments and demonstrate the true ROI of their campaigns. These models should capture: - Incremental brand lift - Cross-channel influence - Long-term customer value
4. Enhanced Targeting and Personalization: With the growing availability of first-party data, RMNs will double down on hyper-targeted and personalized advertising. AI and machine learning will play a critical role in delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, whether they’re browsing online or walking through a physical store.
5. Focus on Consumer Privacy: As data collection and targeting capabilities expand, so too will regulatory scrutiny. RMNs will need to prioritize consumer privacy, ensuring all data practices comply with global standards like GDPR and CCPA. Transparent communication with consumers about how their data is used will also be critical to maintaining trust.

How Brands Can Prepare for 2025

To capitalize on the opportunities presented by retail media networks in 2025, brands should take the following steps:

1. Adopt an Omnichannel Mindset: Move away from siloed strategies and embrace campaigns that consider the full consumer journey across multiple retailers and channels.
2. Demand Advanced Measurement: Partner with RMNs that offer robust attribution models capable of tracking and analyzing both upper- and lower-funnel performance metrics.
3. Invest in Creative Excellence: As RMNs push into upper-funnel advertising, compelling creative assets will become even more critical for capturing consumer attention and driving brand affinity.
4. Build Collaborative Relationships: Work closely with retail partners to co-create campaigns that leverage shared data and insights for mutual benefit.
5. Stay Ahead of Privacy Regulations: Ensure all campaigns are built with privacy compliance in mind, leveraging anonymized data and secure technologies to protect consumer information.

Retail media networks are poised for another year of rapid growth and innovation in 2025. By focusing on omnichannel measurement, fostering collaboration, and embracing advanced attribution models, RMNs can unlock significant new revenue streams for both retailers and brands. As Jacob Snelson puts it: "In 2025, we will see a big push into omnichannel retail measurement, not just online and in-store, but over multiple retailers. This is how retail media networks will unlock more dollars, and more brands will move brand budgets into these networks." For brands willing to adapt and invest, the potential of retail media networks has never been greater.