The Future of Retail Media is Off-Site

Retail media has become one of the fastest-growing segments of digital advertising, giving retailers a valuable way to monetize their first-party data. For years, retail media networks (RMNs) have focused on high-margin, lower-funnel ad placements across their owned-and-operated (O&O) websites and apps. However, as that inventory reaches saturation, the next phase of growth is happening off-site.

According to eMarketer, off-site retail media ad spend is projected to grow over 40 percent this year, nearly triple the rate of on-site spend. This shift highlights the growing urgency for RMNs to evolve beyond traditional product pages and create media opportunities wherever their customers are, whether that’s in connected TV (CTV), across the open web, on social platforms, or even in physical environments like gas stations and kiosks.

Retailers that rely solely on O&O placements will struggle to keep pace with larger networks that have already begun expanding their footprint. Today’s advertisers are consolidating spend and looking for scale, flexibility and performance. Off-site activation is no longer optional; it's the strategy that allows RMNs to compete for a larger share of full-funnel budgets.

Activating first-party data off-site enables retailers to target high-value audiences at every stage of the customer journey. For example, a grocery retailer might identify lapsed snack buyers and reach them through streaming TV ads. These upper-funnel touchpoints spark awareness and consideration outside of transactional moments, helping brands engage consumers in new and memorable ways.

Non-endemic advertising is also gaining traction. Over half of brands have now partnered with retailers that do not carry their products, using retail audience data to reach shoppers with high purchase intent. This opens up brand-safe inventory to advertisers in verticals like automotive, finance, and travel, while providing retailers with new ways to monetize their data.

For retailers looking to compete in this new environment, measurement is critical. On-site retail media has long benefited from closed-loop attribution, where ad exposure directly connects to a purchase on the same platform. Off-site measurement is more complex, but it's becoming increasingly possible with the right partnerships. Identity resolution is helping retailers tie off-site exposures to real-world outcomes like store visits or online purchases.

This level of attribution unlocks the ability to optimize off-site campaigns and prove their value to advertisers, something RMNs must do to remain competitive. By providing transparent, third party-validated reporting, retailers can make the case for why their off-site audiences drive incremental performance.

In addition to advertising, retailers are exploring how to monetize their data more directly. Some are now offering anonymized, privacy-compliant audience segments through Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) models. By licensing this data to external partners or platforms, retailers can create scalable, recurring revenue streams that do not rely on ad inventory alone.

The future of retail media will belong to those that can activate data across the full marketing funnel, beyond the boundaries of their websites. As more RMNs shift off-site, those that invest in reach, measurement, and flexibility will be best positioned to thrive in this next phase of growth.

Sam Zahedi is the senior enterprise partnerships manager at Experian, a global data and technology company.