While it is now anticipated that retail media spending is to grow at a slightly faster pace this year, with global marketing investments rising 13.7% year over year to reach $153.3 billion, the sector is expected to cool down next year.
A new report from the researcher highlighted that retail media networks’ increased sophistication in utilizing shopper data to target offsite campaigns, including in non-retail environments, is driving channel growth in 2024.
Retail media remains highly competitive, but Amazon is solidifying a dominant position, with predicting the e-commerce giant will command 37.3% of the market in 2024. However, some of retail media’s rapid growth could soon slow as brands reach their budget limits.
WARC concurs with other forecasters in projecting that retail media networks will see a growth spike this year due to their expanded efforts into offsite media.
However, the growth rate for one of digital’s booming channels seems to be decelerating after a long period of rapid expansion. In 2024, it was forecasted that spending on social media will grow more quickly than on retail media, at a rate of 14.3%.
The “Future of Digital Commerce” report indicated that retail media spending will increase more slowly in 2025, with the rate reaching 10.6% “as trade marketing budgets are steadily exhausted.”
Retail media networks gained prominence through sponsored search and display placements on on-site properties, capturing consumer attention as they browsed and filled their carts.
But mature players in the space have begun leveraging their first-party data to help brands target their campaigns elsewhere, including on trendy social media apps like TikTok and in the growing connected TV (CTV) space.
In a sign of this trend, Disney Advertising struck a deal with Walmart Connect in May to use the big-box store’s retail media data to power ad campaigns on platforms like Hulu and Disney+.
Programmatic buying is also a growing area of interest for retail media networks looking to expand into the open web. A separate report from Advertiser Perceptions revealed that offsite programmatic retail media will generate $20 billion in 2024, surpassing 2023’s figures.
With dollars pouring in, retail media has seen power consolidate around a few platforms, with Amazon at the forefront. Excluding China, where Temu owner Pinduoduo dominates the retail media space, Amazon accounts for 62.3% of the global category market share.
Amazon’s advertising revenue surged 24% year-over-year in Q1 to $11.82 billion, and the company plans to gain further traction as it introduces commercials to Prime Video. Amazon is expected to maintain a 25% growth in retail media in 2024, reaching $52.7 billion in revenue.
