Retail-media advertising technology and programmatic (on-site and off-site), in-store and omni-store digital media (screens, audio, smart-cart), shoppable video and CTV, measurement, data and identity, creator and influencer commerce, and AI and agentic marketing automation.
CVS Media Exchange is utilizing 90 million addressable customer relationships to deliver precision multi-channel advertising at the point of purchase with integrated merchandising and media.
Skai launched Agent Connect to allow external AI agents to access its omnichannel marketing infrastructure via MCP connectors.
Retail media CTV ad spending is forecast to hit approximately $5 billion in 2025, growing roughly three times faster than retail media search according to eMarketer.
Major payment networks and retailers have launched agentic commerce protocols enabling AI-driven instant checkout across multiple platforms.
Grocery TV has introduced a measurement solution for its in-store retail media network that links ad impressions to verified store sales to calculate return on ad spend.
Google launched Shoppable CTV, enabling viewers to browse and buy products directly within YouTube ads using data from Google Merchant Center.
TalkShopLive introduced TSL Shoppettes, a feature enabling users to purchase items from short-form videos on Instagram and Facebook by commenting 'SHOP' to receive direct buy links via direct messages.
Hightouch and Databricks launched a self-service, AI-powered platform on January 10, 2025, enabling retail media networks to build and syndicate custom audiences across more than 50 channels.
Instacart has extended its Caper Cart advertising program to all 7,000+ brand partners, enabling campaigns to run across its marketplace and in-store cart screens based on aisle location and inventory status.
Walmart agreed to acquire self-serve CTV platform Vibe.co for approximately $1.4 billion to integrate its long-tail advertising engine into Walmart Connect.
Google is rolling out a Universal Cart in its AI Mode and Gemini app that connects products across retailers and supports checkout via Google Pay or retailer handoff.
McKinsey reports AI-generated product recommendations convert 4.4 times higher than traditional search, while Mirakl finds 42% of customers abandon purchases due to insufficient product information.
REVERSIBLE Labs has launched an API that connects AI agents and styling apps to over 700 retailers for fashion and beauty commerce.
Bambuser has become a Meta Live Video Ads partner, allowing brands to use livestreams as ad creative to drive traffic to their own shoppable sites without platform selling fees.
Cotswold Outdoor Group has deployed 149 digital displays across 23 UK stores using Broadsign’s content management system to manage in-store advertising and connect with its Zitcha retail media platform.
LG Ad Solutions announced a partnership with Best Buy Ads on October 7 that allows U.S. marketers to purchase targeted advertising space across the LG TV ecosystem through the retail media network.
TikTok announced on October 5 that it is introducing an in-app checkout solution called Buy Direct and an AI-powered Shopping Assistant to facilitate agentic commerce experiences within its platform.
TikTok announced new agentic AI features for lead generation and shopping, alongside the US launch of its TikTok Ad Network, during Advertising Week.
EMARKETER projects that AI platforms will account for 1.5% of US retail ecommerce sales in 2026, representing approximately $20.57 billion in revenue.
Condé Nast is launching VETTE, an AI-powered marketplace where creators build digital storefronts under a revenue-share model with AI merchandising tools and retail-media revenue streams, in early 2026.
Jivox has released an AI product that creates and launches commerce-media campaigns in approximately five minutes and integrates with agentic shopping agents like Perplexity's 'Buy with Pro'.
EMARKETER reports that 2026 marks a shift to GenAI-driven automated bidding as the default in programmatic advertising, with targeting moving from static to real-time and creative becoming continuously auto-generated.
Walmart Connect has begun testing advertising formats within its Sparky shopping agent and is rolling out a beta version of the Marty advertising assistant for Sponsored Search campaigns.
Major retailers are using influencer-driven experiences and TikTok Shop livestreams as primary channels for new retail media activations and seasonal events.
Feedvisor has introduced Agentis, an agentic commerce platform for Amazon sellers that coordinates advertising, pricing, inventory, and competitive intelligence to optimize for profit rather than just return on ad spend.
Walmart has integrated its Creator Program into its core sales infrastructure by introducing a tiered bonus structure that pays creators for hitting sales thresholds and expanding commissions to include third-party marketplace sellers.
Amazon has introduced a beta version of an agentic AI creative partner designed to assist advertisers with audience research and the generation of final creative assets.
Upfluence has introduced an MCP-enabled agentic platform that autonomously manages creator discovery, outreach, negotiation, and payments, reducing campaign setup time from six weeks to five minutes.
Industry analysts predict that 2026 will mark the shift of agentic AI from concept to early deployment in programmatic, with buyer and publisher agents emerging through open standards like AdCP and UCP.
Closed-loop retail media measurement is maturing on first-party data and clean rooms, with platforms enabling brands to join first-party data with exposure and conversion data at an aggregate level.
LTK is rolling out Quick Collabs, a flat-fee, one-click creator-campaign feature to all brands and U.S. creators on its Brand Platform.
Newton Research has introduced agentic AI analytics agents inside Snowflake Cortex AI, allowing brands and agencies to run media mix modeling and campaign reporting without transferring data.
Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard co-developed with major retailers to power new checkout features in AI Mode and the Gemini app.
A live deployment of agentic media buying on PubMatic's Activate Platform reduced intermediary fees by over 80% and lowered CPMs, according to Digiday.
In-store retail media is projected to reach $1.06 billion by 2028, with 97% of retailers planning to invest in the channel to compete with online platforms.
Databricks is positioning its platform as the intelligence layer for agentic advertising, integrating with Magnite, Epsilon, Acxiom, Amperity, and CTV platforms to power campaign, audience, creative, and attribution agents.
Mastercard introduced Mastercard Commerce Media in October 2025, a platform that utilizes over 160 billion transaction data points to offer advertisers card-linking attribution and reported return on ad spend of up to 22x.
The IAB Tech Lab has released an Agentic Roadmap that extends OpenRTB with new protocols for agent-to-agent trading, coinciding with the debut of a new industry event called Programmatic AI in Las Vegas in May 2026.
The Trade Desk has introduced its first AI agents, with Stagwell as the initial client, to facilitate automated media buying within the programmatic industry.
Amazon Ads introduced agentic AI tools at unBoxed 2025 that automate campaign planning, enable natural-language data queries, and generate display and video creative.
Strategic buyers accounted for 71% of scaled ad-tech deals in 2025, including acquisitions by T-Mobile, The Trade Desk, and Publicis.
ShopMy secured $70 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation to support its affiliate infrastructure connecting over 185,000 creators.
Retail media reached $196.7 billion in global ad spend in 2026, surpassing the combined total of linear and connected television.
GroupM forecasts that global retail media advertising expenditure will grow from $136 billion in 2024 to approximately $178 billion within four years, driven by the decline of third-party cookies and increased advertiser adoption of multiple networks.
PubMatic introduced AgenticOS on January 5, 2026, an agent-to-agent platform that uses AI to plan and optimize programmatic campaigns in real time.
Retail media industry predictions indicate a strategic pivot from return on ad spend to frameworks measuring incremental growth, lifetime value, and brand equity.
A report tracking $2.77B in influencer marketing transactions from January 2025 to June 2026 found that services and representation businesses accounted for 73.8% of acquisition volume.
Looma secured a $10M Series B and $3M credit facility to scale its in-store screen network across 1,100 retail locations, reaching 27 million shoppers monthly.
Amazon controls approximately 77% of US retail media spend, while fragmentation across multiple networks creates a need for unified measurement and management layers.
US retail media advertising spending is projected to reach approximately $69.3 billion in 2026, reflecting sustained double-digit year-over-year growth.
US retail media ad spend is forecast to reach $69.33B in 2026, with Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect accounting for $9.42B of the total increase from 2025.
Google launched its Data Manager API in October 2025, providing a unified interface for uploading first-party data across Google Ads, Analytics, and DV360.
Retail media networks are entering a re-platforming phase as advertisers increasingly treat the channel as significant, prompting retailers to unify on-site, off-site, and in-store technology.
US in-store retail media advertising is projected to increase by 33.1% in 2026, despite currently accounting for less than 1% of total US retail media spend.
ShopMy, a shopper-marketing infrastructure company, secured a $70 million investment at a $1.5 billion valuation, reporting over $1 billion in annual sales and 200% year-over-year revenue growth.
Analysts project US retail media spending will reach $128 billion in 2026, with the top three networks controlling approximately 74% of the market. Amazon Ads is estimated to account for $88.6 billion of that total.
Topsort introduced a self-service format in May 2026 that integrates in-store digital screens into the same auction-based infrastructure as on-site retail media.
In-store retail media is evolving into AI-optimized displays that process real-time store signals like foot traffic and basket composition to serve dynamic, personalized ads on smart shelves.
Retailers are deploying AI-powered smart shelves and digital signage that adjust advertising content based on real-time inventory, time of day, and shopper demographics.
