Source: Beet
Retail media has matured from a narrow sponsorship play into a full-funnel ecosystem that competes directly with traditional advertising platforms. Brands can no longer treat it as an afterthought tacked onto paid search or social. As retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target expand into awareness-stage content, CRM, and off-site inventory, they're capturing consumer journeys at moments that traditionally belonged to Google, Meta, and DSPs. CMOs are reordering their media stacks and attribution models in response. Retail media networks now own too much of the customer journey for marketers to optimize around product pages alone.