Retail media networks (RMNs) have evolved from experimental digital ad platforms into strategic growth engines for retailers and brands alike. As advertising budgets shift toward commerce-anchored channels, the stakes around measurement, shopper experience, and data leverage have never been higher.

This brief synthesizes coverage from The Wise Marketer across key RMN trends and places the latest developments — including structural measurement shifts — into context for marketers navigating this complex landscape.

From Novelty to Necessity

Retail media isn’t a niche play anymore — it’s now a mainstream media strategy.

For example, How Retail Media Networks Are Changing Consumer Purchase Paths in 2025 showed that RMNs are reshaping digital and in-store shopper engagement, with global ad spending surging as brands tap first-party data for targeting.

Retailers continue to innovate on formats and placements: from impulse triggers in physical aisles to personalized digital journeys, retail media now intersects directly with purchasing behavior and brand exposure.

The In-Store Media Opportunity

RMNs are no longer confined to e-commerce banners. Increasingly, in-store ad formats are turning physical retail space into high-impact media real estate.

In fact, research reported by WM highlighted that growing RMN capabilities help retailers capitalize on impulse purchases — 67 % of shoppers reported making unplanned buys after seeing ads in-store, particularly among Millennials.

This underscores one of retail media’s most compelling value propositions: delivering advertising at the moment of decision. However, merging commerce with media at the shelf edge also demands tighter measurement and experience management.

Measurement Is the Battleground

As RMN sophistication increases, so does brand scrutiny.

Brands are demanding deeper insights into whether retail media delivers incremental lift — not just captured demand. One signal of this shift is Kroger Precision Marketing’s recent expansion of managed-service capabilities that include enhanced measurement metrics such as incremental ROI, household penetration, and unit sales reporting — moving beyond basic impressions.

In January 2026, PayPal’s Transaction Graph Insights & Measurement launch underscored how measurement itself is evolving. Rather than measuring within single networks, PayPal’s approach uses broad cross-merchant transaction data to connect advertising exposure with verified purchase behavior — a model that could reshape expectations for RMN accountability.

Why PayPal’s Move Matters for Retail Media

PayPal’s announcement isn’t about launching another RMN — it’s about signaling where measurement expectations are headed.

• Transaction-level accountability is emerging as the gold standard for attribution, replacing proxy or siloed metrics.
• As RMNs expand beyond individual retailers into broader ecosystems, advertisers will push for comparable metrics and standardized definitions of incrementality.
• This shift intersects with industry measurement debates similar to those that shaped digital media standards — where third-party frameworks (e.g., emerging Media Rating Council MRC) style measurement debates helped define viewability, audience quality, and attribution benchmarks.

In short, PayPal’s move is less about ads and more about defensible outcomes in commerce media.

Loyalty and Data as Differentiators

One of the most consistent themes surfacing from our coverage over the past year is the importance of data depth: retail media networks anchored in rich loyalty ecosystems and persistent identity sources outperform in precision and measurement credibility.

Platforms that combine first-party loyalty data, experience signals, and verified purchase behavior will have a competitive advantage as brands demand accountability beyond basic reach and impressions.

For example, tying RMN performance to loyalty outcomes remains a strategic theme in how marketers think about measurement and media value. This learning, and many others, were the subject of our Wise Marketer Strategy Brief From Vision to Reality – How Loyalty Data Powers the AI Marketing Revolution, created in partnership with Kobie Marketing. In that eBook, we explore how loyalty programs can be the ultimate drivers to transform competitive advantages into salient returns and evolve into an enterprise-wide asset.

Where Retail Media Goes Next

Retail media networks have crossed the threshold from niche to indispensable — but the next phase will hinge on measurement discipline, data strategy, and medium-agnostic accountability.

Success in this era won’t be determined solely by inventory scale, but by whether RMNs can deliver standardized metrics that brands trust — and whether they can support cross-channel performance goals grounded in measurable business outcomes.

Most importantly, retail media networks anchored in loyalty program data, a rich mix of first-party data (verified purchase behavior), experience signals, and zero-party profile data will have a competitive advantage as brands seek to build more personalized relationships with customers and monetize a proprietary data source.