The world of marketing is in constant evolution - what drives effectiveness and success today may become obsolete tomorrow. To stay ahead, brands must continuously adapt by embracing new technologies and reimagining how they connect with their customers. One of the most significant shifts we’re seeing is the move from broad, mass reach strategies to precision targeting. Retail media is at the forefront of this transformation, empowering brands to combine creative storytelling with data-driven precision. This enables meaningful and measurable connections with shoppers, fostering stronger and more lasting customer relationships. 

Retail media already accounts for about 1 in 5 digital ad dollars in Canada as of 2025, and is expected to reach over $4B in ad spending by 2029¹. This powerful channel has experienced explosive growth, allowing brands to target their customers and measure marketing results like never before. Retail media spend will rapidly outpace other traditional advertising mediums like print, newspaper, and radio, underscoring the importance of understanding and leveraging it now. 

At its core, retail media refers to advertising opportunities that live within a retailer's ecosystem. While it started with sponsored search and e-commerce, it has grown into a multi-faceted omnichannel opportunity for marketers.  

A campaign’s success isn’t just about reaching customers — it’s about reaching the right ones and using every result to fuel smarter, stronger campaigns ahead. Traditional advertising often relies on broad assumptions about who your customers are or lacks measurement detailed enough to know if it drove sales. Retail media offers a more precise approach. There are three broad types of retail media offerings, each playing a crucial role in reaching shoppers throughout their journey.  

Onsite retail media refers to advertising placed directly within a retailer’s own digital ecosystem. Think sponsored product listings that appear when a customer searches on a grocery store's website or app, banner ads on their homepage, or promotional messages within their emails. These placements are designed to capture attention right at the point of purchase or discovery within the retailer's digital storefront. According to Path to Purchase Institute’s Canadian Shopper Survey, 4 in 5 consumers say online brand advertising often reminds them of products they’ve previously considered, and they appreciate when ads are personalized to their shopping habits. 

This type of media extends your reach beyond the retailer's direct properties. Offsite ads are placed on third-party channels such as social media networks, digital OOH, other websites, or connected TV platforms. What makes this powerful is that these ads are still powered by the retailer’s valuable first-party customer data and insights, ensuring you're reaching relevant audiences even when they're not actively shopping on the retailer's site. And the reach is paying off. According to the same Path to Purchase Institute study, 64% of Canadian shoppers say they at least occasionally pay attention to or engage with off-site retail media ads. 

Lastly, the advertising placed within a retailer’s physical environment is referred to as In-store retail media. This could be on digital screens near product aisles, audio ads playing over store speakers, or even sampling programs that allow customers to experience your product firsthand. These touchpoints influence purchasing decisions right where they happen, and are also welcome by shoppers. Path to Purchase Institute found that 8 in 10 Canadian shoppers enjoy seeing or hearing about products while shopping in-store and are likely to consider buying those items – either during the trip or down the line.  

One of the biggest advantages of retail media is its access to rich audiences. Retailers collect vast amounts of customer insights and purchase history leveraging loyalty programs like PC Optimum^TM. This provides invaluable insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and needs, far beyond what general demographic data can offer. 

With retail media, you can: 

• Precisely target audiences: Identify and reach your ideal shoppers based on their actual purchase history, not just their online browsing habits. 

• Personalize shopper experiences: Deliver highly relevant and personalized ads that truly resonate with individual shoppers, making their experience more enjoyable and your message more impactful.  

• Understand buyer behaviour: Gain a deeper understanding of customer segments, their shopping patterns, and what drives their purchasing decisions. 

This means you can target campaigns to the right customers with products that truly fill their needs, leading to more effective ad spend.  

Beyond just reaching the right audience, retail media offers the unparalleled benefit of closed-loop measurement. This means you can directly connect your advertising spend to actual sales and business outcomes. 

Unlike traditional advertising where measuring direct impact on sales can be challenging, retail media platforms can track a customer's journey from seeing an ad to making a purchase, both online and in-store.  

This allows you to: 

• Measure ROI: Clearly see the return on your advertising investment. 

• Optimize campaigns: Understand what's working and what's not in real-time, allowing for quick adjustments to maximize campaign effectiveness. 

• Inform future strategy: Use concrete sales data to refine your marketing strategies and allocate budgets more efficiently for future campaigns. 

This level of accountability ensures you're not just spending ad dollars, but investing them wisely for measurable growth.  

As you get familiar with the building blocks of retail media (onsite, offsite, and in-store), it’s important to understand how these channels work better when part of a connected omnichannel strategy. By blending the right tactics with smart audience targeting, brands can build a marketing funnel that guides customers seamlessly from awareness to advocacy. 

Depending on your brand objectives—whether it’s new customer acquisition, increased purchase frequency, or a product launch—retail media offers a strategic path to connect with shoppers and drive measurable results.  

We work with brands to turn these goals into outcomes using data-driven strategies across onsite, offsite, and in-store channels. Contact us to explore what’s possible.