How Retail Media Is Evolving In 2023

For businesses looking to thrive in the dynamic retail media landscape, it’s vital for them to maximise their reach and impact. Retail media is one of the world’s biggest advertising trends, and it’s not looking as though it will slow down any time soon. In fact, it’s growing exponentially – in the U.S. alone, retail media advertising spending is expected to reach $160 billion by 2027. More and more businesses are turning to retail media, but the market is constantly evolving – keep reading as we explore the most significant trends and how Salesforce simplifies the complexity.

What is Retail Media?

Retail media has fast become a major source of revenue to businesses – from pharmaceutical retailers, travel providers, to one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. Retailers are leveraging first-party customer data to offer targeted and personalised advertising opportunities for other brands to reach new customers through a retail media network (RMN). This way, retailers can reach customers directly while they shop, enhance the customers’ shopping experience, help brands reach new audiences, and provide retailers with a sizable new revenue stream.

Non-Endemic Advertising 

One of the biggest trends in retail media recently has been the rise of non-endemic advertising. Traditionally, retail media has been dominated by brands directly related to the products or services being sold in the retail environment. However, in recent months, we’ve been witnessing a shift, whereby unrelated brands are leveraging the vast audience base of retailers to promote their own offerings. 

For example, a luxury car manufacturer might partner with a high-end department store to showcase its latest model on the retailer’s website or app. Although the department store won’t be selling the car to customers – either on the website or in-store – the car manufacturer will be able to reach a relevant and engaged audience, expanding its market reach and potential customer base.

In-Store Activations

As technology continues to evolve, in-store activations have become a key focus for retail media advertisers. These help to drive awareness and reach new customers, and although they’re not an entirely new trend, today’s in-store activations blend the physical and digital within retail spaces, creating unique and immersive experiences. Activations put brands right in front of customers, helping to increase loyalty – according to EventTrack, 91% of consumers revealed they’d be more inclined to purchase from a brand after participating in a brand activation or experience.

Augmented reality (AR) experiences are growing in popularity, allowing customers to virtually try on products, see how furniture might look inside their homes, or even preview make-up on their own faces. Last year, as part of its PLAY NEW initiative, Nike launched an AR activation in their stores, giving customers the chance to play virtual games and win a prize. Interactive experiences like these not only enhance customer engagement, but also give advertisers valuable data and insights, helping them understand customer preferences and behaviours.

Generative AI 

Personalisation is important in the fast-paced world of retail media – research by McKinsey showed 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Recent advancements in the field of generative AI, thankfully, have made it easier than ever for brands to deliver personalised content to consumers – at scale. By analysing vast amounts of data, generative AI can create hyper-personalised ad campaigns and targeted deals that resonate with specific customers.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have already proved a hit all over the world – it had 100 million active monthly users in January – 2 months post launch.

Imagine a beauty retailer using generative AI to craft unique skincare recommendations based on a customer’s skin type, concerns, and preferences. This level of personalization not only enhances the customer experience but also drives customer loyalty and increased sales.

How Salesforce is Leading the Retail Media Revolution

Our partners at Salesforce are empowering retailers to capitalise on these evolving trends. 

With Data Cloud, it’s easier than ever for retailers to unify customer data from disparate data sources, providing them with a 360-degree view of customer behaviour and intent across online, and offline activities – in real time. 

Retailers and advertisers are able to segment data and create timely, relevant and personalised omni-channel campaigns through Marketing Cloud to increase conversions.

Sales, Order, Campaign Management and Billing/ERP platforms are often over-looked when it comes to building a retail media network, however, to scale, they are fundamental, which is where the likes of Sales Cloud, Media Cloud and ADvendio do what they do best, empower sales and ad ops teams to sell media, optimise campaign performance, and reconcile financials.

Einstein GPT, the world’s first generative AI CRM technology, allows retailers to create AI-generated content across all sectors of the business – the marketing department can automatically generate personalised ads and emails, while your IT department can even generate code. Made using OpenAI’s algorithms as well Salesforce’s proprietary AI, Einstein GPT can create hyper-personalised content to enhance customers’ experiences.

From connection through collaboration, Tableau empowers retailers and advertisers to glean valuable insights from their data, enabling data-driven decision-making that can optimise the performance of their campaigns. CRM Analytics and Data Cloud for Tableau are powered by AI, and help users to confidently act on these insights, as well as the AI generated-predictions. 

As retail media continues to evolve into new non-traditional advertising players, the sector is poised for tremendous growth and innovation. New trends and technologies are reshaping the ways in which advertisers connect with their audience across channels, driving further insights and enhancing the customers’ experience at the same time.

Salesforce is standing at the forefront of this technological revolution, empowering retail media networks and advertisers to capitalise with confidence. Together, we can help you to stay ahead of the game and transform your retail media strategy. 

Looking for help embracing the latest technologies and trends to boost your retail media business? Get in touch. hello@triggdigital.com