ExchangeWire’s hotly-anticipated Industry Review will be published in January 2025, as we look at the top trends for an era-defining year. Is this the year of retail media?

In 2024, Retail Media rose to become a playing field with ‘eye-watering margins’ that everyone wanted in on. A year on, we’ve seen discussion calm around the area, with questions around scale and ‘walled garden’ creation. But programmatic retail media is hot - how can the ‘open retail media’ ecosystem scale to compete with walled retail media networks?

ExchangeWire position

There’s no two ways about it: retail media will be huge. We’re seeing retail media walled gardens popping up all over the place. But that might lead you to believe that the only opportunities in this space will sit with the big retailers with the scale and the deep pockets. Not so. We see two tiers of retail media; certainly outside the US. Tier 1 is reserved for the retail media networks with enough scale to run direct sales and manage custom ad tech. Tier 2 represents the mid- to long-tail, where we will see a lot more of the programmatic supply chain come into play, and that’s where it will get interesting.

So what do you think?

This is your chance to debate retail media with us and influence the industry. Do you agree with our perspective, can you see another angle, or are we missing a crucial piece of the puzzle?

Outline your point of view, illustrate your unique perspective and align your brand with this industry leading annual report. Get involved today, and have your say on an era-defining year.