More and more grocers and their supplier partners are tapping into the potential of Retail Media Networks (RMNs), digital advertising platforms that are created for retailers to sell their first-party shopper data and/or the ad space on their website or mobile applications.

RMNs can offer invaluable and exclusive first-party access to unique inventory and shopper data, making them the perfect place for endemic and non-endemic brands to target shoppers based on past, present, and prospective shopping behavior, according to RMN specialist Division-D.

Epsilon’s retail media solution helps retailers generate more revenue through their inventory and assets, brands achieve person-level scale, performance and insights, and shoppers enjoy more relevant and personalized advertising.

Adam Skinner, Epsilon’s managing director of Unified Retail Media, said retail media networks are a “perfect, harmonious fit” for grocery stores.

“It’s pushing that boundary of where advertisers and brands want to get in touch with their audience. A lot of grocers are sitting on a wealth of first party data, and we can help them activate it. And brands are going to want to navigate that.”

Retail media is “frictionless,” Skinner added.

“It’s not like plastering a Formula 1 car with ads. This is very personalized. It’s using identity as the basis for hyper- contextual, hyper-personal ads for products the retailer already sells.”

In a time of high food prices and other signs of economic uncertainty, retail media networks can be a perfect way for shoppers to find ways to save money, and for advertisers to get into those shoppers’ wallets.

Epsilon’s retail media network also provides a service that helps regional and independent retailers attract the kind of ad dollars that formerly only the Amazons and Wal-Marts of the world could attract.

A consumer shopping on Hy-Vee’s website, for instance, could see the same ads that customers of Shop Rite, Cub and Piggly Wiggly are seeing, Skinner said.

Ads that previously could only be seen on the site of a national retailer are now on regional and independent sites thanks to Epsilon’s grocery network.

Grocery stores that might be hesitant to launch a retail media network know that with Epsilon, they’re partnering with a company that has already done a lot of the heavy lifting for them.

“Speed to market is the key thing,” Skinner said. “We bring existing relationships with advertisers to the table. From the time we launch, we already have dollars flowing through.”

Division-D is a digital media partner to advertisers, collaborating with retail media networks such as Albertson’s, Amazon, Kroger, Walmart, and others, to place media buys on behalf of its clients, said Michelle Russell, Division-D’s chief business development officer.

“Our retail advertising clients are drawn to retail media networks for their valuable first-party shopper data, exclusive inventory, and in-store measurement capabilities,” Russell said. “Our access to retail media networks is facilitated through our strategic partnerships with leading programmatic platforms, including The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, and Amazon DSP.”

This article is an excerpt from the April 2024 issue of Supermarket Perimeter. You can read the entire Retail Media Networks feature and more in the digital edition here.