There’s growth, and then there’s growth. From €13.8 billion today to €31.3 billion by 2028, Europe’s retail media market is about to go into overdrive. IAB Europe predicts an increase of more than 125% over a period of just four years1. Compare that to growth of "just" 6% across Europe’s digital advertising market as a whole2 in the same period, and it’s quickly clear just how appealing retail media is becoming to brands.
There’s no shortage of ways for them to tap into retail media’s transformative potential, either. Across the world, well over 200 retail media “networks” are now in existence3, more than 50% of which are located (or have at least some presence) in EMEA.
Europe’s grocery retail market is, of course, extremely diversified. In Western Europe, hypermarkets and supermarkets frequently brush shoulders with discounters, convenience, stores, co-operatives, and more. Then, of course, there are retail alliances—strategic partnerships between different retailers in pursuit of common goals.
To date, a lot of the focus around retail media has been squarely on "traditional" retailers—those aforementioned supermarket and hypermarket chain operators. Alliances, which are inherently that much more fragmented, don’t tend to fit the classic retail media mould.
Does that mean that retail media can’t deliver incredible results for these businesses, too? Far from it. At the same time, retail media for retail alliances does raise some specific considerations, which is why—in this post—I’d like to look at some of the main things that alliances should think about when exploring the retail media opportunity.
A retail alliance (or association) takes the form of a strategic partnership between different retailers. Said organisations are usually looking to pool their resources or combine their strengths— to achieve operational efficiencies, boost their buying power, or deliver on another common goal. Ultimately, members of an alliance enjoy the benefit of being part of a larger collective, while also maintaining their independence.
Typically, that same element of independence is what complicates the situation from a retail media perspective. Creating a "productised" retail media offering can be difficult enough within a single retail organisation—let alone across a group of individual entities. Because of that, there are a few specific issues that members of an alliance need to take into account. These include:
While there are challenges here, overcoming them is undoubtedly worth the effort—not least because an alliance-based proposition delivers on the kind of scale that brand advertisers are looking for.
Scale is massively important in retail media. Having deep insight to the behaviours of individual customers is great, after all, but to activate on that intelligence you also need the reach to engage them. That’s especially true for upper funnel campaigns, where mass awareness is the ultimate goal. So, scale is essential if a retail media proposition is going to maximise investment from brands.
It's not just about reach, however. Depending on the partners involved, an alliance-based approach to retail media can also give brands a huge amount of variety when it comes to targeting. Whether it’s customer profiles, product specialisms, geographic focus, or something else entirely, an alliance can give brands the kind of diversity that they might struggle to achieve with other advertisers.
Finally, there’s the sheer element of combined strength at play too. By working together—something they’re already used to through trade agreements—alliance members can also spread the cost of retail media. Some of the most likely efficiencies include savings on resource, technology, and marketing.
Retail alliances undoubtedly follow a different model to traditional grocery chains. That’s not to say they’re so different that many of the same rules don’t apply when it comes to retail media, though. The process of getting a retail media programme underway is one area in which lessons learned elsewhere can be just as valuable for alliances.
To that end, retail alliances looking to kickstart their own media initiatives should:
1 European Retail Media set to double in four years – WARC, 3rd October 2024
2 Digital Advertising – Europe – Statista
3 List of Retail Media Networks – Mimbi, September 2024
Contact us to learn more about our Retail Media solutions, we're here to help.
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