Retail media is exploding. U.S. ad spend surpassed $50 billion in 2024 and continues to climb, yet the market’s spoils aren’t evenly distributed. Amazon and Walmart are raking in the lion’s share, commanding about 85% of all retail media ad spend. But that leaves a major opportunity for smaller and mid-sized retail media networks (RMNs) to stand out if they focus on what advertisers care about most.
As a former media buyer, I didn’t need another walled garden with maximized reach. I had plenty of those. I needed a partner who could give me a strategic advantage. For mid-sized RMNs that advantage isn’t scale, it’s the weapon you already own: granular, high-intent, first-party data.
The temptation might be to mimic the giants, but that is a losing strategy. The real opportunity lies in out-thinking and out-maneuvering them.
Just because you’re not one of the giants doesn’t mean you’re out of the game. In fact, many of these emerging and midsize RMNs serve audiences that the big players can’t reach: loyal customers with high purchase intent, people who engage regularly through loyalty programs, mobile apps and at the point of sale.
Advertisement
Forget about playing catch-up. This is the moment to leap ahead.
First-Party Data: Retail’s Undeniable Advantage
Regardless of how third-party cookie policies unfold, the advertising industry’s focus is irrevocably shifting toward higher-quality, more reliable data — and not just for targeting, but for measurement, optimization and building trust. Just having the data is meaningless. Its value is determined based on how easily advertisers can access it and what advantage they can get out of it.
Smaller RMNs already have that: Their first-party data is clean, opt-in and derived directly from customers who choose to engage. Your data — loyalty scans, app behavior, point-of-sale insights — is rooted in actual purchases, not just probabilistic signals. That is your core product. Neglecting to make it accessible and actionable is hurting your business.
Unlike fragmented third-party data, first-party data is coherent, consistent, actionable and compliant with modern data privacy expectations.
So why aren’t more RMNs putting data to work? Nearly 70% of buyers cite a complicated buying process as a barrier to growth. But clarity starts with data, and 90% of marketers agree: first-party data is essential.
That’s a missed opportunity for advertisers who now prioritize:
- Targeting accuracy through first-party data;
- Incrementality measurement tools to prove lift;
- Self-service buying platforms for agile activation;
- Robust documentation and APIs for seamless onboarding; and
- Clear paths to scaling after successful tests.
Put simply, the RMNs that win are the ones that make it easy for advertisers to test, measure and scale.
Smaller Doesn’t Mean Weaker. It Means Sharper.
There’s a growing realization in the ad world: It’s not just about how many people you can reach, it’s about reaching the right people. And that’s where smaller RMNs really shine. Just like a small ship, a smaller RMN can shift and pivot more easily than a freighter.
Their audiences are often more engaged, more loyal and more niche, which makes them incredibly attractive to advertisers hungry for precision. Precision demands strategy, technology and crucial integration.
As a media buyer, I would have loved niche data that captures my target group perfectly. Let’s say you’re selling quality scissors to crafters and teachers: If you have an RMN where primary buyers match that profile, that’s gold to me.
Retail media networks run on data, but too often that data is fragmented. Loyalty insights in one system, ecommerce behavior in another, in-store transactions somewhere else. This disjointed picture weakens full-funnel attribution and slows down decision-making. We see this every day. The average customer uses data from four distinct sources. Stitching those together is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s essential.
With the average company juggling over 2,000 data silos, integration isn’t just a technical task; it’s a strategic imperative. Fragmented data clouds insights and limits performance, while connected data empowers teams to move faster, report smarter and drive more value for advertisers. Bringing it all together isn’t just a cleanup. It’s leverage.
Integrated data can:
- Unlock deep segmentation, letting you target messaging based on individual SKUs, behaviors or even loyalty tiers;
- Deliver unified insights, giving advertisers a clear view of both online and offline performance;
- Speed up optimization, allowing real-time adjustments that keep campaigns agile and effective; and
- Build trust, because advertisers can actually see how their dollars are working.
In a market where every impression counts, integration turns insight into advantage.
Smart Beats Scale
Let’s be clear: The goal isn’t to beat Amazon or Walmart, but to play smarter. Instead of trying to build another version of Amazon Ads, mid-sized RMNs should look outside their own market to the hyper-competitive markets in APAC for inspiration. Players like Rakuten in Japan or Grab in Southeast Asia didn’t win by copying Western models. They won by building deeply integrated ecosystems around their unique first-party data, from ride-sharing and food delivery to ecommerce and financial services. They made their data their undeniable advantage and built their platforms to cater to their advertisers’ needs.
The lesson is clear: Your technology stack is your product. Invest in infrastructure that connects your data and makes it actionable — an advertiser will see the value of an automated, customizable dashboard, not hunt for a 10-page PowerPoint.
With 46% of marketers already using AI for optimization, the message is clear: The faster you can apply insights, the more attractive you’ll be to advertisers. By surfacing patterns faster, predicting shopper behavior and recommending next steps, AI can take good data and make it smarter, faster and more scalable. Done right, data becomes your differentiator, not just in what you know, but in how fast you can apply it.
Smaller RMNs cannot afford complacency. They’ve got to take the offensive: own their data and optimize their tech stack by investing in modern data infrastructure; that is, systems built to integrate, automate and scale. By unifying disparate data sources and streamlining delivery into analytics environments, they lay the foundation for the strategic sophistication today’s advertisers expect.
The retail media landscape is littered with thousands of potential media sources. To a media buyer, a mid-sized RMN is just one more line item on a sprawling plan. You will not win on scale. You will not win by being a little bit cheaper. You will win by being smarter, more precise and radically easier to work with. This starts and ends with your data infrastructure.
The potential, the audience and the data are there. The missing piece is the infrastructure to bring it all together: the modern data stack built to integrate disparate sources, automate reporting and stream insights directly into the analytics environments where decisions are made. Waiting isn’t a strategy; it’s a delay that equals lost ground in this fast-moving space.
The future of retail media will be built on precision, trust and performance. This is a future where smaller players compete not by sheer size, but by leveraging superior insights, agility and a truly connected strategy to secure their undeniable seat at the table.
Outi Karppanen is the Lead Marketing Industry Strategist at Supermetrics, where she brings over a decade of experience in digital marketing and data strategy. She thrives in collaborative environments, working closely with sales, marketing and product teams to tackle complex marketing challenges. Karppanen specializes in developing compelling industry narratives, forging strategic partnerships and empowering internal teams with the insights and tools they need to drive impact.
