Retail Media Summit Canada 2026: The Signals Defining What Comes Next

The New Value Equation for Canadian Shoppers

Retailers can achieve customer value beyond just price competition, said Avie Leang-Lorenzo, VP, merchandising solutions and business intelligence at Sobeys.

During her keynote address, Leang-Lorenzo argued that while consumers are sensitive to rising costs, they remain willing to spend on services they perceive as valuable. She noted that the average Canadian household has at least two streaming subscriptions, with basic subscriptions costing between CA$8-CA$12 a month.

Leang-Lorenzo identified five areas of shopper value divided into two categories:

Perceived benefits — Product, experience, emotional connection

Perceived costs — Price and time

Leang-Lorenzo warns against a pure price focus due to the "Customer Perception Tax," where shoppers assume items cost more than they actually do. Instead, she advocates for differentiation and storytelling.

“It's about achieving that next-level greatness when your customer is now repeating the same story that you're telling — in the way you intended to tell it, or the way you intended them to tell it,” she said.

Canadian Gains and Growth Barriers 

Insights from a panel on “The Canadian Edge” highlighted progress made as well as challenges for brands navigating Canada’s retail media landscape.

Andrene Dos Anjos of Wonderbrands said “There has been progress in how brands talk about retail media internally.” However, while there is “a lot of excitement,” there’s more opportunity to get leadership excited and help push the industry forward, she added. That is a focus for Wonderbrands.

Lucas Maniere-Despert of Danone echoed Dos Anjos’s optimism. He noted, however, that “sometimes it gets tough to plan a budget” because “a lot of teams [are] involved in retail media — it’s the sales team with the customer, the e-commerce team, shopper teams and media teams.” Canada struggles to work toward “one end objective that we are delivering as a cross-functional team,” compared to “other business units across the globe,” said Maniere-Despert. Still, the intent to get there is high.

Integration is also a central focus at The J.M. Smucker Co., as is ensuring retail partners provide data for them to make informed decisions and optimize campaigns, especially when “building a program from the ground up,” J.M.’s Sarah Brown said. She said this requires “absolutely certain data, because it allows us as CPGs to do targeting at scale and drive conversion.”

Driving In-Store Retail Media Success

TC Transcontinental's Oscar Bertola and Andrew Priestman explored how thoughtful design, early planning and channel alignment can unlock more value for retailers, brands and shoppers, with a focus on one of retail media’s most overlooked but high-impact areas: static, physical in-store touchpoints.

As part of this, they shared four key areas of focus:

1. Store Audit and Tactical Alignment. Align store spaces with tactical considerations.
   It should be the right mix of standard, elevated and premium elements – 𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳.

2. Standardization of Retail Media Elements.
   Aim for standardized, but fully customizable in-store spaces.

3. Simplification of Resets and Changeouts.
   Consider easy, interchangeable endcaps and magnetic perimeters. 

4. Value Engineering for Big Moments, at Scale.
   Ensuring space and resources for 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨.

From App to Open Web: Instacart x The Trade Desk

Instacart and The Trade Desk announced a Canadian partnership to help brands reach shoppers both on the app and across the open internet, as Instacart works to expand advertising opportunities beyond its own platform.

Spencer Charters of The Trade Desk pointed out that while Canadians spend more than half their time online outside of "walled gardens," less than 20% of advertising currently reaches them there. That gap is where The Trade Desk operates, focusing on the digital advertising ecosystem beyond closed platforms such as Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple.

Instacart’s Graham Edward explained that the move expands shoppable ads, recipe units and programmatic sampling beyond the Instacart app. “Our Instacart consumers aren't spending all of their time on Instacart,” Edward said. “We wanted [to] enable brands to engage those same consumers outside of Instacart.” 

The partnership also introduces self-service targeting, allowing brands to select or build audiences and move directly into activation with real-time measurement. The goal, Edward said, is to shrink the gap between activation and insight — no longer waiting months or weeks to understand the output of digital advertising campaigns.

Creative Innovation and Trust Beyond the Banner

This session focused on pressure testing three future statements. Evaluating the statements were John Fanous, head of omnichannel retail at Google Canada and Sam Wong, senior director of data and AI at Mark Anthony Group.

Future #1: By 2030, creative, not targeting, will be the primary retail media differentiator.

Fanous viewed the relationship between creative and data as a balancing act. Great creative must still land the message with the right customer to be effective, he said.

The gap between data and creative is shrinking, with a future where "orchestration layers" merge structured performance stats with unstructured content like images and documents to trigger creatives on the fly, Wong said.

Future #2: AI-driven personalization will only scale if brands and retailers give up some control.

Retailers should maintain control over their product catalogs and assortment while using AI to influence — rather than strictly control — consumer demand, Fanous said.

Brands should begin experimenting immediately and let the AI improve as the data quality matures, Wong said.

Future #3: By 2030, AI will make most retail media decisions and humans will set the guardrails.

Fanous envisions AI primarily as a default operator and optimizer that handles the least compelling parts of a job, rather than just a final decision-maker.

Creating "AI Labs" allows initiatives to grow without the pressure of forced timelines, encouraging a hunger for innovation from the bottom up, Wong said.

Charting Retail Media’s Next Surge

In the “Clicks, Bricks and a Bag of New Tricks” panel, Jonathan Dunn of Environics Analytics identified a notable challenge for retailers today: balancing in-store conversion with unlocking larger brand budgets. “How do you get out of the store while still supporting that shopper marketing, that core conversion driving sales?” he asked.

Ray Balberman of Triangle Retail Media, Canadian Tire’s RMN, emphasized that while data sharing is essential, it must be governed by customer trust. “We’re not interested in being a big walled garden with alligators in the moat, protecting the data,” he said. “We really want to be flexible to work with and meet our clients where they are. But that said, there’s a long way from the far extreme of, ‘Hey, just share the data to the retail client and everything will be fine.’

“This is a multi-million-dollar asset built on customer trust,” Balberman added. “There’s no universe in which we’re going to ship that data outside of privacy-safe systems, without oversight and proper monetization.”

Robyn Sullivan of Loblaw Advance agreed that expanding retail media beyond its traditional boundaries requires innovative collaborations. She pointed to the company’s new partnership with Bell Media, which ties CPG TV campaigns directly to Loblaw’s in-store and online sales outcomes, “as opposed to treating them as two separate worlds,” she said.

“[The partnership] drives accountability and intelligence across the broader media ecosystem,” Sullivan added. “And, it's a repeatable blueprint that we can do with other partners.”

From Buzzword to Building Blocks: Agentic Commerce

The consensus on “agentic commerce” in one panel featuring executives from Omnicom Media Group (OMG), Criteo and Danone, is that the shift is currently more evolutionary than revolutionary. Janine Flaccavento of Criteo shared new research showing that while about 30% of Canadians don’t know what agentic commerce is, 56% are aware and already expect that it’s going to save them time and money.

OMG’s Lucy Baumgartner believes agentic commerce will be “transformational,” though it’s still a ways off. OMG’s agencies are in the early stages of working with client brands to rethink online content and focus. 

“In the past, you could stuff 30, 40 keywords into a brand site and be a product that suited so many different needs,” she said. “That’s slowly starting to change. There does need to be more focus on what you want your brand, your product, to stand for.”

While overall online grocery sales remain around 8%, Mateusz Grobe of Danone, noted that “60% to 70% of [in-store] sales are digitally influenced,” as shoppers use their devices to research products in the aisles. “Something like prompt search would sit within our test-and-learn budget,” he said. 

Before it goes mainstream, Danone is focused on the “hygiene aspects” critical to agentic commerce, like optimizing product pages and keeping pace with evolving retailer sites. In Canada, ratings and reviews are still relatively new. “We’re opting into the programs for when agents do come on board,” he added.

Decoding the Modern Shopper

Results from P2PI Canadian Shopper Research Study were revealed and discussed on stage. Reacting to the findings were Adi Kapur, lead, CPG ads partnership for Uber Advertising and Jordan Witmer, manager director, retail media, at Salt XC.

Based on a survey of 1,000 shoppers, the findings highlight a generational shift where delivery services like Uber Eats have moved from luxury to a sticky part of the lifestyle, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials.

While in-store shopping remains the dominant preference — especially in grocery and drug channels — the nature of discovery is evolving.

Jordan Witmer noted a "Return to real," where shoppers value the sensory experience of physical stores.

However, Adi Kapur emphasized that discovery is moving "upstream," with consumers often researching and being influenced by digital ads before they even enter a store.

"Brands should consider RMNs [Retail Media Networks] as not only a conversion channel but also a discovery channel,” Kapur said.

Digital advertising, specifically sponsored products and on-site display ads, has reached a tipping point. More than 70% of shoppers notice these ads, with younger generations being the most responsive.

Witmer cautioned that while these tools are essential for distribution, retailers must protect consumer trust by maintaining relevance and avoiding ad fatigue. He advised marketers to shift focus from mere execution to high-level strategy.

"The behavioral change for brands is shifting energy from 'execute and measure' up to 'did I plan this properly?'" Witmer said.

Ultimately, the study suggests that success in the Canadian market requires a unified approach where digital and in-store tactics are no longer siloed but work together to create a seamless brand experience.

AI Integration and Influence

Inmar Intelligence's Sherif Fahmy and Calgary Co-op's Penney McTaggart-Cowan said some interesting insights, on AI integration and influence in Canada:

• 70% of Canadians expect personalized shopping experiences powered by AI-driven recommendations.
• 45% of Canadians already use AI in their shopping journey.
• Over 82% growth in AI app usage in two years, accelerating conversational commerce across chat, voice and messaging.
• Over 65% of Canadian grocers investment in AI analytics has deepened understanding and strengthened loyalty programs.
• $2.73B — Canadian AI in retail market is expected to double by 2030 (16.3% CAGR)

Build It and They Will Come

In a session on in-store retail media networks, panelists emphasized that in-store retail media success depends not on sheer screen volume, but rather ongoing investment, integration and measurement.

When starting out, simplicity matters. Many retailers assume they need a fully built network at the beginning. Matt Fitzgerald of Vistar Media pushed back on that notion. “There’s this misconception that in order to get started there has to be hundreds of screens. What we have found is that it actually just adds a lot of complexity,” he said. “To have success quickly, it's about starting with what you have and getting the ball moving.”

Investment is essential, added Advantage’s Drew Cashmore (who also ran store strategy for Walmart Connect in the U.S and helped build Walmart Media Group in Canada). “It’s not okay to not have a sophisticated retail media offering,” he said. “We're not trying to diminish the cost of the time, the talent and the technology, but we need to get moving. Because if we don't, then more and more money is falling into the very top,” which he called "dangerous for the foundation of retail." 

Victoria Cromie of Mars United Commerce Canada added that while the wheel doesn't need to be reinvented, metrics must be customized for each client to prove performance beyond traditional reach and frequency.

Why Retail Media Success Depends on Alignment, Collaboration

The most significant barrier to retail media success in 2026 isn't the tech stack — it’s the "human stack." Digital leaders from Kenvue Canada and Newell Brands emphasized that success requires bridging the "goal gap" between sales teams chasing volume, marketing teams pushing awareness and retail media teams prioritizing efficiency. 

At Newell, securing retail media as a distinct line item within the brand P&L was essential for advocacy; at Kenvue, a consistent quarterly cadence ensures teams align on a shared "north star." Both leaders agreed that organizational adaptability and cross-functional transparency are the only ways to build a repeatable blueprint for growth. 

Read the full article here.

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