Shopper Engagement with Retail Media

Retail media might just be the hottest topic in the world of commerce marketing — and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. But what do consumers think about retail media, and how are they actually interacting with it across platforms? On the following pages, we invite you to dig into retail media from the shopper’s viewpoint. (Hint: promotion/sale messaging still reigns supreme!)

Research from the Path to Purchase Institute earlier this year focused on the state of retail media from the industry’s perspective — that of CPG and durable goods professionals. But what about retail media insights from the consumers, or shoppers?

While average consumers likely have little or no knowledge about the term “retail media,” they are exposed to it often. And their opinions on their exposure to retail media’s tactics could be a gold mine for those same industry professionals we heard from in our May survey (reported in our July/August issue).

Before we fielded our survey of consumers in July, we had to first identify retail media’s primary touchpoints. To get there, we looked at the published/known tactics of established retailer media networks (including Walmart Connect, Target’s Roundel and Kroger Precision Marketing) and devised general questions about retailers’ in-store, online, email and social media engagement with consumers, as well as the relevant activity that occurs on third-party media sellers’ websites.

We surveyed 1,000 self-identified shoppers who shop in-store and/or online at least once per month at one of the 25-plus retailers we named who operate their own media networks. Respondents’ shopping activity broke down like this:

• 74% shop both in-store and online.

• 22% shop in-store only.

• 3% shop online only.

We asked them to identify which retailers they shopped, with Amazon (76%), Walmart (72%), Dollar General (60%), Target (51%), CVS (48%), Walgreens (47%), Kroger (42%) and Family Dollar (41%) being cited most often.