Retail media has evolved from an emerging trend into one of the fastest-growing forces in digital advertising. Evgenii Pavlov, General Manager at Yango Ads MEA, explores how retailers are transforming their platforms into powerful advertising ecosystems—enabling brands to engage shoppers at the point of purchase with precision, transparency, and measurable impact.
Retail media is no longer an emerging trend, it’s a full-fledged revolution transforming digital advertising by turning retailer ecosystems into powerful advertising platforms. Instead of retailers placing the ads themselves, brands pay to display ads on a retailer’s website, app or in-store screens, much like securing prime shelf space in a physical store for visibility. For instance, during Ramadan, a food brand can pay to appear at the top of a retailer’s search results when shoppers look for ingredients for iftar meals or in a recommendation slot when they browse Ramadan-specific promotions.
Retailers have shifted from just selling products to turning their platforms into valuable ad spaces. For brands, it means reaching customers exactly where purchases happen, without having to chase them across different websites. What started with simple banner ads has now become a sophisticated system, driven by automation, first-party data and AI recommendations to make ads smarter and more relevant.
With projections indicating that retail media will grow twice as fast as overall ad spend by 2025 and surpass Open Web advertising with US$101 billion in revenue by 2028, there is tons of potential. In the Middle East, this shift is accelerating, with ad spending in the region expected to rise by six percentage points this year.
Why retail media is a game-changer
Retail media leverages first-party data—customer emails, loyalty programmes and purchase history—to offer precise targeting. Unlike traditional digital ads that rely on cookies and are increasingly restricted by privacy regulations, retail media ensures that ads reach consumers based on their actual shopping behaviours. This tool also serves as a more effective form of advertising, that results in higher conversion rates and a more seamless consumer experience. AI-driven personalisation further improves the relevance of product recommendations, leading to a 40% increase in engagement rates.
Measurable ROI and transparency
Unlike conventional digital ads, retail media provides a closed-loop system where brands can track exactly how their ads are performing, from ad exposure to actual purchase. This makes it easier for brands to see where their money is going and adjust their campaigns to get the best results. The fact that global spending on retail data analytics is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2026, with the UAE contributing US$5.5 billion, shows how important this kind of advertising is becoming. More companies, especially in the UAE, are investing in data to make their ads more effective and boost their sales.
Siloed systems between retailers and advertisers
Retailers and brands often operate on separate platforms, making it difficult to integrate their efforts effectively. Unlike social media or search ads, where brands can manage unified campaigns across multiple channels, retail media lacks coordinated efforts, reducing efficiency and consistency. This disjointed approach complicates campaign execution across different retailer platforms. While industry bodies such as the IAB are working toward establishing best practices, the lack of interoperability remains a barrier to smoother collaboration between retailers and advertisers.
No universal way to measure success
Moreover, there is no standardised approach to assessing ad performance. What constitutes success on one retailer’s platform may differ drastically from another’s, creating inconsistencies that make cross-network comparisons difficult. A 2024 BCG survey found that 41% of marketers seek more benchmarks to evaluate performance against competitors. Nielsen experts also advocate for independent measurement standards to avoid ‘walled garden’ challenges. As retail media gains popularity, bidding wars for premium placements increase ad costs, posing difficulties for smaller brands against larger competitors. While this may seem like a roadblock, it is also an indicator of retail media’s growing value and influence.
What’s next?
To fully capitalise on this momentum, retail media solution providers must take proactive steps by investing in AI and automation to enhance ad targeting and measurement, standardising success metrics to create a more transparent and comparable advertising ecosystem and fostering stronger retailer-brand partnerships to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
Brands don’t have to figure it out alone, though. AdTech providers, like Yango Ads, make it easier for advertisers to plan, launch and measure campaigns across different retail platforms. They simplify campaign management, bring more transparency to performance tracking and help businesses compete in this fast-growing space without breaking the bank. The trick is not to wait until everything is perfect, but to start now and build the advantage. The question isn’t whether retail media is the future—it’s how fast businesses are willing to innovate and seize the opportunity to embrace data-driven advertising and dominate their market while the industry is still taking shape.
