You can’t escape the growth of retail media. It’s everywhere. New networks seem to appear every week, new partnerships are constantly forged, and new platforms and tech solutions debut—you get the point. It’s a big deal, but you already knew that.
Retail media has impacted every aspect of retail, from department stores to convenience stores and everywhere in the middle. But if we were to pick one sector of retail that has long embraced it, it would, probably unsurprisingly, be grocery. At SMG, we always say that retail media is not new, but it has gotten a lot more exciting recently. Decades ago, you could walk into a grocery store and find some form of cardboard in-store advertising. At the time, we would’ve used a different name to describe it, but that was, in essence, the early days of retail media. Grocers, more than a lot of other retailers, keep robust data about shoppers via loyalty programs, which has made them well-suited to build out robust Retail Media Networks powered by their first-party data.
So, it makes sense that retail media was a key theme at this year’s Groceryshop, held Oct. 7-9 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. This year’s conference saw speakers from across the industry, addressing varying approaches and strategies related to retail media.
The breadth of content was vast, but all retail media discussions seemed to come back to one central idea we at SMG x Threefold have been emphasizing for some time: the consumer. Retail media must be consumer-focused because retail media that puts the consumer first will perform better for brands.
Put. The. Consumer. First.
Customers want value, both in terms of getting the most for their money and in terms of time spent, according to Stuart Aitken, SVP, Chief Merchant & Marketing Officer at Kroger. Cash- and time-strapped shoppers want messaging to be relevant, personalized, and to the point, and it's up to retailers and their supplier brands to deliver against that mandate. Aitken highlighted advancements in generative AI that enable greater personalization in messaging, especially when coupled with robust loyalty data, like that from Kroger, where 97% of all transactions are linked to its loyalty program.
Joining Aitken on stage was Gregory Guidotti, Chief Marketing Officer, Ferrara, who emphasized that knowing your consumer is key to developing the optimal marketing strategy. For instance, the brand recently worked with popular gaming influencers as part of a new product launch, as it knew this approach would resonate with its target audience, Gen Z males. The point is simple: retailers and brands must think of their consumers when developing marketing strategies. For successful retail media, consumer behavior must be a prime consideration when considering which touchpoints and tactics to activate for a campaign, whether that be in-store screens or influencer partnerships.
Later, Claire Peters, Worldwide VP of Amazon Fresh, took the stage to similarly stress the importance of meeting consumer demands. While the retail media giant has cornered the retail media market via its e-commerce business, it has spent the past several years refining its brick-and-mortar store formats, which in grocery include Amazon Grocery, Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market stores. Echoing Aitken’s remarks from earlier in the day, Peters noted that shoppers are seeking out ways to save time. One way Amazon is meeting that challenge is via Dash Carts, smart shopping carts that allow customers to scan items as they shop, eliminating the need for a checkout line. Not only do these carts streamline the shopping experience, but they’re also a vessel for retail media. Shoppers can see relevant promotions and deals via the display on the cart, linked back to that shoppers Amazon Prime profile. And it’s resonating. According to Peters, the repeat usage for these carts is as high as 98%. It pays off to think about the needs of the consumer and invest to meet them.
Elsewhere in the Mandalay Bay, Bryan Moore, Co-Founder and CEO of the shoppable video platform TalkShopLive, offered insights into the vision behind the platform. You guessed it, it’s about meeting consumers where they are! Consumers love watching video content, so every single place you’ll find one of TalkShopLive’s embedded videos becomes a shoppable experience. Allowing consumers to purchase without leaving the video reduces friction and allows them to make quicker purchasing decisions, meeting their demand for video content and time-saving solutions. What’s more, these videos track over 200 data points, enabling TalkShopLive and its retailer and brand partners to truly understand how consumers behave when viewing the content, allowing them to tweak strategies or replicate successful ones. Putting the consumer first is key, not just in the planning stages, but likewise during the campaign evaluation stage.
What’s more, these lessons extend beyond grocery and can be applied across the entire commerce media space. At SMG x Threefold, we believe everything we do alongside our retail partners should center the consumer. The consumer is our north star. Every decision we make in retail media should be made with the consumer in mind. Retailers—grocery or otherwise—that lead with the shopper and build better experiences for them will ultimately win with brands in an increasingly crowded retail media environment.
Did you miss us at Groceryshop? Want to chat about more how SMG x Threefold can help you put the customer first? Send us a line at hello@threefold.team.
About Connor Perrett
Connor Perrett is a Marketing Manager at SMG x Threefold, where he works with internal and client teams to promote the agency's work with retailers in the North American market. Based in Brooklyn, he joined SMG in 2023 from EnsembleIQ, where he was the Chief Editor of Retail Leader, a B2B publication covering the retail industry. He was previously a reporter at Business Insider. You can probably find him eating a bowl of pasta or at a Broadway show.
About SMG x Threefold
Founded in 2008, SMG x Threefold is the world's leading Retail Media Network (RMN) specialist, headquartered in both New York and London. As part of the SMG agency network, which employs 400 retail media experts, Threefold's primary mission is to unlock incremental brand and supplier budgets, curate media campaigns that supercharge sales and elevate its retail partners into top-tier omnichannel media owners, spanning in-store, off-site and online.
Threefold's services include the leading Retail Media Operating System Plan-Apps, consultancy and a white-label in-house solution that has seen the agency build, run and operate over 10 Retail Media Networks to date. In the UK, Threefold runs and operates Walgreens' Boots Media Group, ASDA’s LS Eleven Media Services, Co-op Media Network, Morrisons Media Group and Very Media Group.
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