Seventy percent of companies surveyed in The Path to Purchase Institute’s 2025 Annual Trends Study reported plans to increase their retail media budgets this year, suggesting growth across retail media networks. Still, despite the potential seen for connecting with consumers, brands said that this path is not without some major challenges.
The report, commissioned by TransUnion, surveyed CPG brand professionals (45 percent director level, 33 percent manager level, 16 percent senior management, 3 percent head of business and 3 percent other), to determine retail media’s current hold on commerce marketing and advertising. The findings highlighted trends in retail media investment, engagement and performance.
“Retail media is undeniably reshaping the way brands connect with shoppers, but proving its value isn’t always straightforward,” said Mark Rose, senior director, market strategy for TransUnion’s retail business. “Brands face challenges with targeting and measurement consistency across retailers, as well as comparing ROI across retail media and other digital media channels. The key is solving these challenges with the development of aligned best practices to broaden participation in retail media growth industry-wide.”
According to the company’s survey, 80 percent of marketing professionals “recognize the value of retail media” as being more or as effective as other digital channels. And 70 percent agreed that retail media spending is incremental to annual trade budgets.
When asked how retail media budgets are determined, 60 percent of respondents said it is determined in the annual budget, 34 percent said it is determined campaign by campaign, based on objectives and 6 percent said something else. Notably, however, the entirety of retail media spend is created from a variety of marketing budgets with shopper marketing leading the way at 28 percent of the budget contribution. This is followed by trade (26 percent), national media (24 percent) and dedicated retail media budget (22 percent).
While respondents said they are planning to invest more in retail media, several areas were identified where improvement is needed. Eighty-eight percent said that a key priority to address is proof of sales life and ROI from campaigns. Another 45 percent called out the ability to prioritize comparable cross-retailer measurements and attribution, 42 percent called for standardized metrics and definitions and 39 percent emphasized the need for offline and online attribution.
“As retailers adopt industry standards they will see improved ratings,” added Rose. “However, retailers beyond the largest national platforms will also need to simplify and streamline how brands can partner with them for large-reach national campaigns.”
Notably, brands reported that they are 3.4-times more likely to rate the largest national retailer platforms favorably in capabilities related to scale, targeting and measurement.
When prompted, respondents rated areas with very good or excellent capabilities from national platforms as targeting (50 percent), measurement (49 percent), traffic-driving (45 percent), sales growth (43 percent) and ROI (42 percent). In contrast, when asked the same for the broader retail industry (national and regional retailers excluding the national platforms) respondents rated areas with good or excellent capabilities as targeting (16 percent), traffic-driving (15 percent), ROI (15 percent), sales growth (13 percent) and measurement (11 percent).
With these findings in mind, Rose said that there is an overall understanding that “retail media can reshape how brands connect with consumers, but we must address its challenges head-on to ensure its actual growth meets projections, and in a way that enables broad participation across the retail industry.” He advised that “focus on scale, targeting and measurement is key to unlocking its full potential for everyone involved.”
