The next frontier for the advertising market is not television but rather screens located near points of sale. Television has traditionally been the primary target for advertisers, but the landscape is rapidly evolving. Tech companies like Alphabet and Meta, which owns platforms such as Facebook, have significantly eroded TV’s market share. While advertising dollars are quickly moving from traditional TV to streaming services, retail and consumer product companies are increasingly capturing a substantial portion of the market.

Retail media networks—advertising platforms of e-commerce, retail, and consumer companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Kroger—are drawing billions of dollars in advertising revenue. According to data from eMarketer and GroupM, the media investment arm of WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, global retail media ad spending is projected to more than double from $114.18 billion in 2023 to $233.89 billion by 2027. This growth indicates that retail media will represent a larger percentage of digital advertising spending, increasing from 18.9% of that segment in 2023 to 25.7% in 2027.

“What we hear from brands most directly is they no longer wake up with a recipe to buy X amount of TV, X amount of social, X amount of digital. They wake up every day trying to buy growth, trying to buy outcomes for their business,” said Sean McCaffrey, president and CEO of GSTV, an on-the-go media network with over 29,000 screens at refueling points tied to convenience retail stores. GSTV screens reach 115 million viewers per month across 49 states. Brands are “more open-minded as to where they can find those audiences,” McCaffrey added. “It’s the new TV for mass reach advertising,” said Mark Boidman, head of media and entertainment investment banking at Solomon Partners. “If you want to reach someone fast, it’s best to get them in a store or on your app. ... It’s a 360-degree approach.”

Retail giants are transforming their digital screens into advertising opportunities. For instance, Walmart is converting approximately 170,000 digital screens across its U.S. stores into platforms for advertisements. A company producing snacks or beauty products can now advertise in the TV aisle of Walmart’s electronics department. This type of advertising, often found on in-store displays, websites, mobile apps, streaming services, smart TVs, and social media, provides fertile ground for advertisers to reach consumers ready to spend. Moreover, it comes with a wealth of first-party data.

Retailers possess extensive data on their customers—from occasional buyers to loyalists—which is extremely valuable to advertisers seeking to optimize their exposure. “If [brands] advertise with a digital ad, for example, and a customer transacts a week later in a store or club, we can connect that up for them and let them know that the ad really worked,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC earlier this year. This data-driven approach gives retail media networks a significant advantage over other advertising platforms.

Walmart has become a major player in this arena. Advertising has significantly boosted profits at Walmart in recent quarters, and the company recently agreed to purchase TV maker Vizio to further expand its advertising business. Among the companies tracked by eMarketer, Amazon is considered the largest retail media network in the U.S., holding roughly 75% of retail media ad revenue. Other top networks by revenue include Walmart, Instacart, eBay, and Etsy.

The shift towards retail media is also influenced by changes in tech privacy policies, which have led to a reduction in data collection. Earlier this year, Google began revamping how it and other companies track users online, particularly through the use of cookies, which monitor internet user activity to target them with relevant ads. In January, Google started restricting cookies for 1% of its Chrome browser users, aiming to eliminate third-party cookies by the third quarter of this year. Advertisers have been adjusting to these changes.

Advertising and media executives report that retail media networks are now a dominant topic at industry conferences and events like the Cannes Lions advertising festival. Retail media frequently features prominently in earnings calls as well. “[Retail media networks] have that balance with targeting and privacy and compliance. I think that’s where the money really starts shifting,” said Tim Hurd, vice president of media activation at Goodway Group. “These retailers have that kind of data.”

The rise of retail media ads is occurring against a backdrop of significant shifts in the media landscape. Pay-TV subscriber numbers and traditional TV viewership, excluding sports, continue to decline as more viewers transition to streaming. While ad spending on digital and streaming platforms is rebounding, traditional TV lags behind. This trend was evident in the first-quarter earnings reports of media giants like Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. Disney experienced a decline in ad revenue for its traditional cable networks and Hulu, despite an increase at ESPN; Warner Bros. Discovery reported a drop in ad revenue; Paramount Global saw an expected boost from airing the Super Bowl; and NBCUniversal’s domestic ad revenue was flat. However, streaming ad revenue for these legacy media giants showed growth.

Outside of major TV events like the Super Bowl and other live sports, advertisers are now strategizing on multiple fronts, distributing their spending across TV, social media, e-commerce, and digital platforms. “Linear TV advertising is still declining,” noted Kate Scott-Dawkins, GroupM’s global president of business intelligence. Over the past decade, ad revenue has shifted from print and radio to TV, and now increasingly toward digital.

Retail media revenue has grown from less than $1 billion in the U.S. a decade ago to a projected $42 billion this year—or $129.4 billion globally. Scott-Dawkins pointed out that while brand advertising budgets may not directly shift from traditional TV to on-site retail advertising, there is a trend of traditional TV revenue moving to smart TVs, informed by the data on customer spending habits that retailers can provide.

In conclusion, the future of advertising is increasingly focused on screens near points of sale rather than traditional TV. Retail media networks, fueled by the extensive data capabilities of companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Kroger, are becoming dominant forces in advertising, offering targeted and effective solutions in an era where digital and streaming platforms prevail. As advertisers navigate privacy changes and shifting consumer behaviors, retail media provides a dynamic and growing platform for reaching audiences in innovative ways. This evolution signifies a broader transformation within the advertising industry, with retail media networks poised to play a crucial role in the future of digital advertising.