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Retail media has become too narrow a term to describe what is happening in digital advertising. What began as a clear opportunity for retailers to monetise their environments, activate their first-party data and bring brands closer to the point of purchase is now expanding into a much broader ecosystem. That is why the market is increasingly talking about commerce media: an approach that is no longer limited to the traditional retailer or its website or app, but includes marketplaces, in-store environments, platforms and networks capable of turning commercial data into advertising planning, activation and measurement.
The shift is significant and is not merely a matter of terminology. What is gaining value is not just a retailer’s advertising inventory, but the combination of purchase signals, transactional context and the ability to measure real results. As more players join this dynamic and the industry progresses in standards for measurement, attribution and incrementality, it becomes clear that the advertising performance landscape can no longer be explained solely through the retail media label. Talking about commerce media means recognising that advertising based on commercial data has entered a new phase: broader, more connected to the business and far more demanding in terms of strategy, investment and measurement.
What we understood by retail media
When we talked about retail media, we were mainly referring to the possibility of a retailer offering advertising space within its own digital environments, especially on its website or app. For brands, this meant something highly valuable: reaching consumers in a space closely linked to purchase, with formats integrated into the browsing experience and with a clearly performance-oriented approach. It was not simply about “placing ads” in an online shop, but about being present in an environment where purchase intent was already high and where each impression could be more directly connected to a subsequent action.
One of retail media’s great strengths was, and remains, the retailer’s use of first-party data. Compared with other advertising environments that rely more heavily on less precise signals, here brands could draw on browsing, search, purchase and behavioural data from within the retailer’s own commercial ecosystem. This proximity to transactional data made retail media a particularly attractive option for performance-focused campaigns, as it made it possible to segment more effectively, activate audiences with greater intent and measure results with a clearer connection between advertising exposure and conversion.
For this reason, retail media quickly became established as a discipline closely associated with conversion, tactical optimisation and return on investment. Its appeal lay in its proximity to the moment of purchase and in the promise of advertising that was more measurable, more actionable and more closely linked to the business. But this is precisely where the important nuance of this article begins: retail media is not disappearing. It remains a central component. What is happening is that, as this approach extends to more players, more environments and more uses of commercial data, the retail media label is beginning to feel too narrow to describe everything that is actually taking place.
Why we now talk about commerce media
The move from retail media to commerce media responds to a very specific reality: the ecosystem no longer revolves solely around the traditional retailer. The approach that drove retail media’s growth — activating first-party data, moving closer to the point of purchase and offering measurement more connected to the business — has begun to extend to many other environments where valuable transactional signals also exist. That is why the change in terminology is not incidental. What is taking place is an expansion of the field: it is no longer only about a retailer’s website or app, but about a broader set of networks and platforms capable of turning commercial data into advertising activation.
This new framework includes very different players. Alongside traditional retailers, marketplaces, delivery platforms, quick commerce environments, and other categories such as travel and fintech are gaining importance, where user behaviour leaves clear signals of intent, comparison or purchase. Value no longer lies solely in who owns a digital storefront with advertising inventory, but in who can best interpret the user’s commercial journey and turn that understanding into segmentation, activation and measurement. This broadens the landscape and requires brands to look beyond the retailer as the only relevant node.
Here lies the real key: the approach is no longer simply to sell advertising space, but to activate commercial data to plan, execute and measure campaigns at different points in the customer journey. In other words, it means moving from an inventory-centred view to one centred on the value of data, the purchasing context and the ability to demonstrate results. In this sense, the term commerce media better describes an environment in which advertising is based on commercial signals that can be activated on-site, off-site and even in-store, with objectives ranging from visibility to conversion or incrementality.
It is no coincidence that IAB Europe is already consolidating this broader framework. In its definition, it refers to Commerce Media Networks, which includes Retail Media Networks, and in 2026 it officially updated its standards from Retail Media Measurement Standards to Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2. This institutional shift reflects what is happening in the market rather well: retail media remains an important component, but commerce media is the label that best explains a growing network of players, formats and measurement capabilities based on commercial signals.
The players in the new ecosystem
Talking about commerce media means accepting that value no longer lies only in who has advertising inventory, but in who can connect inventory, audience, data and metrics within a broader commercial approach. The ecosystem has become more complex, but also more interesting for brands, because it no longer depends on a single type of player. What once seemed almost exclusive territory for retailers has become a network in which different participants contribute complementary advantages throughout the purchase journey.
Retailers
Retailers remain central because they retain an advantage that is difficult to match: their direct proximity to the moment of purchase. They are best placed to connect advertising exposure, user behaviour and commercial outcomes within the same environment. They also hold a particularly valuable asset in this context: their first-party data, built from searches, browsing, purchase history, repeat purchases and transactional behaviour. That is why they continue to be the most recognisable core of this ecosystem, even if they are no longer its only centre.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces expand the scale of the model and add a highly powerful layer of intent. They not only bring together volume and a wide range of offers, but also gather searches, comparisons, discovery patterns and purchase decisions within the same environment. For brands, this means greater segmentation capacity, broader reach within transactional contexts and a richer understanding of the user’s commercial behaviour. If the traditional retailer offered proximity, the marketplace also adds breadth and density of signals.
Commerce platforms and networks
This is where an increasingly relevant category comes in: players that are not retailers in the traditional sense, but that do generate highly valuable commercial signals. Delivery platforms, quick commerce, travel, fintech and other transactional services form part of this new layer of the ecosystem because they understand moments of intent, choice, payment or repeat purchase that can be extremely useful for advertising activation. Their value does not depend on resembling a retailer, but on participating in journeys where users leave traces of economic decision-making that can help plan, execute and measure campaigns more precisely.
Publishers and technology partners
Publishers and technology partners play a decisive role because they help extend commerce media’s reach beyond the owned environment. They facilitate many off-site activations, integrate data, connect audiences, optimise formats and make more consistent measurement possible across different touchpoints. In other words, they do not always own the original transactional relationship, but they do provide the infrastructure needed to scale campaigns, enrich planning and translate commercial signals into more sophisticated advertising operations.
Seen this way, the new ecosystem is not organised around a single category of player, but around a shared capability: transforming commercial signals into activatable and measurable media. That is why commerce media better describes the current moment. It is not only about who sells space, but who can provide context, data, audiences and results within the same business approach.
What changes for brands
For brands, the move from retail media to commerce media is not a matter of vocabulary, but of strategy. The first thing that changes is how they allocate investment. As the ecosystem expands and more players emerge that can activate commercial signals, budgets are no longer focused solely on traditional performance channels or closed retail networks. Brands need to make better decisions about where it is worthwhile to build visibility, where they want to capture demand with genuine intent and in which environments they can measure the impact of their investment more clearly. In this sense, IAB’s projected growth for commerce media in 2026 reinforces that this is not a semantic trend, but a real expansion of the channel within the digital mix.
The relationship between branding and performance is also changing. For a long time, retail media was mainly associated with conversion, tactical efficiency and direct sales. But in a broader ecosystem, commerce media makes it possible to work across different moments of the user journey, which requires less fragmented thinking. It is no longer only about activating campaigns to sell more in the short term, but about understanding how certain commercial environments can also build consideration, preference and recall. The consequence is clear: the old separation between brand and performance is losing strength, and decisions increasingly need to respond to an integrated approach.
This shift also raises expectations around creativity, data and attribution. It is not enough to be present in environments close to purchase; messages must be adapted to the context, the available data must be used more effectively, and it is necessary to understand which part of the result genuinely corresponds to the campaign. The broader the ecosystem, the more important it becomes to compare networks, interpret metrics and distinguish between visibility, conversion and incrementality. This is why standardisation and measurement quality are becoming central issues for the industry.
Finally, the internal conversation within companies is changing. Marketing can no longer limit itself to presenting reach, clicks or awareness as sufficient proof of value. In environments such as commerce media, the pressure to demonstrate business impact is greater, because proximity to commercial data means that leadership, finance and sales expect a clearer connection between investment and results. This does not mean reducing everything to immediate conversion, but accepting that visibility alone is no longer enough as an argument. The conversation is shifting towards effectiveness, learning, return and the ability to justify decisions with stronger evidence.
The major challenge
The growth of commerce media brings an obvious paradox: the more attractive the channel becomes, the greater the pressure to measure it better. As the ecosystem expands and incorporates new players, formats and activation points, it also becomes more difficult to answer a fundamental question for any brand: how can results be compared clearly and consistently? What could once be analysed within a more limited environment now requires a far more sophisticated reading, because the channel’s value no longer depends solely on its proximity to purchase, but also on the quality of its measurement.
One of the main issues remains the lack of standardisation. Not all networks work with the same definitions, not all present results in the same way, and not all allow performance to be interpreted with the same degree of depth. This makes comparisons between players, formats and environments more difficult, particularly when a brand spreads investment across several partners and needs to make decisions using consistent criteria. Without a common foundation, the risk is clear: that the channel’s growth comes with greater complexity, but not necessarily greater clarity.
That is why the need for common metrics has become central. As commerce media matures, it is no longer enough to report impressions, clicks or attributed sales in isolation. Brands need comparable frameworks that allow them to understand more clearly what is working, where incremental value is being generated and how exposure, behaviour and commercial outcomes are connected. In this context, concepts such as attribution, incrementality and shared insights take on much greater importance, because they make it possible to move from a superficial reading of performance to an interpretation that is more useful for decision-making.
It is no coincidence that IAB Europe has placed this issue at the centre of the debate. The organisation has pointed out that the lack of standardisation remains one of the main barriers to the growth of retail and commerce media, and for that reason it updated its measurement standards in 2026 towards a broader framework: Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2. This move reflects an evident market need: if the channel is to become established as a strategic component of the advertising mix, it cannot grow in volume alone; it must also grow in transparency, comparability and its ability to generate shared learning.
Conclusion
Commerce media is not simply a fashionable new label or a more sophisticated way of renaming retail media. The term is gaining ground because it better describes a real market transformation: advertising based on commercial data no longer exists solely within the retailer, nor is it limited to its website or app. It is now part of a broader ecosystem in which different players turn transactional signals into advertising planning, activation and measurement across several points of the consumer journey.
Accepting this change also means accepting its consequences. Brands can no longer think of these environments as simple spaces for tactical performance, but as a complex network that requires them to rethink strategy, investment and measurement. The way budgets are allocated changes, the relationship between branding and results changes, and expectations around attribution, incrementality and data interpretation change. In this sense, talking about commerce media means recognising that advertising performance is entering a more mature phase: more connected to the business, more diverse in its players and much more demanding in terms of judgement.
The real challenge will not only be to have a presence in this new ecosystem, but to understand it properly. Because as the channel grows, so too does the need to organise the landscape, interpret signals more effectively and make decisions with stronger evidence. And that is precisely the difference between following a trend and understanding a transformation.
Is your brand ready to compete in an ecosystem where buying visibility is no longer enough, and where you need to know how to activate commercial data, measure more effectively and demonstrate real impact?
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