Accelerated by the convergence of identifier deprecation and new post-pandemic shopping habits, retail media has become one of the most significant shifts in our industry. For brands, the appeal is clear: valuable, first-party purchase data that brings media investment closer to the point of sale. This growth, however, has created its own challenge. Brands now face a landscape of more than 25 distinct retail media networks in the UK and over 200 globally, each operating as its own walled garden.
This siloed approach presents an incomplete picture. It shows us a shopper’s behaviour within one environment but misses the crucial context of their life outside it. Modern consumer states are not linear. With 55% of viewers using a second screen while watching TV, the journey is already fragmented. Our research shows that connecting the dots between a TV ad and a social media ad makes consumers 31% more likely to purchase. They move fluidly from Watching to Browsing to Buying, and our strategies must reflect this reality.
As media strategies mature, mastering individual silos creates operational and measurement headaches, leaving many brands unsure if they’re maximising their investment. The key is to treat this valuable retail data not as the end goal, but as the foundational layer for a more powerful, connected strategy. This requires a pivot from the limits of ‘retail media’ to the holistic, cross-channel opportunities of ‘commerce media’.
Connecting the basket to the wallet
To truly understand the modern shopper, we must unify the different dimensions of their purchasing behaviour. Historically, we have had access to granular data that tells us what’s in a shopper’s basket. These are the specific SKUs they purchase from a particular retailer, and this data is the bedrock of retail media.
But what if we could connect that basket to a view of the shopper’s entire wallet? And beyond?
We harmonise purchase data, a powerful subset of the 700 trillion consumer signals MiQ processes annually, to understand a consumer’s total category spend, their brand loyalty, and a brand’s true share of wallet across the entire market. This process moves us from a transactional view to a behavioural one. Instead of just seeing the last purchase, we see the potential for future loyalty, allowing our strategies to shape a consumer’s long-term preferences.
Planning for the full journey
Media fragmentation is not a new problem, but the rise of retail media has brought it into sharp focus. The key is to see this not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to incorporate these high quality signals as part of an intelligent and integrated approach. Instead of treating each channel as a separate line item, we can orchestrate them based on a single, comprehensive view of the consumer.
A brand, for instance, can use this approach to identify audiences with high category spend who are currently underexposed to their brand. Insights might reveal this audience over-indexes on certain CTV programming or frequents specific locations. With this knowledge, a campaign can be activated across CTV, digital out-of-home, and online video to build awareness precisely where it will have the most impact.
The result is a strategy that enhances every channel; where brand-building is directly informed by verified purchasing behaviour, creating a powerful link between what people see and what they ultimately buy.
A shared opportunity
Instead of focusing on the limitations of any single data source, we must ask how to harmonise them to reflect a consumer’s reality: a fluid journey across many retailers and channels based on convenience, immediacy, and need.
The conversation must evolve to reflect this reality. For brands and agencies, the path forward involves asking deeper questions of media partners. As you plan for the future, consider asking:
- Are we seeing the whole shopper, or just a single slice of their purchasing behaviour?
- How can we connect brand-building on channels like CTV to actual, measurable commerce outcomes?
- Is our strategy built around a unified view of the consumer states, from Watching to Browsing to Buying?
The promise of commerce media is immense, offering rich data and high value signals of consumer behaviour. Yet, the current landscape, with its fragmentation and data silos, feels familiar, echoing the growing pains of programmatic’s own maturation.
We have been here before. This history teaches us that the fundamental playbook for navigating disruption has never been about mastering a specific channel, but about relentlessly adapting to the consumer. Our strategies must be updated to reflect the natural ways people experience media. By aligning our work to the fluid journey of the consumer, we build a resilient marketing framework that delivers clarity on investment and creates durable brand growth.
Looking to influence the entire path to purchase? See what MiQ Commerce can do for you.
