Retail Media's $100B Question: Can You Prove It?

Every number in retail media right now comes from someone grading their own homework. Retailers measure their own campaigns, and platforms measure their own inventory. Lindsay Pullins (Circana) says the fix is independent, standardized measurement that every retailer and platform gets held to, not just their own.

On this episode of our Media in Retail podcast, host Jeremy Goldman sits down with Pullins to unpack what she's learned from sitting on the retailer side at Kroger Precision Marketing, the platform side at Roku, and now the independent measurement side at Circana.

RETAIL MEDIA HAS A MEASUREMENT GAP, NOT A PERFORMANCE GAP

Every commerce network uses its own methodology, attribution window, and definition of a "new buyer." The result, per the ANA, is that 55% of advertisers cite lack of standardization as their number one barrier to further investment. That leaves brands comparing 'apples to oranges to Brussels sprouts,' and doing their best anyway.

A CLEAN ROOM IS A TOOL, NOT A STRATEGY

The value isn't the room. It's whether an organization has already aligned on a single KPI before the data ever gets matched. Without that alignment, a clean room only produces expensively confirmed confusion.

CTV AND RETAIL MEDIA ARE COLLIDING, AND THE DATA BACKS IT UP

Recent research from Amazon and Roku shows that CTV exposure improves the performance of sponsored product ads running at the same time. This is hard evidence for something media buyers have long assumed: reinforcement across channels compounds.

NON-ENDEMIC ADVERTISING STILL HASN'T ARRIVED

Retailers hold rich data on their customers well beyond shopping behavior: life stage, intent, how demand shifts in real time. The problem is proving it worked. A retailer can't close the loop on a non-endemic ad the way it can on its own products, so non-endemic advertisers are left buying an audience without the measurement to justify the spend.

Listen above for Pullins' full breakdown of where retail media measurement actually stands today, and her advice for building a career in an industry that didn't exist as a major when most of its current leaders were in school.

Join in on this and similar conversations in person! Rethink Retail is bringing Commerce Media Saturday to NRF 2027: Retail's Big Show. Register here and select "Commerce Media Saturday" as an add-on.