It’s been said that people can only focus on and prioritize three things at a time. From writing a to-do list to setting personal or professional goals, three is the magic number. The same can be said for building and managing a retail media network.

Retailers’ ability to sustain a media network that is mutually beneficial to them, their brand partners and their consumers comes down to prioritizing three key things.

1. Focus on the consumer.

When retailers focus their efforts on the consumer, there is a halo effect. A great consumer experience drives conversion. If people convert, a retailer’s brand partners get the performance they want and need. If brands get performance, marketers will continue investing. Focusing on consumers also helps with internal alignment. There can often be friction among internal teams when launching a retail media network; everyone is working to move the program forward, but it can be messy. The consumer is a uniting force for all stakeholders and is key for teams looking to scale staff, tech and operations, which were all identified as challenges to growing retail media according to recent research from Epsilon.

2. Expand activation channels beyond a retailer’s owned properties.

Today, retailers primarily rely on traditional monetization tactics for their retail media offerings—58% digital coupons/promotion, 56% social (influencer, joint social promotion, etc.) and 53% email. Future growth in retail media requires retailers to expand beyond these channels, and simply adding digital display and video just won’t cut it. Retailers must tap into CTV and social and any channel where people are engaging with a brand and looking for inspiration to shop. Brands want scale—68% indicated that “amount of inventory available” is an important aspect of retail media—and retailers can only add scale with inventory outside of their own ecosystem. The retail media networks that win will be those who are looking two and three steps ahead when it comes to channel growth.

3. Simplify the partner ecosystem and tech stack.

Retailers inadvertently overcomplicate their media networks when they work with too many partners. Retailers must determine how they can work with fewer partners to provide a seamless consumer experience that delivers results. The negative impact of fragmentation is real: 64% of retailers and brands agree that consumers are the ones who suffer the most when retail media network offerings are fragmented. Fragmentation leads to inefficiencies – time, cost, technological and staffing – and the research shows brands want retail media networks that are easy to work with and provide support service (71%). When retailers simplify their tech stack, retail media is made easier for brand partners and improves effectiveness. Retailers should consolidate where they can if they want to create a more efficient media business.

Retail media has a very bright future. The retailers who build their networks around these three things with an eye on performance will command the attention of brands. It’s one thing to have a retail media network; it’s another to build one that stands the test of time.

Dave Peterson came on board as general manager, global head of retail media, Epsilon in June 2023. In the newly created position, Peterson will be responsible for unifying Epsilon’s global retail media assets and teams, including CitrusAd, and driving retailer and brand adoption of the company’s unified retail media platform around the world. Peterson is a recognized digital and e-commerce leader whose work has helped raise the prominence of retail media as a $50+ billion industry. Peterson spent 19 years at Target where he led the development and growth of Target’s retail media business (now Roundel), one of the industry’s first and largest retail media networks. During his tenure, he led teams responsible for sales strategy and execution of digital media and omni-channel marketing programs for Target’s National Brand and Agency partners.