Best Buy jumps into the burgeoning retail media-network space

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Retail media networks might’ve been overlooked last year, but not in 2022.

This week, Best Buy announced Best Buy Ads, its revamped in-house media firm, that will “help shoppers discover products, services, and offers.”

• Best Buy said it interacts with its customers 3 billion times a year, according to the release, and can help brands—and not just ones in the electronics space—“cut through the clutter” and reach its audience.

Ad(d) ons: Plenty of other mega retailers—Lowe’s, Macy’s, and Dollar Tree, to name a few—are betting on the space, and it is only expected to grow. US retail media ad spend was estimated to reach $24 billion in 2021, per eMarketer, nearly doubling by 2024 to more than $41 billion.

• 74% of brands surveyed in September by The Trade Desk, a digital ad company, said they had dedicated budgets for retail media networks, which ranked fifth in terms of spend.

The big picture: Experts recently told us they expect the strategy to be a win-win. Retailers enjoy another avenue for $$, while brands can draw in more customers via targeted ads.

“It’s going to be something that we are talking much more about, as retailers are really marrying in-store shopping data with online shopping data and having a really compelling value,” said Claire Tassin, retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult.—JS