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Retail Brew

Retail Media

Erin Cabrey

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Dilini Fernando is CMO of experiential retail media company Freeosk.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? 

My job is to turn everyday shopping into an experience that inspires, connects, and leaves a lasting impression—one small discovery at a time.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? 

We’re a lean team in a fast-paced industry, so I’m not just setting strategy; I’m hands-on with execution. That’s part of the entrepreneurial culture we’ve built from the top down—everyone stays close to the work. It keeps us agile, responsive, and ensures there’s no disconnect between the big vision and how it shows up in the real world.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on?

 Co-creating the concept of experiential retail media. It’s more than a marketing term; it’s a shift in mindset. We gave language to something deeply human: the joy of in-the-moment connection.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? 

Retailers are finally treating their physical space like a media channel. I’m energized by the physical store as a stage for storytelling. We’re finally moving beyond transactional thinking and tapping into emotional, human-centered experiences—which can be scaled 

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? 

“Stay in your lane.” Rarely has meaningful change come from leaders staying in one lane. Clarity drives execution, while curiosity sparks innovation.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now?

 Then, Clinique lip liners. Now, La Roche Posay B5 serum.

A portrait of Chief Marketing Officer of Freeosk, Dilini Fernando. Credit: Dilini Fernando

Coworking with Dilini Fernando

She’s CMO at Freeosk. 

Vidhi Choudhary

Macy’s recently became one of the first big names to start rolling out ads on Amazon’s retail ad product launched in beta in January.

Advertisers can buy sponsored product ad placements on Macy’s online store directly through Amazon Ads’s platform. Michael Krans, Macy’s VP of retail media, 

 the arrangement is designed to strengthen Macy’s existing adtech stack, which already includes ad platforms like Criteo.

Rather than requiring every brand to work through Macy’s sales representatives or proprietary technology, the Amazon integration allows advertisers to purchase placements in workflows they already use. Krans told Adweek the idea is to meet media buyers in the ad platforms and workflows they prefer.

Amazon’s Retail Ad Service is meant to deliver contextually relevant product placements across a retailer’s search results, category pages, and product detail pages. The service built on AWS makes it easy for Amazon advertisers to discover additional opportunities to scale their reach.

According to Andrew Lipsman, independent analyst at Media, Ads + Commerce, Macy’s may be Amazon Retail Ad Services’s first big win, but the platform’s ability to attract more major retailers remains uncertain.

“Macy’s Media Network is an important first domino to fall for Amazon Retail Ad Service,” Lipsman told Retail Brew in an email, “but it’s still an open question whether Amazon can secure other large retailers and build momentum.”

Lipsman also pointed out that while brands want simpler ways to buy retail media—and this deal helps—many retailers see sharing customer data with a rival as too risky.

“Retailers will ultimately have to balance the need for more advertiser demand with potential risk of giving a competitor visibility into their first-party shopper data—an RMN’s most precious asset,” Lispman said. “For a lot of retailers, this is a nonstarter.”

However, Krans told Adweek that Macy’s will not share any “personally identifiable customer data” with Amazon. Instead, limited transaction data will pass through AWS clean rooms to enable secure sales attribution.

Macy’s retail media gets an Amazon makeover

While this is a big partnership for Amazon’s advertising business, doubts remain on whether this retail media service can really take off.

Retail media went from being the awkward wallflower at the marketing party in 2019 (just 10% of total media spend) to tripling its way to nearly 30% of overall media budgets in 2024, the latest 

 from Keen Decision Systems—a SaaS platform that enables enterprise companies to predict, optimize, and measure their marketing spend—shows. The big takeaway is retail media’s appeal lies in its effectiveness and certainty to drive sales.

In some ways, it’s the same story, because Amazon still takes the top spot. However, rivals are crashing the party and brands are now smart enough not to put all their eggs in one basket. Brands are spending more display ad dollars at Walmart, Target, and Instacart, Keen shared in its findings.

Meanwhile, Amazon Search is still flexing, but it’s starting to “lose share” with competition lurking on its territory, Keen data showed. Amazon Search’s market share has dropped from 52% to 50% over the last 52-week period through July 9. Although, overall, search ads deliver more ROI to most retailers surveyed compared to display ads.

However, big money riding on search ads doesn’t necessarily translate to high impact.

Amazon’s return on investment for search ads is on the decline despite heavy investments, coming in at $1.21. Supermarket chain Kroger leads ROI on search ads with a $2.50 return on every search dollar spent and $2.06 ROI on display ads.

Meanwhile, Walmart delivers $1.51 on every display ad dollar spent, higher than Target’s ROI for display ads, which delivers $1.36.

Share of retail media has tripled

Spending on retail media made up 28% of all spending, up from just 10% in 2019, per Keen data.

Albertsons is piloting digital ad displays in stores this summer, the grocer announced today during the Cannes Lions in France.

Its retail media arm, Albertsons Media Collective, is partnering with digital solution company Stratacache for the pilot, which will see digital screens deployed at stores in two regions, its Northern California and Jewel-Osco divisions, this summer. The screens will be placed in “high-traffic areas with impactful touchpoints in the customer journey” throughout the store, the company said, including the store entry and produce department. The company is showcasing the new advertising features at a mock grocery store set up at Cannes this week.

Liz Roche, Albertsons Media Collective’s VP of media and measurement, said in a statement the grocer partnered with Stratacache as its technology enables “closed-loop measurement,” noting that “understand[ing] performance helps us fully realize the potential of the in-store channel.” Albertsons said brand partners will be able to measure their ads’ impact including direct sales attribution and sales lift. Standardization of data reporting across retail media networks continues to be a 

Oreo maker Mondelez will be the retailer’s first CPG partner, Albertsons said. Mondelez previously 

 with Albertsons and Fetch on a new retail media integration last year.

Melissa Pitmon, customer director of omnichannel activation of Mondelez, said the screens will allow the brand to market “hyper-relevant content right where purchase decisions are made.”

“It’s a natural complement to our digital strategy and a powerful reminder that the store remains one of the most influential spaces to build brand connection and drive conversion,” she said.

Albertsons said it has a “comprehensive” plan for rolling out the tech to other stores following the pilot.

 the majority of grocery shoppers still shop in stores. As such, adoption of 

 has gained steam among grocers as they look to capture shoppers’ eyes and double down on this additional revenue stream. Analysts 

 last year Albertsons might work to expand its ad business to grow after its 

 have also both recently made strides in in-store digital advertising through partnerships with Grocery TV. (Trader Joe’s, on the other hand, 

EMarketer has forecasted in-store retail media ad spending will hit $1 billion in 2028—but still account for just 1% of omnichannel retail media ad spend.

Albertsons to pilot in-store digital ad displays  

The grocer is partnering with Mondelez on the effort to expand its retail media business. 

Retail media is a daunting space for retailers as they keep up with the dual pressures of the pace of growth and relentless evolution.

To rise above the competition, CVS is partnering with social platform Reddit to run pure play digital ad placements.

“Retail media is perfectly positioned to really connect consumers across multiple platforms,” Parbinder Dhariwal, VP and general manager at CMX, CVS’s retail media arm, told Retail Brew.

On Reddit, CVS will concentrate on promoted posts and conversation placements, which organically match user behavior on the platform. These ads will enable brands to generate traffic and sales by naturally joining trusted conversations between users in relevant communities, the company said in an email.

The next phase of retail media, Dhariwal added, involves “co-creation” and “collaboration.” The idea with the partnership is to develop shared platforms, create content within existing platforms, and build audiences together to connect consumers back to the CVS shopping experience.

“You’ve got synergies in terms of content, how consumers are searching for content, and where they look for content, especially around health and wellness,” Dhariwal said. “The forums and the environment that Reddit creates is much more around discoveries. And we see a very unique opportunity here on being inserted into that conversation—more importantly, inserting the brands and advertisers that we’re working with into that [conversation].”

CVS will test the partnership in beta in Q4 by running ads from consumer healthcare brand 

, which sells Sensodyne, Advil, and Tums.

For Reddit, it’s an opportunity to convert more users into shoppers on its platform. With shopping ads playing a major role in its ad growth, Reddit’s latest ad revenue 

“Reddit is where high-intent shoppers come not just to browse, but to engage in real conversations, especially when it comes to health, wellness, and beauty,” Mike Romoff, chief revenue officer at Reddit, said in a statement. “By collaborating with CMX, we’re connecting that unique intent and authenticity with the scale and physical presence of CVS, creating a seamless path to purchase experience for shoppers.”

Ultimately, Dhariwal said, “this is a bigger conversation on collaboration and co-creation together, because that’s where we see the ball really moving.”

CVS launches new retail media ad partnership with Reddit 

CVS plans to test run some digital ads on Reddit forums in Q4 with consumer healthcare brand Haleon.

Reddit recently rolled out its main shopping ad solution, Dynamic Product Ads (DPA), to all advertisers globally with the expectation to make shopping a big part of the social media platform.

Reddit launched DPA in beta in 2024. This year, the companies testing the new ads with their regular campaigns saw double the return on their ad spend compared to standard ads alone, the platform said. Plus, there are now four times as many product catalogs running on Reddit compared to a year ago.

DPA works by automatically creating personalized ads for each user. It pulls products straight from a company’s catalog and figures out which products to show to which user based on what they’re interested in and what conversations they’re having on Reddit. The ad tool uses AI-powered product matching with real-time catalog data. It combines on-platform engagement plus off-platform behavior for precise targeting.

Reddit’s new ads are similar to personalized product ad solutions offered by other major ad platforms like Amazon’s sponsored product ads and Google’s performance max ad units.

Brands like The Home Depot and Lenovo have tested the new ad unit. In a 

, Reddit’s Industry Director of Tech and Telco Taylor Gagliardi shared that Lenovo saw a 

 in purchases, more than 19.3% lift in page visits, and more than 5% lift in add-to-carts after testing dynamic product ads between October and December last year.

“It’s a smart, strategic response to changing shopper behavior, meeting people in trusted, research-driven conversations where purchase decisions are actively taking shape,” Gagliardi wrote on LinkedIn.

For the first quarter of 2025, Reddit’s advertising revenue jumped 61% to $358.6 million.

On an earnings call Reddit COO Jennifer Wong noted that the company has made upgrades to dynamic product ads by making it easier to use for brands: “In the quarter, we improved our DPA format in two areas—performance and ease of use—and we’re excited about the roadmap for the rest of the year.”

“We’re continuing to deploy conversion and click prediction model improvements, enabling advertisers to onboard larger product catalogs with millions of products to deliver more relevant ads,” Wong added.

Overall, Reddit’s ad roadmap depends on the platform’s ability to deliver profitable outcomes to brands.

Shopping ads are becoming a big deal on Reddit 

Reddit’s ad roadmap depends on the platform’s ability to deliver more profitable outcomes to brands. 

As the noise around a US recession grows louder, advertiser demand is expected to take a hit, and retailers banking on ad revenue from retail media might need to look elsewhere for spare change.

Retail media, growing at roughly 20% YoY, has become a core component of planning between brands and retailers, making it less susceptible to media market volatility. However, since it’s a relatively new marketing channel and hasn’t been through a significant recession yet, it’s hard to say definitively, experts told Retail Brew.

Separately, advertising research firm World Advertising Research Center (WARC) has 

 its global advertising forecast by $19.8 billion, citing overall macroeconomic uncertainty.

As advertisers face intense scrutiny to justify ad spend, three experts told Retail Brew that

while retail media isn’t immune from a recession, it may be more resilient compared to other advertising channels.

The throughline is advertisers tend to rely on performance-based ad channels with measurable ROI during economic downturns.

 “I don’t think it’s recession proof, but retail media is more recession resistant than other channels,” Andrew Lipsman, independent analyst at Media, Ads + Commerce, told Retail Brew. “The primary reason for that is that in recessionary times, there tends to be a flight to certainty—in this case, a flight to performance advertising—where CFOs are demanding higher accountability for media spend. So, retail media, by virtue of being very measurable and also tying directly to brand sales, is one that’s least likely to feel the effects.”

Neil Saunders, managing director at consulting firm GlobalData Retail, agreed that retail media might have a better chance to attract ad dollars given its ability to provide

“A recession will cause all companies to review marketing spend and this will put some pressure on retail media,” Saunders told Retail Brew in an email. “However, what firms will look for is the effectiveness of their marketing spend and they will try to consolidate it into channels that drive the best results.”

“On this front, I think retail media may be more recession-proof than other media,” Saunders added.

However, he warned that a recession would likely put “weaker players” within retail media at risk given the intense competition within the space.

 drop in confidence to increase retail media revenue amid fierce competition. To make matters worse, Lipsman said that if consumer demand for retail goes down, then advertising will likely follow suit. “So, it will move in correlation to depressed retail sales,” he added.

Even if retail media experiences a modest decline in spending, it’s still projected to maintain double-digit growth rates, unlike other traditional ad channels that may stagnate or contract during a recession, Lipsman added.

“But it also certainly could affect things like Facebook and YouTube and some of the big digital channels that play more to the upper funnel,” Lipsman added.

Gartner Senior Director Analyst Greg Carlucci said he is still more optimistic based on stats from Gartner’s 2024 CMO Spend Survey. Carlucci said that retail media networks accounted for about 8.3% of total paid media spend, and over one-third of CMOs surveyed by Gartner in 2024 said they would increase their investment in retail media.

“The exact percentages will change when the new data comes out in a few months, but…paid media is the largest share of the [overall marketing] budget,” he said. “And retail media is one of the fastest growing digital channels for consumer goods companies.”