Your offline retail media shouldn’t be running on faith

Today, retail media is not only a rapidly growing channel in digital advertising. It’s actually predicted to be a $175 billion global industry in 2026. However, it’s also one of the most complex channels. In fact, at all the conferences we attended, retail media was always a hot topic, drawing strong interest from attendees and sparking interesting conversations not only about its potential but also about the challenges it comes with.

But while everyone is talking about the digital world with sponsored products, display banners, onsite search, a significant share of retail sales still happens in physical stores. However, it’s also the point where most brands lose visibility.

Offline retail media, such as in-store screens, shelf-edge displays, point-of-sale signage or digital fixtures is where the moment of truth actually happens. And what makes it so powerful is the context.

But without integrating online and offline behaviour, you can’t see the whole picture. And it’s also where ROI quietly goes missing.

In our recent webinar Tanya Sarakinis and Nils Thott shared their insights on the changing retail media landscape with a particular focus on offline retail media measurement.

The gap between what you paid for and what happened

Walk into many major European supermarkets and you’ll find in-store TV screens running multi product promotions. But sometimes the display next to them holds completely different products. There might also be some branded campaigns for new product launches, leaflets from different retailers with different pricing. But how do you know which ad space is driving revenue?

After the promotion is over, you receive the report from the retailers which includes different metrics from reach to awareness and sales uplift. But compared to what? The retailer sold you the space, controls the data and produces the measurement. But the question is:

The data exists, it’s just fragmented

The information needed to answer these questions is already out there. Retailer POS data, retail media reports, field sales CRM, trade promotion management systems, loyalty card data, market research…they all exist. The problem is that most brands look at each source in isolation and end up with conclusions that don’t hold up when you see the full picture.

Getting granular data matters as well because aggregated KPIs hide the patterns. Store-level, SKU-level, daily data is what reveals why one campaign outperformed another, and whether it was the retail media, the field sales activation, the display, or the competitor promotion next door doing the heavy lifting.

Insight belongs in the hands of decision-makers

The goal isn’t getting super complex analytics that you don’t know what to do with. Instead, what matters to key account managers, brand managers and field teams is to make faster, clearer and reliable decisions.

That means connected reporting that integrates online and offline data, your own internal data and retailer data, and surfaces what a good promotion looks like versus a bad one, depending on the KPIs that actually matter to your business.

Summary

Retailers are doubling down on retail media, and they will keep coming to brands for more investment. The question isn’t whether to participate. It’s whether you’re measuring it on your terms or theirs.

At Redslim, we help brands take ownership of their retail media analysis by connecting POS data, field execution, loyalty insights and both online and offline media into reporting built for business users. We’d love to hear where you are on that journey and explain how we can support you.