Report Offers Retail Media Insights
“Brand marketers will increasingly capitalize on the retail media boom. As brand marketers wind down their reliance on third-party cookies, they are leveraging valuable shopper data to better understand audience segments and measure the ROI of their advertising campaigns,” Brenda Tuohig, senior vice president, global data partnerships, The Trade Desk, told Path to Purchase IQ. "Seventy-four percent of brands say they have dedicated budgets for retail media networks, and Forrester predicts this category will account for $50 billion in spend next year. In 2022, retailers and brands will leverage shopper data and data-driven advertising to deliver the most effective, measurable campaigns we’ve ever seen."
The Trade Desk has laid out various retail trends, particularly as they relate to retail media and the digital experience, in “The Future of Retail Report,” which is based on advertiser and consumer surveys.
The Trade Desk conducted an advertiser study with Material+ between Sept. 1–13, 2021, surveying more than 150 brand marketers in the U.S. All respondents held a position of director or above and had a role in deciding where advertising dollars are spent.
For the consumer study, the company partnered with YouGov to survey more than 5,000 adult shoppers in the U.S. between Sept. 17–23, 2021. Qualified “shoppers” had purchased an item within the past three months in either the home improvement, apparel and clothing, pharmaceuticals, beauty and personal care, or grocery categories.
Among The Trade Desk’s key findings:
- Most brands (89%) said they’re satisfied with the retail media networks they use. Currently, 48% of brands are already spending between 10% and 19% of their digital ad budgets on retail media.
- 81% of consumers responded they have at least one registered digital account with a retailer. Consumers also cited easy check out (47%), purchase history (41%) and access to discounts or promotions (34%) as among their top reasons for having a login with a retailer.
- 71% of consumers say they’d prefer to receive limited, tailored ad experiences instead of paying to avoid ads.
- Over half of consumers (53%) said they recognize or notice sponsored products or ads on retailer websites, and among them, 42% claim to frequently or sometimes click to make a purchase.
As brands take new approaches to retail marketing to take on this emerging landscape, retailers are also making more shopper data available so that brands can make the connection between advertising activity and consumer action, online or in the store. In fact, despite all the hype surrounding grocery delivery, The Trade Desk found that 70% of shoppers say they prefer shopping in the store.
In addition, as retail media continues to boom, the role of it is evolving. Seventy-six percent of marketers say they plan to use point-of-sale data either frequently or very frequently over the next year.And according to the report, the number of marketers who said they intend to use point-of-sale data very frequently is expected to nearly triple in the next 12 months (from 16% to 44%, respectively).
