In-Store Retail Media

In-store retail media is advertising inventory that leverages retail data for planning, execution, and measurement within a store's physical environment — extending Retail Media Networks from websites and apps into the aisle. IAB Europe and IAB (US) jointly published the final cross-jurisdictional In-Store Retail Media Definitions and Measurement Standards in December 2024, establishing this as the authoritative working definition. (IAB/IAB Europe, Dec 2024)

Why it matters

More than 80% of retail sales still take place in physical stores, yet retail media was architected around e-commerce-native signals, formats, and measurement — leaving the channel where most commerce actually happens largely unmonetised. (eMarketer, Jun 2026) eMarketer analyst Sarah Marzano described it as: "Retail media did not fail stores; it simply wasn't built for them." (eMarketer / YouTube, Mar 2026)

Amazon captures roughly 80% of all US retail media ad spending despite accounting for just over 6% of total US retail sales (as-of 2026-03-31), leaving the vast majority of physical retail footfall unmeasured and unseated as a media surface. (eMarketer podcast, Mar 2026)

Formats and store zones

The IAB/IAB Europe December 2024 standards define five store zones as the canonical taxonomy:

Zone	Example formats
Exterior	Digital billboards near car park, entrance signage
Entrance	Welcome screens, digital display banks
Aisles	Shelf-edge screens, end-cap sponsorships, ESL overlays
Checkout	POS screen ads, receipt offers
Other	Pharmacy waiting areas, deli/bakery counters, fitting rooms

Covered format types include: digital screens and video loops (typically 6–15 seconds), QR-enabled and gesture-triggered interactives, sponsored shelf-edge digital labels (Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) with ad overlay), audio + screen combinations, integrated end-cap sponsorships, and smart cart media. (IAB/IAB Europe, Dec 2024; osmos.ai, 2026)

In-store audio advertising is a distinct sub-channel not fully covered by the December 2024 standards and was flagged for future iterations.

Market size and scale

US in-store retail media ad spend was approximately $0.58 billion in 2026 (+33.1% YoY), projected to cross $1 billion by 2029 — representing just over 1% of total US retail media by that date. (as-of 2026-H1) (eMarketer, Mar 2026)
The overall US retail media market is projected at $71.67 billion in 2026; in-store amounts to less than 3.3% of the non-Amazon share. (as-of 2026-H1) (eMarketer, Jun 2026)
The global in-store digital advertising display market is projected to grow from $4.39 billion (2025) to $4.90 billion (2026) and $7.69 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 11.9%. (as-of 2026-07-17) (GlobeNewswire, Jul 2026) (Note: this is the global digital display market, not solely retail media ad spend — not directly comparable to the eMarketer US RMN figure.)

eMarketer (podcast, Mar 2026) projects in-store will reach ~$1B by 2029, representing just ~1% of total retail media — and warns retail media teams counting on in-store for near-term revenue to adjust expectations. GlobeNewswire (Jul 2026) projects $7.69B by 2030 at 11.9% CAGR for the global in-store digital display market. These figures are not directly contradictory (US RMN spend vs global digital display market), but the bullish CAGR from GlobeNewswire sits in tension with eMarketer's explicit note that in-store adoption is slower than expected.

OAAA and Winterberry Group research (March 2026) finds 98% of marketers incorporate OOH into commerce initiatives; 86% expect OOH investment to increase over the next two years, with 37% projecting growth of 15%+. Digital in-store screens are the second most commonly deployed format at 63%, behind digital billboards (65%). (as-of 2026-03-12) (OAAA/Winterberry, Mar 2026)

Retailer and vendor deployments

US deployments (2025–2026)

Retailer	Scale	Status (as-of early 2026)
Walmart Connect	~170,000 in-store screens across 4,600 stores	Closed-loop attribution linking screen impressions to register transactions
CVS Health	~11,000 screens by 2026; checkout ads in ~7,000 stores	54% of shoppers find screens useful; 20% take action after seeing them
Kroger	Barrows Connected Stores platform for shelf, end-cap, aisle content	Beyond pilot, expanding to new markets in 2026
Albertsons	80 stores with Stratacache, expanded from 116-store Mondelez beta	$2.41 incremental ROAS; 14% lift in in-store sales in beta
Hy-Vee	10,000+ screens across 400+ locations	Deployed late 2024
Best Buy	"Takeover packages" (store-wide ad experience)	Launching 2026
Grocery TV	6,500 stores across 120+ retailers	US grocery specialist network

(Modern Retail, Jan 2026)

European context

Internet Retailing (Colin Lewis, Jan 2026) identifies a "continental divide": outside the US, in-store is the dominant retail channel, and much of the real in-store retail media innovation is happening in Europe, LATAM, and Australia/New Zealand. US retailers like Kroger are described as "well behind" European counterparts such as Tesco. (Internet Retailing, Jan 2026)

Frasers Group (UK) announced in May 2025 the launch of a retail media advertising network leveraging first-party data from 30 million customers across 750 UK stores, 60 Everlast Gyms, shopping centres, and billboards — positioned as one of the first European fashion retailers to build a full-estate retail media network. (as-of May 2025)

NIQ and Unlimitail announced a strategic collaboration in June 2026 to deliver omnichannel retail media measurement across Carrefour operations in France, Spain, and Brazil — spanning 21 countries, 35 retailers, 120+ retailer websites, and 250 million+ loyalty cardholders. (NIQ, Jun 2026)

Technology vendor landscape

Vendor	Role	Notes
Stratacache	In-store DOOH CMS, screen hardware, ad-serving	20+ years in in-store media; technology partner for Albertsons
Broadsign + Place Exchange	CMS/ad-serving + SSP	Merged Nov 2025; ~1.8M-screen programmatically transactable network
Vistar Media	DSP/SSP for DOOH/in-store	Acquired by T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom US) in 2025
Grocery TV	US grocery-specialist in-store network	Added third-party sales lift measurement via ABCS Insights (41M-household panel), Apr 2026
Samsung	Display hardware (Spatial Signage 3D screens, Color E-Paper ESLs) + VXT CMS	VXT pre-integrated with Vistar Media; NRF 2026 launches
Smartify	Monetisation layer for Samsung VXT displays	Programmatic DOOH + local advertiser marketplace; revenue-share or ad-credit models
Cooler Screens	Smart cooler-door displays	Post-Walgreens partnership status unclear as of 2026

(osmos.ai, 2026; Modern Retail, Jan 2026; Samsung/NRF 2026)

Walmart has plans to roll out Electronic Shelf Label (ESL)s to 2,300 stores by 2026, bridging dynamic pricing with screen advertising at the shelf edge. (as-of 2026) (osmos.ai, 2026)

Measurement standards

Joint IAB/IAB Europe standards (December 2024)

IAB Europe and IAB (US) jointly published the final In-Store Retail Media Definitions and Measurement Standards in December 2024. Key provisions: (IAB/IAB Europe, Dec 2024)

Impression metrics: ad play · gross impression · opportunity to see · likelihood-to-see (viewable impressions preferred)
Sales measurement window: 30 days pre-exposure + campaign duration + 30 days post-exposure
Sales metrics: sales lift · brand sales lift · sales variance · incremental sales/brand lift
Privacy: presence measurement does not require facial recognition or biometric identification

IAB Europe V2.1 (January 2026)

IAB Europe's Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2.1 (Jan 2026) add: a formal Incrementality definition with approved methodologies, standardised gross/net sales definitions, quick commerce sector metrics, and new-to-brand/new-to-category timeframes expanded to five options. A 30-day lookback window is the default. A six-month grace period allows V1 or V2.1 compliance — transition window runs to end of July 2026. IAB Europe runs a Retail Media Certification Programme for audited compliance. (IAB Europe, Jan 2026)

IAB US "Viable Framework" (December 2025)

IAB (US) published a phased framework for in-store measurement in December 2025 covering QR-enabled screens, digital end-caps, smart displays, and in-store audio. The framework requires RMNs to move from traffic assumptions toward "verified impressions" that prove an ad was rendered, a shopper was present, and the two events were time-aligned. (IAB US, Dec 2025)

IAB Europe held an In-Store Measurement Workshop on 3 July 2026 — key takeaways released but not fully captured in this research run. (IAB Europe, Jul 2026)

Measurement challenges in practice

Despite the standards, execution-side measurement confidence remains low:

Only 15% of marketers say their organisation is very or extremely effective at measuring retail media performance overall. (as-of 2026-02-04) (Skai/Stratably, Feb 2026)
Incrementality is the top measurement challenge for 75% of retail media advertisers; cross-channel measurement (59%), retailer data access (36%), and attribution (36%) follow. (as-of 2026-02-04) (Skai/Stratably, Feb 2026)
The biggest barrier to incrementality measurement: limited internal analytics/data science resources (56%), not methodology or data access. (Skai/Stratably, Feb 2026)
Nearly 80% of in-store retail media buyers report it is at least moderately difficult to incorporate in-store results into their broader retail media dashboards. (as-of 2026-03-31) (eMarketer podcast, Mar 2026)
67% of CMOs plan to increase RMN spend in 2026, but only 53% believe today's RMNs provide adequate measurement and attribution. (as-of 2026-06-16) (NIQ CMO Outlook 2026, via NIJ/Unlimitail press release)
The attribution gap — no click or last-touch cookie in physical retail — is cited as the single biggest reason in-store media is harder to sell to brand teams than onsite display. (MetaRouter, date unknown)

Shopper effectiveness

Note: most shopper effectiveness data below comes from vendor-commissioned research — flag accordingly.

62% of grocery shoppers purchased an item after seeing it advertised on an in-store screen (Grocery TV survey of 1,018 US grocery shoppers, March 2026 fieldwork). (as-of 2026-06-02) (Grocery TV, Jun 2026) (Vendor research — Grocery TV operates in-store screens)
Placement is the top driver of shopper acceptance: entrance/deli/checkout/pharmacy formats scored 84–88% favorable; cooler screens scored lowest at 58.9% (but up from 36.2% in 2023). (Grocery TV, Jun 2026 / ppc.land coverage) (Vendor research)
72% of shoppers report making unplanned purchases based on in-store messaging; in-store marketing is 3× more likely than digital ads to influence new product trial (Avery Dennison/Vestcom research, date unconfirmed).

Secondary in-store spaces (outside shoppers' regular aisle) drive ~90% featured SKU uplift for new product launches vs 36.2% for average campaigns; three touchpoints deliver nearly the same lift as five (SMG data, July 2025). (as-of 2025-07) (eMarketer, Jun 2026)

68% of adults notice OOH ads on their way to a store; 42% say OOH has a significant or somewhat significant impact on in-person purchase decisions. (as-of 2026-03-12) (OAAA/Winterberry/Morning Consult, Mar 2026)
Physical stores are the number-one place where consumers say they discovered products they ultimately purchased. (eMarketer podcast, Mar 2026)

Internal barriers to scale

eMarketer's survey of retail media leaders (2026) identified a 30-point gap between confidence in strategic alignment and confidence that the broader organisation believes in the retail media strategy. Fewer than one-third reported alignment between retail media and merchandising teams. (eMarketer podcast, Mar 2026)

86% of grocers say print circulars, digital media networks, and in-store media networks are completely siloed or only partially integrated. (as-of 2026-06-26, underlying survey Oct 2024) (Grocery Doppio, via eMarketer Jun 2026)

Most brands are still debating whether in-store media belongs in commerce, OOH, or another budget bucket — hampering dedicated budget allocation. (Modern Retail, Jan 2026)
Retailers losing an average of 6.4% of gross sales to in-store operational failures in 2026 (up from 5.5% in 2025, per Coresight Research) — media layered on broken shelf data underdelivers. (as-of 2026-06-26) (Coresight, via eMarketer Jun 2026)
Retailers that sequence store intelligence (shelf-level data visibility) before layering media report an average 11% increase in customer lifetime value per Coresight Research. (as-of 2026-06-26) (Coresight, via eMarketer Jun 2026)
The top 15 US retailers represent less than 40% of overall retail sales in 2024, versus ~70% of online sales for the top 15 ecommerce players — retailer fragmentation limits the scale achievable for in-store media relative to online. (as-of 2024)

Grocery vs fashion

Grocery is the dominant vertical in in-store retail media: 91%+ of food and beverage sales occur in physical stores; grocery consumers shop ~2× per week with consistent, loyalty-card-trackable behaviour, making purchase attribution tractable. (eMarketer, Jun 2026)

Fashion differs structurally:

Opposite risk profile: grocery's worst failure = stockout (shelf empty); fashion's worst failure = overstock (3,000 units marked down 40%) — driving fundamentally different in-store media strategies. (Medium / a.emrevarol, Apr 2026)
Lower purchase frequency reduces the loyalty-data signal available for targeting and attribution.
No dominant European fashion retailer equivalent to Walmart Connect or Kroger Precision Marketing for in-store media — Frasers Group (UK) is cited as one of the first, announced May 2025.
Format differences: fitting room screens, mannequin-adjacent displays, and endless-aisle QR integrations are distinct from grocery's shelf-edge and cooler-door formats — no sourced benchmark data found specifically for fashion in-store media.

Erin Houg (Ulta Beauty/STRATACACHE NRF 2026 event): "In terms of untapped space, I think digital in-store is the biggest opportunity right now." Sarah Marzano (eMarketer, Mar 2026 podcast): agrees on long-term opportunity but warns that by 2029 in-store will still represent only ~1% of total retail media spend, and explicitly cautions retail media teams already counting on in-store for near-term revenue growth to recalibrate. (NRF/STRATACACHE event, Jan 2026; eMarketer, Mar 2026)

Key terms

Term	Meaning
In-store retail media	Advertising inventory within a physical store environment, leveraging retailer first-party data
ESL (Electronic Shelf Label)	Digital price tag with potential for ad overlay; see Electronic Shelf Label (ESL)
pDOOH	Programmatic DOOH — buying in-store screen inventory via DSP/SSP pipes
Closed-loop attribution	Linking an ad impression (in-store screen) to a sales transaction at the same retailer
Incremental ROAS	The revenue generated by ad-exposed shoppers above what would have occurred without the ad
Opportunity to see (OTS)	Impression metric: shopper present in zone where ad played
Likelihood to see (LTS)	Impression metric: probabilistic estimate accounting for shopper gaze/dwell
RMN (Retail Media Network)	See Retail Media Network
Store zone	IAB-defined location category within a store (exterior/entrance/aisles/checkout/other)

Next frontier concepts (dangling links)

Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) — referenced throughout; no dedicated page
Programmatic Advertising — referenced in pDOOH discussion; no page
Closed-Loop Attribution — distinct from general attribution; no page
Connected Commerce — OAAA/Winterberry frame; no page
Aisle Analytics — store intelligence layer that must precede in-store media
Shopper Marketing — STRATACACHE's framing as the predecessor format (paper signs → digital screens)