The Current State of Unified Retail Media Buying
A new Koddi × RetailX report highlights the growing demand for integrated retail media solutions among advertisers.
According to the findings, 94% of advertisers want the ability to activate onsite, offsite, and in-store campaigns from a single platform — a clear sign that holistic retail media operations are now a strategic priority.
Additionally, 69% of respondents prefer to transact through retailer-controlled platforms, underscoring the rising importance of first-party data ownership within the retail ecosystem.
Evolving Investment Patterns in Retail Media
The study reveals shifting media investment priorities:
- Social media still leads in offsite ad spend.
- 66% of advertisers are increasing investment in shoppable video and immersive, TikTok-style content.
- 52% are reallocating budgets to streaming media, targeting increasingly fragmented audiences.
Despite the expansion of channels, measurement and attribution remain persistent challenges.
Nearly 40% of respondents struggle with cross-platform performance comparisons, calling for transparent benchmarks and consistent attribution models.
Understanding how diverse data sources can be unified for accurate insights is critical to overcoming these challenges.
To avoid common pitfalls in campaign setup and data flow, read:
👉 Common Mistakes in Product Feed Uploads – NotPIM
Retailer-Led Data Curation and DSP Integration
Another key takeaway from the study is the rise of curated media deals — packages that merge retailers’ first-party data with publisher inventory, delivered through data-driven DSP integrations.
This shift signals a move away from traditional demand-side platforms and direct publisher relationships toward retailer-led audience curation.
Retailers are becoming central data and distribution hubs, extending their influence across targeting, measurement, and monetization in the advertising supply chain.
As these relationships grow more complex, understanding data formats and integration standards becomes vital.
For a practical guide, see:
👉 CSV Format: How to Structure Product Data for Smooth Integration – NotPIM
Why This Trend Is Transformative for E-commerce Infrastructure
The rise of unified retail media buying has far-reaching implications for e-commerce systems, content infrastructure, and catalog management.
Retailers and brands must now synchronize advertising and product data in real time to maintain accuracy and compliance across multiple channels.
Impact on Product Feeds and Catalog Management
Unified retail media campaigns depend on accurate, standardized product data that flows seamlessly between retailer systems and advertising platforms.
Feeds must now support:
- Multi-channel attribution tracking
- Real-time content updates
- Dynamic metadata enrichment
Retailers are adopting automation-first feed management, combining AI validation and no-code mapping tools to preserve data integrity.
This approach aligns directly with NotPIM’s capabilities — including automated feed conversion, catalog enrichment, and cross-platform synchronization — forming the backbone of scalable omnichannel operations.
Role of AI and Automation in Retail Media
AI is increasingly used for campaign optimization, audience segmentation, and creative testing.
Automated ad-to-product mapping ensures listings stay accurate — from inventory status to pricing — while reducing manual overhead.
As retailers consolidate ad and commerce systems, API-based and composable architectures allow faster adaptation, linking feed data directly to DSPs, ad servers, and analytics suites.
These same principles define modern product data ecosystems, where automation guarantees accuracy at scale — the exact goal NotPIM is built to achieve.
Conclusion: Unified Retail Media as a Strategic Priority
The RetailX–Koddi study marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of retail media.
Unified buying capabilities, supported by high-quality data infrastructure, advanced content management, and seamless platform integration, are shifting from optional to essential.
Both brands and retailers are being driven to invest in automated, data-driven systems across their entire product and content supply chain.
For a deeper look at how product feeds enable this transformation, see:
👉 Product Feed – NotPIM
As investment priorities evolve and measurement complexity rises, AI and no-code tools are redefining how businesses participate in retail media at scale.
E-commerce operators must modernize content infrastructure, ensure catalog completeness, and embrace automation to stay competitive in the omnichannel landscape.
Further reading: CMO Room, Adtelligent.
NotPIM Perspective
This shift toward unified retail media buying reinforces a key reality:
robust, accurate product data is the cornerstone of modern retail advertising.
High-quality product feeds, standardized catalogs, and automated governance are now strategic imperatives, not just technical requirements.
At NotPIM, we help e-commerce businesses:
- Automate and standardize product feeds across multiple sales and ad platforms.
- Enrich and validate catalog data for consistency and compliance.
- Integrate seamlessly with advertising, analytics, and commerce systems.
By streamlining data preparation and synchronization, NotPIM enables brands and retailers to focus on strategy, creativity, and performance, not manual maintenance.
The complexity of retail media ecosystems demands automation — and NotPIM delivers it, ensuring your product data remains the strongest asset in a fast-converging world of commerce and advertising.