For more than a decade, Amazon has been the gravitational center of retail media, pulling in the majority of ad dollars that brands reserve for commerce‑driven campaigns. Its pitch has been straightforward: hundreds of millions of shoppers, a firehose of first‑party data and the ability to connect impressions directly to purchases. By 2024, that combination had turned what once looked like a side business into a multibillion‑dollar ad machine, with Amazon generating tens of billions in annual advertising revenue and commanding the lion’s share of global retail media spend.
That dominance has shaped how marketers think about performance media. Many agencies still advise clients to “max out” Amazon before diverting budget anywhere else, on the logic that the platform captures roughly three quarters of retail media spending worldwide. Yet as brands grow wary of over‑concentration and as privacy rules make third‑party data less reliable, the calculus is starting to shift. Retailers that once ceded the ad battlefield are building their own media networks, arguing that they can compete not by matching Amazon’s scale, but by offering something different.
The Rise Of Retail Media Networks
Walk into a supermarket, open a grocery app or stream your favorite show and you are increasingly wandering through someone’s media network. From Walmart Connect and Target Roundel to Instacart Ads and a growing roster of grocers and specialty chains, retailers are turning their owned channels into advertising businesses, selling brands the chance to reach shoppers at, or very close to, the point of purchase. It is a logical response to an era where every impression is expected to prove its worth in sales.
The numbers explain the urgency. Analysts estimate that global retail media ad spend will climb into the hundreds of billions of dollars this year, accounting for more than one fifth of all digital advertising. In the United States alone, retail media budgets are projected to reach tens of billions as marketers reallocate from traditional channels into environments where they can see what shoppers actually buy. That rising tide is lifting more than one boat. While Amazon remains the dominant player, secondary platforms are growing at a faster clip, with Walmart in particular posting strong double‑digit gains as its network matures.
What these retailers lack in sheer audience size, they aim to make up for with sharper context. A mass merchant can offer a view into household shopping patterns at scale; a grocery delivery service can promise frequent, high‑intent visits from urban professionals; a pharmacy chain can lean into health‑adjacent segments. For brands, the appeal lies in stitching together a mosaic of these environments to complement, rather than replace, the reach they buy from Amazon.
New Channels, New Storylines
To truly challenge Amazon, retailers know they have to escape the confines of search results and product detail pages. That is why so many retail media networks are moving aggressively into connected TV, video and off‑site inventory, extending their data into places where consumers are discovering brands, not just checking out. Walmart’s acquisition of smart‑TV maker Vizio was a clear signal of intent, giving its ad arm direct access to living‑room screens at scale and the ability to link viewing behavior to in‑store and online purchases.
Others are striking partnerships instead of buying hardware. In Europe, supermarket chains have teamed up with broadcasters and streaming platforms to package shopper data with premium content, blending the targeting precision of retail media with the storytelling power of television. Social platforms are also in the mix, as retailers collaborate with TikTok and other networks to capture impulse discovery and tie it back to basket‑level reporting. The result is a more fluid experience for both brands and consumers, where an ad seen on a connected TV or a short‑form video can be measured against eventual sales on a retailer’s site or in its aisles.
Amazon is not standing still. Its own expansion into streaming, live sports and ad‑supported Prime Video is designed to do exactly the same thing: surround the shopper from entertainment to checkout with messages that can be measured and optimized in a single ecosystem. That dynamic turns the fight for retail media dollars into a battle of full‑funnel stories, not just bottom‑funnel efficiency.
Can Anyone Really Catch Up?
Strip away the momentum and the question remains: can retailers genuinely compete with Amazon, or are they destined to live in its shadow? On pure share of spend, the gap is stark. Amazon still attracts the majority of retail media budgets, and its investments in attribution, automation and third‑party inventory only deepen the moat. For many brands, especially smaller ones, Amazon’s traffic and conversion data are simply too valuable to ignore.
Yet competition in this space is not a winner‑take‑all equation. Media buyers increasingly describe a “portfolio” approach, with Amazon as the anchor and a rotating set of retail media partners layered in to reach specific audiences or categories. As more retailers refine their networks, improve measurement and prove that they can drive incremental sales rather than just move spend around, they earn the right to claim a bigger piece of the pie. In a market that is itself growing rapidly, even single‑digit share can translate into a substantial business.
In that sense, the more interesting story is not whether anyone dethrones Amazon, but how a once‑monolithic landscape evolves into a layered ecosystem. For advertisers, that fragmentation poses new challenges in planning and reporting, but it also offers a way out of dependency on a single platform. For retailers, the race is on to prove that their media networks are not just copy‑and‑paste versions of Amazon’s offering, but distinctive environments where brands can show up in more relevant, more contextual and ultimately more valuable ways.
