A complete guide to commerce media

Commerce media is quickly becoming the next evolution of digital advertising, where media impressions are directly tied to business results and, ultimately, drive sales.

In this guide, we’ll break down what commerce media is (and how it differs from retail media), explore how it’s transforming the advertising landscape, and unpack the commerce media ecosystem – so you can understand how it works in practice and start shaping a smart commerce media strategy.

Key takeaways

• Commerce media is a data-driven approach to buying media that uses first-party customer data and shopping signals to deliver targeted ads, prove impact, and ultimately drive sales.
  
• All retail media is commerce media, but commerce media also includes banks, travel platforms, delivery apps, and more across the full customer journey.
  
• Commerce media combines first-party data with closed-loop measurement, giving brands and media owners clearer, more accountable business outcomes than traditional media.
  
• Getting started means defining clear objectives, auditing your first-party data, choosing the right retail and commerce media networks, and putting a focused media strategy and measurement plan in place.
  
• Privacy-safe data collaboration tools like data clean rooms help partners work together on commerce media while protecting customer data and complying with regulations.

What is commerce media?

Commerce media is a data-driven way of buying media that uses first-party customer data to deliver targeted, relevant ads and tie them directly to sales through closed-loop measurement. It connects what people see with what they actually buy, so brands can clearly see how campaigns drive sales and other business results.

Unlike more traditional media or standard programmatic advertising, commerce media is built around measurable outcomes rather than just reach or impressions. It focuses on improving campaign performance in a transparent, accountable way.

It’s becoming so important now because privacy expectations are rising, third-party cookies are decaying, and cookieless advertising is becoming the norm, and both advertisers and publishers need better ways to activate their own first-party data. At the same time, retail media networks and broader commerce media networks have grown rapidly as more shopping moves online.

You’ll typically see commerce media in environments such as:

• Retailers and marketplaces, from product listing pages to onsite search
  
• Apps and connected TV, where shoppable formats help engage consumers across the full journey

Diving deeper into commerce media

At its core, commerce media sits at the intersection of how people shop and where they see ads.

• “Commerce” covers all the ways people buy and sell today: on retailers’ websites, marketplaces, delivery apps, travel portals, and even publishers that offer shoppable ads or product recommendations.
  
• “Media” refers to the ad space or ad inventory across those environments, such as onsite banners, sponsored listings, in-app formats, and connected TV (CTV) placements.

What makes commerce media different is the data underneath it. Instead of relying on third-party cookies, it leans on first-party customer data, such as transactions, browsing behavior, loyalty activity, and app events. 

This lets brands build precise audiences and serve personalized messaging that feels genuinely useful rather than random. Done well, it improves both performance and the customer experience, because ads are better aligned with what online shoppers actually want.

How commerce media differs from traditional digital ads

Traditional digital advertising and legacy programmatic advertising were often built around broad reach and proxy metrics like clicks or generic media impressions. Commerce media flips that model. It is built on authenticated first-party data and the real customer journey, not just pseudonymous identifiers stitched together across the web.

Because commerce media can link impressions and clicks back to real purchases, it supports true closed-loop measurement. Brands can see which activities lead to measurable outcomes – such as incremental sales or higher order values – and quickly shift budget toward what’s working. This typically leads to higher performance and more actionable audience insights. It also helps uncover which products, messages, and channels truly drive revenue rather than just visibility. 

Commerce media vs retail media

Retail media refers to retailers turning their owned channels and first-party data into an advertising offering. This spans the following:

• Onsite media on their own properties, such as product listing pages, onsite search results, in-app placements, loyalty environments, and in-store screens.
• Offsite media, where retailer data is used to reach shoppers across the open web, social platforms, and connected TV. 

Well-known retail media networks include Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect (together capturing around 84% of retail-media investment). They allow brands that sell through the retailer (often called endemic advertisers) – and increasingly non-endemic advertisers – to use retailer first-party data, such as purchase history and browsing behavior, to reach shoppers throughout the customer journey and measure impact with closed-loop attribution, both onsite and offsite. 

Commerce media is an umbrella term. All retail media is commerce media, but not all commerce media is retail media. Commerce media also spans: 

• Commerce media networks created by banks and payment providers, such as JPMorgan Chase’s FNM and Mastercard Commerce Media
  
• Travel platforms and online travel agencies (OTAs)
  
• Food delivery and mobility apps, such as Wolt Ads and Uber Eats Ads
  
• Publishers and media companies that layer commerce into their content, such as TikTok Shopper

In other words, commerce media covers the wider commerce media space and commerce media market, bringing together many different media networks that use first-party shopping and behavioral data. It reaches people across the full customer journey, from inspiration and research through to purchase and even loyalty, not only on retailer sites.

How does the commerce media ecosystem work?

The commerce media ecosystem brings together three main groups:

1. Brand advertisers – the companies that want to promote their products or services. This includes consumer brands (CPG), retailers, travel companies, financial services, and B2B brands.
   
2. Media owners / commerce platforms – the businesses that have both audiences and ad inventory: retailers, marketplaces, banks, travel sites, food delivery apps, streaming services, and publishers.
   
3. Technology and measurement partners – the infrastructure that makes everything work: ad-tech platforms, measurement partners, identity solutions, and data clean rooms (like those provided by Decentriq), often supported by machine learning to optimize campaigns.

Together, these players form a new type of media business, where data, media, and commerce are tightly connected.

What are commerce media networks?

A commerce media network is simply a platform that packages:

• Its first-party data (such as purchase history, browsing, and loyalty data)
  
• Its ad placements (onsite and offsite)
  
• Its reporting and measurement tools

…into a single offering for advertisers.

These networks make it easy for brands to run sponsored ads and sponsored content that reach potential customers across multiple surfaces, while still keeping data secure. In short, they give advertisers a way of reaching consumers with more relevant messages in places where people are already browsing, researching, or buying.

Where retail media networks fit in

Retail media networks are one important type of commerce media network – but they’re not the only ones. Banks, travel companies, food delivery apps, and premium publishers are all building their own networks too. As more sectors launch similar offerings, commerce media continues to expand, turning the ecosystem into one of the most dynamic areas in digital advertising.

How commerce media works in practice

From first-party data to targeted audiences

Commerce media starts with first-party data – information that brands and platforms collect directly from their customers. That might include transactions, website browsing, app events, loyalty activity, and CRM records. On their own, these data points are just signals. The value comes from unifying them to build clear segments and audience insights.

Platforms use this first-party customer data to group people based on:

• What they’ve bought
• What they’ve looked at
• What they’re likely to need next

With the help of simple models and, in some cases, machine learning, they can predict which prospective customers are most likely to respond to a message in a particular moment and environment. The result is targeted ads and relevant offers that feel timely and helpful, rather than generic – and deliver better targeting and performance for advertisers.

Ad formats & placements across channels

Once audiences are defined, commerce media activates them across a range of ad placements:

• Onsite: sponsored product listings, onsite search results, banners, and other sponsored ads and shoppable ads on retailer or marketplace properties.
  
• Offsite: ads across Google, social platforms, the open web, in mobile apps, and on connected TV, often via programmatic advertising.

All of these formats are designed to engage consumers, boost brand visibility, and ultimately drive sales. The key difference from more traditional campaigns is that they’re built on purchase and intent signals, not just demographics or broad interest categories.

Closed-loop measurement & optimisation

Closed-loop measurement means being able to see which media impressions actually led to a sale or other valuable action – not just which ads were clicked. Brands can track key metrics such as incremental sales, ROAS, campaign performance, and even customer lifetime value.

To do this in a privacy-safe way, many partners rely on data clean rooms and trusted measurement partners. These technologies let parties match datasets and analyse performance without sharing raw customer data. Over time, this feedback loop helps advertisers refine targeting, creative, and channel mix, improving business results while still respecting user privacy.

Why commerce media is transforming digital advertising

Experiencing extraordinary growth

Commerce media has quickly moved from a niche concept to one of the fastest-growing areas in digital advertising. McKinsey estimates that, in the US alone, commerce media could unlock more than $1.3 trillion in enterprise value by 2026. 

As more people shop online and on apps, retailers, publishers, and other platforms have realised they’re sitting on valuable first-party data that can power smarter media. At the same time, marketing teams are under pressure to prove impact, so channels that clearly connect ad spend to revenue are naturally gaining budget. This combination means commerce media is rapidly outpacing display and other more traditional formats in growth and attention. 

In fact, McKinsey (May 2025) reports that 55% of advertisers plan to increase their commerce media network (CMN) budgets in the next 12 months, likely by shifting spend away from social, display, and even search.

Better performance for brands, retailers & publishers

• For brands, commerce media offers a way to reach potential customers at high-intent moments, using real shopping signals rather than guesswork. That usually translates into higher performance, better campaign performance, and more reliable business results.
  
• For retailers and publishers, building a media business on top of their audience and data unlocks a new, high-margin revenue stream. It also gives them richer audience insights, helping them improve their own products and the overall customer experience.

Beyond walled gardens – commerce media on the open internet

Historically, outcome-based advertising built on strong data has been concentrated inside a few walled gardens. Commerce media changes that. By activating first-party data across the open internet – from premium publishers and broadcasters to connected TV and apps – it brings the same outcome-focused approach to a much broader ecosystem. This helps diversify spend away from a small number of closed platforms and gives advertisers more choice in where and how they reach shoppers.

For example, IKEA and willhaben’s cookieless campaign shows how commerce-media style collaboration can boost performance across publisher inventory.

Why consumers win (when it’s done well)

When executed responsibly, commerce media can make advertising feel more customer-centric. People see fewer irrelevant ads and more personalized experiences and relevant offers that actually match their shopping journey. That might mean discovering a product they genuinely need, getting a timely reminder to reorder, or finding a better deal at the right moment – all without feeling like they're being followed around the internet.

How to create a commerce media strategy

For brand advertisers

1. Define your objectives – Are you trying to build awareness, win new customers, boost repeat purchases, or all three? Being specific about the outcomes you want makes it much easier to choose the right channels and partners.
   
2. Audit your first-party data and broader customer data – What do you already collect (transactions, CRM, app activity, web analytics)? Where does it live? How clean and complete is it? You don’t need to be perfect, but you do need enough reliable data to build meaningful audiences and measure impact.
   
3. Choose a focused set of partners – Rather than trying everything at once, start with a mix of major retail media networks and a few commerce media networks that align with your category and audience. Define a clear media strategy for these tests: budget, timeframe, KPIs, and how you’ll compare performance across partners.
   
4. Plan measurement upfront – Decide how you’ll use closed-loop measurement to understand what’s actually working. That may mean working with measurement partners and a data clean room provider to match data securely, and experimenting with formats like shoppable ads and sponsored placements. 

For retailers & other media owners

If you’re a retailer, publisher, or platform, your strategy is about turning your audience and data into a compelling advertising platform. 

1. Define who you want to serve – Just endemic advertisers (brands that already sell with you), or also non-endemic advertisers who want to reach your audience?
   
2. Package your offer clearly – That means describing your ad inventory, available audiences, and reporting in simple, outcome-focused terms. Advertisers should quickly understand how you help them reach potential customers and what success looks like.
   
3. Protect the customer experience – Limit ad load, avoid overly intrusive placements, and focus on relevant offers and personalized messaging that genuinely add value for users. 

Done well, commerce media becomes more than “extra ads”: it becomes a strategic way to deepen brand partnerships and grow a sustainable media business, rather than just squeezing short-term revenue from your pages.

What’s next for commerce media

Key challenges to watch

For all its promise, commerce media isn’t without friction. 

One major issue is fragmentation: there are many different networks, platforms, and dashboards, all using slightly different metrics. That can make it hard for brands and media companies to compare performance and allocate budget with confidence.

Closely linked to this fragmentation is a lack of standardization. Different partners define metrics, attribution windows, and incrementality tests in different ways, which makes it hard to compare results like-for-like and trust that you’re seeing a consistent picture.

On top of that, there’s a clear skills gap. Teams now need to understand data, media, and commerce together – a combination that’s still relatively new for many organisations.

Privacy concerns 

Commerce media leans heavily on first-party customer data, which makes privacy concerns central. Regulators and consumers are rightly asking tougher questions about how customer data is used and shared. Simply pooling data in one place is no longer acceptable.

Some brands, retailers, and publishers are choosing to collaborate in secure environments, such as data clean rooms, where they do not expose raw records to each other.

More cross-vertical commerce media networks

Looking forward, expect more cross-vertical commerce media networks, not just retail-led ones. We’ll see tighter links between retail media, connected TV, premium publishers, and social commerce, with new shoppable formats becoming normal. 

FAQs about commerce media

Do I need strong first-party data to use commerce media?

You don’t need your own first-party data to get started. Many commerce and retail media networks activate their own first-party data, such as shopper, loyalty, or browsing signals, on your behalf. But to unlock the full value, data collaboration is key. Partners like retailers hold the purchase-level insight into who actually buys your products, and privacy-safe collaboration lets you connect that back to your marketing, build richer audiences, and measure real incrementality.

Is commerce media only for retailers and ecommerce brands?

No. Retailers were early movers through retail media, but commerce media is relevant to any brand that wants to reach consumers using shopping and intent signals. Travel, finance, telecoms, and B2B brands can all benefit.

How does commerce media fit into my wider media strategy?

Think of commerce media as a complementary layer in your media strategy. It’s ideal for reaching potential customers close to the shopping journey, and for proving which campaigns actually drive sales. It can sit alongside channels like search, social, and upper-funnel brand activity.

Is commerce media only about lower-funnel performance?

No. While it’s strong at conversion and sales outcomes, commerce media can support the whole customer journey, from discovery (sponsored content, shoppable ads) to loyalty and re-engagement, because it’s grounded in ongoing shopping behaviour, not just last-click activity.

How Decentriq helps turn commerce media theory into practice

Brands, retailers, and publishers all have valuable first-party data, but they need a safe way to combine it, build smarter audiences, and prove what works without exposing raw customer records.

That’s where data clean rooms for advertising come in. A clean room is a neutral, secure environment where partners can match and analyse their data without sharing individual-level information. It lets you:

• Combine first-party data from multiple partners
  
• Build privacy-safe audiences using shopping and intent signals
  
• Measure campaign performance across channels (including retail media and connected TV) in a compliant way

Decentriq’s data clean room platform helps advertisers, retailers, and media owners unlock the full potential of commerce media – better targeting, less waste, and decisions grounded in real outcomes – while keeping privacy and governance front and centre.

• If you’re an advertiser looking to run privacy-safe, first-party data campaigns, explore how our advertiser data solutions support this.
  
• If you’re a retailer looking to monetise first-party data with a retail media network, our retail data collaboration platform can help.

If you’re exploring how data clean rooms could support your commerce media strategy, let us help you identify where they fit and what value they can unlock for your organisation. Get in touch.