Retail media is evolving beyond its traditional role as a bottom-of-the-funnel channel. While retailer websites and apps remain important for reaching shoppers close to purchase, retail media networks are increasingly extending their reach across the customer journey. This retail media CTV trend allows advertisers to use retail audiences not only to drive conversions, but also to build awareness and influence consideration earlier in the buying process.
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Connected TV is an important part of this expansion because it gives retail media networks access to the scale and reach of television while connecting that inventory to retailer audience data. This creates opportunities for advertisers to reach relevant households beyond retail properties. Connected TV can also bring commerce media CTV campaigns to relevant households beyond retail properties while allowing advertisers to connect ad exposure with retailer purchase signals. As a result, retail media is becoming a broader full-funnel channel rather than one focused primarily on the point of purchase.
Why Retail Media Networks are Entering CTV
Retail media networks are expanding into CTV partly because on-site inventory is becoming saturated. As competition for placements on retailers’ websites and apps increases, networks need additional inventory to support retail media network growth and advertising revenue. CTV provides access to audiences beyond retail properties while allowing networks to extend their existing advertising capabilities.
Brands are increasingly seeking full-funnel campaigns that link awareness and consideration to measurable results, highlighting the importance of advertiser demand. Retail networks can use first-party purchase data to help advertisers reach relevant audiences and understand how exposure influences shopping behavior. CTV also creates opportunities to connect television advertising with online and offline sales, giving brands a clearer view of campaign performance.
At the same time, advances in data collaboration are making this model more practical. Clean rooms allow retailers, advertisers, and other partners to work with customer and transaction data in controlled environments without directly sharing sensitive information. This supports privacy-safe audience activation and measurement while creating new ways to connect CTV exposure with retail outcomes.
The Scale of Retail Media in 2026
Retail media is becoming a significant part of digital advertising. EMARKETER forecasts U.S. retail media ad spending at $72.97 billion in 2026, up 20.3% YoY. WARC’s latest forecast puts global retail media spending at $196.7 billion in 2026, with growth moderating as the market matures.
Off-site advertising is expanding faster than the overall market. EMARKETER forecasts $17.05 billion in U.S. off-site retail media spending in 2026, up 29.5% YoY. That is roughly one quarter of total U.S. retail media spending and reflects the shift toward advertising beyond retailer-owned websites and apps.
Retail media ad spend in 2026 is increasingly being shaped by the expansion of off-site formats, including CTV. EMARKETER forecasts retail media CTV advertising in the U.S. to grow 43.1% in 2026. It is worth noting that the publicly available source does not provide a current-dollar figure for retail media CTV spend, so broader CTV market figures can’t be presented as retail media CTV spending.
Retail media’s growth is also faster than many established digital channels, although its rate is expected to moderate as the market scales. The strongest expansion is increasingly coming from off-site formats, particularly CTV, rather than from additional placements on retailer-owned properties. This shift is expanding the addressable inventory available to retail media networks and creating more opportunities to connect advertising exposure with retail outcomes.
How Major Retail Media Players are Using CTV
Retail media networks are approaching CTV in broadly similar ways: they combine first-party shopping or purchase data with streaming inventory and then connect ad exposure to measurable business outcomes. The main differences are in where that inventory comes from and how closely each network controls the media supply.
| Network | Data used | Where CTV inventory is purchased | Owned/O&O or off-site | Sales measurement |
| Amazon Ads | Shopping, browsing and streaming signals, plus Amazon’s first-party data | Prime Video, Fire TV and other Amazon supply, plus third-party sites/apps through Amazon DSP | Both owned Amazon inventory and off-site inventory | Amazon conversions, plus Omnichannel Metrics for online and offline sales |
| Walmart Connect | Walmart first-party shopper and purchase data | VIZIO and other CTV publishers through Walmart DSP, Connect Select and partner DSPs | Both VIZIO/Walmart-owned inventory and off-site CTV | Closed-loop measurement tied to Walmart sales; campaigns can report new-to-brand buyers and sales outcomes |
| Kroger Precision Marketing | Kroger loyalty and purchase data | Roku, Paramount, YouTube and other streaming platforms | Off-site CTV inventory | Exposure is matched to Kroger sales, including attributable/incremental sales, household penetration and category share |
| Instacart | Purchase and shopping behavior across its retail network | Roku and other off-platform CTV/video partners | Off-site CTV inventory | Instacart uses closed-loop measurement and can evaluate sales, ROAS, and other shopping outcomes |
| Target Roundel | Target first-party audiences based on purchasers and Target Circle/RedCard behavior | Premium publisher CTV inventory through Roundel | Off-site CTV inventory | Closed-loop reporting against actual product, brand, and category sales at Target, including new-purchaser insights |
Retailers do not need to own the television inventory to make their data valuable. Instead, they can bring purchase-based audiences to streaming platforms and use transaction data to evaluate whether exposure contributed to sales. Amazon and Walmart have the additional advantage of controlling substantial parts of their own media ecosystems, while networks such as Kroger and Instacart rely more heavily on partnerships with external CTV platforms.
How Retail Media Changes CTV Advertiser Demand
Retail media is contributing to a shift in CTV advertiser demand, particularly from shopper and trade marketing. Retailers can use Connected TV to extend shopper campaigns beyond their websites and apps, giving brands a way to reach households before they are ready to buy. Trade marketing budgets can also move into CTV when campaigns are tied to retailer-specific promotions, product launches, or sales targets.
Performance budgets are another source of demand. Because retail media networks can link ad exposure to purchase data, CTV campaigns can be evaluated by outcomes such as sales lift and ROAS rather than by reach alone. This makes CTV more relevant to advertisers that traditionally prioritize measurable conversion results.
CPG companies are a natural fit because their products are widely distributed and frequently purchased. Retail media also broadens CTV demand beyond endemic brands that sell through a particular retailer. Non-endemic advertisers, including financial services, travel, and consumer technology companies, can use retail audiences to reach relevant households.
As a result, CTV campaigns can be optimized around business outcomes such as incremental sales, ROAS, or store visits, creating a closer link between television advertising and retail performance.
What This Trend Means for Publisher CPMs
The expansion of retail media into Connected TV can create a new source of advertiser demand for publishers and influence CTV CPM trends. When retail media networks bring shopper audiences and performance budgets into streaming, they may compete for inventory that was previously sold to brand, agency, or general CTV buyers. Greater competition can put upward pressure on auction prices, particularly where multiple buyers value the same households.
The impact of inventory is not anticipated to be uniform across the board. Its value increases when publishers offer relevant household, content, and geographic signals that enable retail media networks to target specific audiences effectively. This can support higher CPMs in private marketplace transactions and curated audience deals, where buyers are paying for a defined combination of inventory and audience data.
Higher CPMs in retail media require not only budgets but also the right infrastructure for data matching and measurement, as well as the right scale, brand safety, and transparent supply. If these requirements are not met, retail media demand may have limited impact on pricing. The opportunity, therefore, depends less on the existence of retail media budgets than on whether publishers can make their inventory usable and measurable for these buyers.
What CTV Publishers Need to Attract Retail Media Budgets
Retail media for CTV publishers requires the data and infrastructure needed to connect audiences with measurable outcomes. A high-quality content taxonomy helps buyers understand where ads appear, while household-level addressability can support audience targeting within permitted privacy frameworks. Geographic signals are also important for campaigns tied to local stores, markets, or regional sales.
Data collaboration capabilities, including clean rooms, can help publishers and retail media networks match audiences and measure results without unnecessary data sharing. Measurement and attribution partnerships are similarly important because buyers need to evaluate outcomes such as sales lift, ROAS, and store visits.
Publishers should also support PMP and curated deals that package relevant audiences with suitable inventory. A transparent supply path gives buyers greater visibility into where their spend goes and can improve confidence in the transaction. Protection against invalid traffic is essential, particularly for performance-oriented campaigns where wasted impressions can directly affect reported results.
Finally, frequency and ad exposure controls can help publishers manage how often households see an ad. Together, these capabilities make CTV inventory easier for retail media networks to buy, measure, and optimize.
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Conclusion
The retail media Connected TV trend is creating a new source of CTV demand as retailers and brands extend shopper audiences beyond their websites and apps. This brings shopper, trade, and performance budgets into streaming while helping advertisers connect television exposure with retail outcomes.
For publishers, the opportunity goes beyond selling more impressions. Retail media buyers need inventory that supports audience targeting, measurement, and attribution. Publishers with useful content and geographic signals, privacy-safe data capabilities, transparent supply paths, and reliable measurement are better positioned to capture this demand.
The impact on CPMs will vary by publisher and inventory type. Retail media does not automatically raise prices, but relevant, measurable inventory can attract more competition. As CTV and retail media converge, publishers that offer addressable, measurable, and trustworthy inventory are best positioned to benefit. Solutions such as BidsCube can help publishers connect programmatic demand, set up PMPs and deals, and manage CTV monetization, providing the infrastructure needed to turn growing demand into executable programmatic transactions.
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