Research from Omdia highlights retail media as a significant growth driver in the global online advertising industry, with retailers doubling their advertising revenues from 2019 to 2023, reaching $123 billion amid a surge in global e-commerce.
This trend is expected to continue, with retail media projected to generate $293 billion by 2029, overtaking traditional online paid search as the largest global online advertising segment.
China’s mature retail media market currently accounts for about half of the global revenue, but its share is expected to decrease to 40 percent as the market expands globally. Outside of China, Amazon dominates the retail media landscape, contributing nearly 70 percent of the retail media advertising revenue in 2023.
While Amazon’s share is anticipated to decline over the next five years due to increased competition from other retailers, the company’s ad-supported Amazon Prime Video and other media strategies will likely bolster its competitive position.
Currently, onsite search retail media advertising, which includes ads shown on retailer-owned sites and apps, dominates the sector. However, as demand for inventory on these platforms saturates and advertisers seek new ways to track and target ads, retailers are shifting focus to offsite formats.
These ads, served on third-party sites and apps using retailers’ data, are becoming increasingly important as retailers aim to maximize the monetization of their first-party data.
This shift in strategy is expected to create significant revenue opportunities for other players across the technology, media, and telecoms (TMT) value chain. By 2029, Omdia estimates that non-retailers, including media firms, ad tech vendors, and other intermediaries, will generate over $75 billion in annual revenue from retail media operations, in addition to the $293 billion expected to be earned by retailers.
