Brands want proof of extra sales before spending more on commerce media.
A survey by SMG, the IAB and IAB UK finds that brands will raise commerce media budgets mainly when retailers can prove their ads create sales that wouldn't have happened anyway. Reporting was named the least joined-up part of the channel.
The 36-page report, "The Commerce Media Connection Gap", surveyed 281 people in the UK, US, France, Germany, Spain and Australia in July and August 2026: 168 brands, 52 agencies and 61 retail and commerce media networks. Asked an open question about what would get them to invest more, 46% of the brands who answered named proven ROI and incremental sales. No other answer passed 8%. Reporting was picked as the least connected area by 34% of all respondents, ahead of creative (30%), consumer insights (29%) and planning and measurement (28%). Only 14% said multichannel campaigns are always planned from one brief, and the same share said they always get unified reporting.
The groups disagree on where the value is. Among brands, 58% chose an in-store environment as the place that adds most when connected, while networks leaned to onsite media. Across the sample, 41% called in-store the hardest to connect. AI split opinion too: 44% see it as the biggest advantage over the next three years and 39% call it the most overhyped capability today.
Read the numbers with care. The report gives no country breakdown, margin of error or recruitment method, the bases change from chart to chart, and SMG sells consultancy and technology to several of the retail networks quoted in it. PPC Land, which covered it on 24 October, found no publication date beyond 2026.
Gulf retailers are building their own networks, from Majid Al Futtaim's Precision Media to Panda Retail's, and buyers here face the same problem of a separate brief and report for each one. Ask each network how it measures incremental sales before adding budget.
لماذا يهمّك
Retail media networks will win budget by proving incremental sales and fitting into one plan, not by adding more placements.
أخبار رائجة ذات صلة.
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