According to a current market analysis, the many new retail media networks are no threat to the dominant US market position of Amazon and Walmart. Although sales in the overall market have increased fivefold since 2019 and many new networks have been launched, the market share of the two retail media giants will remain around 84% in 2025. Amazon alone has a retail media market share of 75%.
Despite new retail media networks from Target, Home Depot & Co, the two dominant players Amazon and Walmart have mearly lost 1 percent market share in the last five years. The overall retail media network market in the USA has increased fivefold between 2019 and 2024, according to Emarketer. Although the number of market participants has grown significantly, Amazon and Walmart have been able to grow with the market. Emarketer expects in-store retail media revenues to increase by 45.5 percent in 2025 and by 2028, in-store retail media could exceed the $1 billion mark.
Advertising spending on omnichannel retail media in the US increased by 20.4% to $52.3 billion in 2024, according to Emarketer, making it the fastest-growing advertising channel.
But rapid growth also brings growing pains – as retail media networks (RMNs) with the exception of Amazon or Walmart have found this year. As the industry matures, advertisers’ calls for standardization, better measurement and transparency are becoming louder, and their willingness to experiment with smaller RMNs is decreasing in favor of platforms with scalability and proven ROI.
So far, only 0.7% of advertising spending is spent on brick-and-mortar retail, although the majority of sales (especially food) still take place in-store. Large networks of physical stores are retailers’ big advantage over Amazon – which is why companies like CVS, 7-Eleven and Hy-Vee are expanding in-store networks. But the biggest obstacle to in-store is the high screen and infrastructure investments.
(Emarketer: What advertisers and retailers need to know about retail media heading into 2025)
According to the market analysis, the retail media networks of most small and medium-sized retailers are not big enough and do not reach enough consumers to generate significant sales with endemic and non-endemic advertisers. The necessary investments in digital signage infrastructure, marketing, expertise, and ad tech are costly, and Amazon and Walmart benefit from years of experience.
Advertisers have therefore so far focused their bookings on the few relevant networks – primarily Amazon and Walmart -, while the new providers have so far been unable to gain market share.
