Brands increasingly diversifying retail media strategy
The proportion of brands working with four to six retail media networks (RMNs) more than doubled from 10% in 2024 to 24% in 2025, showing a trend towards diversification in advertisers’ retail media strategy.
That is according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe’s Attitudes to Retail Media report, released on Tuesday.
It also found that the percentage of brand and retailer partnerships lasting more than a year rose from 50% in 2024 to 63% in 2025, suggesting a longer-term view taken by marketers when it comes to using retail media.
IAB Europe has projected adspend on retail media to reach €25bn by 2027 and €31bn by 2028, demonstrating this channel’s growth trajectory and opportunity for brands.
On-site remains the dominant area for retail media spend, with over 90% of buyers allocating at least 41% of their digital retail media budgets into these formats.
That said, growth in off-site spend has increased rapidly, from 30% in 2024 to 46% in 2025.
Shifting organisational models
Advertisers are now embedding retail media functions within their broader digital marketing teams, the report found, with integration increasing from 34% in 2024 to 44% in 2025 — indicating the shifting view of retail media as part of brands’ wider strategy.
On the sales side, the share of brands with dedicated retail media teams saw a 22 percentage point increase, from 36% in 2024 to 58% in 2025.
Challenges to growth
Despite a clear growth trajectory, 51% of respondents noted network fragmentation as a key barrier to growth.
A lack of standardisation was also flagged, with 53% highlighting this as a problem. In December 2024, IAB Europe and IAB UK released definitions and measurement standards for on-site retail media to support advertisers, in line with the IAB and Media Rating Council’s Retail Media Measurement Guidelines.
Meanwhile, concerns around data availability have eased from 40% in 2024 to 29% in 2025, along with concerns around insufficient technology (from 49% to 37%).
According to the IAB, these improvements signal steady progress in the maturity and realisation of capabilities of retail media networks.
Additionally, the proportion of brands engaging with 10 or more RMNs has held steady, indicating a practical ceiling on how many a single team can manage effectively. The IAB suggested that this could be due to operational complexity, budget fragmentation or diminishing incremental value.
What buyers want
When evaluating RMNs within the same category, the IAB highlighted reporting and transparency as a key metric that brands prioritise, with 82% of participants choosing this.
Performance (76%) and measurement capabilities (75%) were also considered very important.
When assessing retail media partners, return on adspend emerged as the most in-demand metric at 88%.
Marie-Clare Puffett, industry development and insights director at IAB Europe, said the findings show retail media “is no longer an emerging trend, but a strategic priority”.
The survey was developed by IAB Europe’s Retail and Commerce Media Committee. It received over 180 respondents from advertisers, agencies and RMNs in 31 markets between April and June. This is the second edition of the study.