The era of sales velocity

Opinion – Week in Focus

The MD for commerce at Dentsu UK&I explains why sales velocity could become retail media’s most important KPI in 2026.

Brands are becoming addicted to ROAS, and it’s hiding a huge amount of waste. We’re seeing £5 CPCs on products already flying off shelves, effectively taxing organic success.

With UK retail media spend reaching £3.8bn in 2025 (IAB UK), even a conservative estimate that 15% is non-incremental suggests hundreds of millions are spent capturing demand that already exists.

The problem is simple: platform metrics tell us how media performed, not whether it drove incremental growth.

As retail media matures, 2026 and onwards could be the year the industry starts to focus on a more meaningful measure: sales velocity.

Sales velocity (the rate at which a product sells) reflects how efficiently demand converts into transactions. In retailer ecosystems, that momentum drives visibility, recommendations and share of shelf. Put simply: products that move win.  

Why the current KPI set is no longer enough

The challenge with relying too heavily on ROAS alone is that it can flatter activity that would have happened anyway, leading to confusion when multiple retailers are all providing clients with different datasets. 

Take the “pencil case paradox”. High demand in August doesn’t need media; the real opportunity sits in the mid-term lull, where velocity can be used to trigger spend. Yet many brands continue bidding aggressively during peak demand, paying inflated CPCs to capture sales already in motion.

On paper, results can look strong. Revenue rises. ROAS appears healthy. But the harder question is this: How much of that spending was genuinely incremental?

If brands do not distinguish between natural demand and media-driven demand, budgets can be wasted defending sales they already own.

Why sales velocity changes the conversation

At dentsu, we’re building tools to help clients identify where they’re paying a “fragmentation tax” on their own organic visibility, as well as where media can genuinely drive incremental growth.

Instead of asking, “How did this campaign perform?”, we ask: Which SKUs are gaining momentum? Which products need paid support, and which do not? Where are we paying for existing demand? Where should the budget move next for incremental growth? 

That shift matters because not all products in a portfolio need the same media treatment at the same time.

A hero SKU with strong reviews and rising organic rank may only require light defensive investment, while a newer product may need aggressive support to build traction.

Yet many plans still follow historic patterns rather than live trading signals.

Given that commerce is becoming commoditised, we need to speak more openly about the role sales velocity plays for the bottom line. 

A better way to allocate spend

Consider a grocery brand entering peak barbecue season.

Its sauces category may already be surging thanks to weather, retailer promotions and seasonal behaviour. Continuing to over-invest in branded search may simply raise acquisition costs.

A smarter approach is to reallocate spend into areas that drive incremental growth: premium variants with lower awareness 

• Complementary categories such as marinades 
• Attacking competitor terms 
• Video formats that drive future demand beyond the peak window 

The objective is not to spend less for the sake of it. It is to spend where the media creates the greatest marginal return.

That is where sales velocity becomes useful. It helps identify where momentum exists naturally and where media can genuinely accelerate it. To make this happen, it’s vital that there is a strong, transparent relationship between retailers’ trade teams, so organic visibility can be taken into account when planning more traditional retail media activity.

Retailers increasingly want supplier investment that drives category growth, not just internal auction inflation.

If brands become more sophisticated in their investment strategies, retail media networks benefit too. Budgets can move into areas that unlock incremental demand, improve the customer experience, and grow baskets, rather than simply pushing up bids on already high-intent traffic.

That creates a healthier long-term ecosystem for both sides.

What is starting to happen now, and will likely increase during 2026

The next phase of retail media will be shaped by brands that connect media signals with commerce signals in real time:

• Stock availability 
• Pricing changes 
• Organic rank movement 
• Competitor activity 
• Seasonality 
• Repeat purchase rates 

Those inputs allow faster decisions and smarter investment choices.

Success won’t be defined by who delivers the highest ROAS screenshot, but by who moves products fastest, most profitably and sustainably.

 The new KPI for a maturing channel

Retail media is no longer emerging; it’s a core growth engine. As it matures, measurement must evolve.

ROAS will remain part of the toolkit, but in mature markets like the UK, growth comes from knowing when to accelerate, when to hold back, and where to create momentum.

That’s where sales velocity becomes the more meaningful KPI.

Neilson Hall is the managing director, commerce at dentsu UK&I