Australian retail media is no longer an emerging channel — it is a mainstream advertising powerhouse. With Cartology and Coles 360 collectively approaching one billion dollars in annual ad revenue, and retailers like Wesfarmers and Metcash rapidly expanding their own networks, brands that ignore retail media in 2026 risk falling behind competitors who are already capitalising on its precision and scale.
This guide breaks down what retail media networks are, why they matter for Australian brands, and how to build a strategy that delivers measurable returns.
What Is a Retail Media Network?
A retail media network (RMN) is an advertising platform owned and operated by a retailer. It allows brands to purchase ad placements across the retailer’s digital and physical properties — including websites, apps, in-store screens, email newsletters, and even third-party platforms — using the retailer’s first-party shopper data for targeting.
Unlike traditional digital advertising, which relies on third-party cookies and probabilistic audience matching, retail media uses deterministic data. When a shopper scans their Everyday Rewards card or Flybuys card, the retailer knows exactly what they bought, when they bought it, and how often they return. That purchase data becomes the foundation for ad targeting that is significantly more precise than what Google or Meta can offer in a cookieless environment.
Why Retail Media Networks Are Growing in Australia
Several forces are driving the rapid expansion of retail media across the Australian market.
First, the deprecation of third-party cookies has forced brands to seek advertising channels built on consented, first-party data. Retailers sit on enormous loyalty databases — Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards programme has over 14 million members, while Coles’ Flybuys reaches millions more — making them natural partners for brands seeking privacy-compliant audience targeting.
Second, retail media offers something most digital channels cannot: closed-loop attribution. Because the retailer controls both the ad platform and the point of sale, brands can directly measure whether an ad impression led to a purchase. This level of measurement clarity is particularly valuable for FMCG and CPG brands that have historically struggled to connect upper-funnel activity to in-store sales.
Third, retailers themselves are motivated. Advertising revenue carries significantly higher margins than grocery sales, creating a powerful financial incentive to invest in and expand media capabilities. According to industry estimates, Australian retail media spend is on track to reach $2.8 billion by 2027, up from roughly $1 billion in 2022.
The Major Australian Retail Media Players
Understanding the landscape means knowing who the key players are and what they offer.
Cartology (Woolworths Group) is arguably the most advanced retail media network in Australia. With revenue growth exceeding 29 per cent in recent reporting periods, Cartology offers brands access to over 20,000 in-store digital screens, app-based video ads, sponsored product placements on Woolworths.com.au, and off-site audience extension through programmatic partnerships. Their data asset — built on the Everyday Rewards loyalty programme — provides granular purchase-level targeting.
Coles 360 has invested heavily in catching up, reporting consistent double-digit growth. A notable innovation is their integration of Snapchat’s Promoted Places feature, allowing brands to serve proximity-based ads on the social platform’s map when shoppers are near a Coles store. Coles 360 also recently partnered with Criteo to power its on-site retail media, bringing sophisticated programmatic capabilities to the platform.
Metcash is building retail media capabilities across its IGA network, while Australia Post is leveraging its logistics data and physical network to offer unique advertising opportunities. Meanwhile, Endeavour Group has partnered with Criteo to launch its own retail media offering across BWS and Dan Murphy’s.
How Retail Media Connects to Promotional Marketing
For brands running promotional campaigns — competitions, instant-win mechanics, purchase-to-enter offers, or loyalty earn-and-burn activations — retail media networks offer a particularly compelling distribution channel.
Consider a practical example: a beverage brand launches a purchase-to-enter competition where buying any two products from the range enters the shopper into a prize draw. Traditionally, the brand would rely on point-of-sale materials and broad digital advertising to drive awareness. With retail media, the brand can target shoppers who have previously purchased from the category, serve them a sponsored product ad at the moment they are browsing the relevant aisle online, and then measure exactly how many incremental purchases the campaign generated.
This is where platforms like Trevor Services’ Trudy come into play. By connecting promotional campaign data with retail media performance metrics, brands can build a complete picture of campaign effectiveness — from ad impression through to promotional entry and redemption. That level of attribution turns promotional marketing from an art into a science.
Building a Retail Media Strategy: Five Steps for Australian Brands
Getting started with retail media does not require a massive budget, but it does require strategic thinking. Here are five steps to build a foundation.
1. Audit your retailer relationships. Start with the retailers where you have the strongest sales presence. Your existing trade relationships and category performance data will help you negotiate better placements and understand which audiences to target.
2. Define clear objectives and KPIs. Retail media can serve multiple goals — driving trial of a new product, increasing basket size among existing buyers, or defending share against a competitor launch. Be specific about what you want to achieve before allocating budget, and align your KPIs accordingly. Common metrics include return on ad spend (ROAS), incremental sales lift, new-to-brand buyer acquisition, and cost per acquisition.
3. Start with sponsored products. On-site sponsored product listings are the entry point for most brands. They are relatively straightforward to set up, deliver strong ROAS, and generate valuable performance data you can use to optimise future campaigns.
4. Layer in promotional mechanics. Once you have a baseline of always-on retail media activity, layer promotional campaigns on top. A well-timed competition or loyalty points multiplier, amplified through the retailer’s media network, can generate significant spikes in both sales and engagement. Trevor Services specialises in designing these promotional mechanics to work seamlessly alongside your media investment.
5. Invest in measurement infrastructure. The brands getting the most from retail media are those treating it as a data source, not just an ad channel. Ensure you have the analytics capability to ingest retail media performance data, connect it to your broader marketing mix, and use the insights to inform future planning.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Retail media is powerful, but it is not without challenges. One common mistake is treating retail media budgets as simply a reallocation of trade spend. While there is overlap, retail media is a distinct capability that requires its own strategy, creative assets, and measurement framework.
Another pitfall is over-reliance on a single retailer’s network. Just as you would diversify your media mix across channels, consider spreading retail media investment across multiple retailers to reach different shopper segments and avoid dependency on one platform’s data.
Finally, do not neglect the creative. Retail media placements often appear alongside products and pricing information, so your creative needs to work in that commercial context. Generic brand awareness messaging tends to underperform compared to specific, action-oriented creative that gives the shopper a reason to add the product to their basket right now.
What Comes Next for Retail Media in Australia
The next phase of retail media in Australia will be defined by three developments. First, artificial intelligence will drive smarter ad placement and audience segmentation, with algorithms assessing product page context, reviews, and recommendation modules to serve more relevant ads. Second, self-service platforms will mature, giving brands more control over campaign setup, optimisation, and reporting without relying on the retailer’s sales team. Third, retailers will increasingly integrate media, merchandising, and shopper experience goals — moving beyond simply selling ad inventory to creating genuinely useful brand-to-consumer connections.
For brands in the FMCG, retail, hospitality, and entertainment sectors, retail media networks represent one of the most significant shifts in the Australian marketing landscape this decade. The combination of first-party data, closed-loop measurement, and proximity to the point of purchase makes it a channel that delivers accountability at a level most traditional media simply cannot match.
Want to connect your promotional campaigns with retail media for maximum impact? Talk to the Trevor Services team about how Trudy can help you measure what matters.
Related Reading
More insights from Trevor Services:
- Real Time Data and Predictive Analytics
- AI-Driven Loyalty Personalisation: What Brands Need Now
- Omnichannel Engagement: What Australian Brands Need
- What Is Real Time Analytics?
Running promotions through retail media networks? Talk to Trevor Services about our compliant promotion platform with built-in analytics and reward mechanics.
