The Rise of Omnichannel Retail Media: Bridging the Gap Between Online and Offline Advertising

By Paul Prior COO & Head of Retail Media, Undertone by Perion

A digitally enabled, omnichannel approach isn’t just the next phase of retail media—it’s a competitive differentiator that will define market leaders in 2025 and beyond.

As we pause to assess the state of Retail Media at this point in time, it’s impressive to see how eagerly advertisers have embraced the opportunities this space presents. With Retail Media, brands and retailers get rich and varied sets of consumer data, and an array of existing channels where they can reach consumers at any point along the path to purchase. According to eMarketer, retail media alone accounted for a fifth of all digital ad spend in 2024 – making retail media advertising a $140 billion market. By 2027, we can expect retail media ad spend to reach $160 billion globally.

As Retail Media grows, it will need to evolve. Retailers and brands that have already benefited from retail media’s opportunities are now exploring new channels that are ripe for 1st Party data-driven targeting and measurement, that the RMN’s offer. Of these new opportunities, digital out-of-home (DOOH) is clearly one of those channels today. Retail Media Networks’ long-term promise is that campaigns can scale beyond the retailer’s owned and operated digital properties. In the next stage of the Retail Media evolution, campaigns can expand beyond online environments, and into the offline world – including the aisle, register and parking lot of brick-and-mortar stores.

Out-of-Home Ad Spend is Still on the Rise – and Becoming More Valuable

Indeed, among traditional media channels, out-of-home ad spend is still growing. It increased by 5.2% YOY in 2024, and in-store Retail Media spend specifically is projected to surpass $1 billion by 2028 (eMarketer). Importantly, programmatic DOOH has greatly enhanced the ability to target consumers and measure performance cost-effectively across in-store physical media, as well as near-store physical media too. All of this underlines the importance of integrating online and off-line digital retail media, unifying a variety of data sets and providing the technological framework to make personalized, omni-channel advertising more effective and impactful.

Brands know that with DOOH, they get impressive reach, and the opportunity to engage consumers at or near the point of purchase (POP). With the technology behind DOOH becoming increasingly advanced and data-driven, brands also get a greater degree of Dynamic Creative options, contextual relevance and real-time optimization. The greatest advantage for brands in programmatic DOOH today is the ability to reach consumers with the same precision and relevance as online channels, at the right moment and location, with the right message during in-store purchasing decisions.

These consumer interactions, coupled with the ability to measure the sales lift of both in-store advertising and cross-channel campaigns, allows brands to gain valuable insights that can inform campaign strategy and optimization. Integrating DOOH into a comprehensive online/offline strategy gives in-store and near-store media the same capacity to target and personalize messaging that they have online, and creates a relevant and personalized customer experience along the whole path to purchase.

CPG’s are now free to imagine all the types of end-to-end experiences brands can create with programmatic DOOH in the mix. It unlocks possibilities in both near-store and in-store creative, to engage consumers, expand offers, and close the loop between online and offline channels. Familiar tools like QR codes can draw consumers into digital experiences while they’re in the store or on the go.

A Cohesive Customer Experience Needs Unified Data and Advanced Tech

Unifying data from all relevant channels should be a top priority for retailers looking to bolster DOOH effectiveness along the consumer journey. This is a central part of creating accurate, end-to-end consumer profiles for personalization, retargeting, and full-funnel messaging online and offline. While this means retailers must continue to expand their efforts to collect first-party data from consumers, through loyalty program expansions for example, it’s just as important to get the right technology solutions and infrastructure in place to integrate and analyze the data. We know that as many retailers open new locations, these will be state-of-the-art stores, prime for creating data-driven, immersive and personalized consumer experiences. Retailers and brands must prepare to meet the opportunities these cutting-edge spaces provide.

When brands and retailers bolster their omnichannel strategies with the data and tech available today with in-store and near-store media, including programmatic DOOH, they will be empowered to boost consumer engagement both offline and online. Integrating online and offline channels enhances in-store contextual relevance, enables personalization without third-party cookies, and leverages dynamic creative throughout the whole consumer experience.

An Integrated, Omnichannel Approach is a Competitive Differentiator

The leading businesses in Retail Media are benefiting from these features already, and they’re making use of AI to drive the most value and deepest analysis from the data they collect in all relevant channels. What they get from their efforts is a consistent, customized experience that engages the consumer all their journey through to checkout. An online and digitally-enabled offsite omnichannel approach isn’t just the next stage of retail media, it’s a competitive differentiator, and businesses that adapt now will gain market share gain in the near future.

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