Don't Ignore the Store Floor for RMN Reactivity
The looming Retail Media quandary: if the retail buyer/merchant isn’t bought in, the math won’t work.
This is becoming commonplace... a CPG brand team commits a big bag of millions to a retail media carriage plan with a major grocer, let's say, only to discover that the merchant expected half that investment to go toward in-store promotions. The media team hadn’t looped in the merchant. The merchant hadn’t been asked. And suddenly, the brand is left holding the bag scrambling to realign expectations mid-quarter.
This disconnect isn’t rare. In our experience, retail media and store merchandising often operate in parallel but separate tracks. Collaboration isn’t incentivized, and rarely is there a shared JBP authored with both parties at the table.
Merchant as Powerbroker
Despite the rapid ascent of sophisticated retail media networks, merchants remain the operational heartbeat of most retailers. While retail media teams often get attention for driving top-line growth, merchants are measured by product sales and margin the bottom-line KPIs that drive real influence.
That creates a critical misalignment for brands: a media plan that looks great on paper can fail at shelf if it doesn’t connect with merchant priorities.
At mature networks like Walmart Connect or Amazon Ads, merchant participation in JBPs is becoming more visible. But across many emerging platforms—the fastest-growing segment of retail media—silos still dominate, and even high-performing media can fall flat without merchandising support.
It’s not about spending more. It’s about building coordination that’s conscious and mutually aligned.
Brand Noise
If you’re investing seven figures—or even six—you have every right to ask how that money will be used, who’s influencing the plan, and what expectations exist across teams.
Our recommendation: be an appropriately firm forcing function. Ask the tough questions. Bring the merchant to the table. Push for transparency around how dollars flow, how credit is assigned, and what store-level outcomes are expected in return.
Delta Between Strategy and Store
Retail media thrives on performance and agility. Merchants plan on annual cycles and in-store executions. That fundamental timeline tension often reveals itself midyear—when performance insights suggest a shift, but the merchant team is still anchored to kick-off assumptions.
Brands that win here don’t just optimize media, they build internal and external trust. They connect media to merchandising, strategy to shelf, and expectations to execution. Because in retail, media might drive the message. But the merchant still moves the market.