Retail Media Networks: What They Are and How They Work

What a Retail Media Network Actually Is

A retail media network (RMN) is the advertising arm of a retailer. The retailer owns two things advertisers want: shoppers who are close to buying, and a record of what those shoppers actually bought. It sells access to both. A brand pays to appear in search results or on product pages, or to reach known shoppers elsewhere, and the retailer reports back using its own sales data.

That is the difference from most digital advertising. A social or search platform can tell you someone clicked. A retailer can often tell you whether that person later bought, because the checkout happens on the retailer's own system. This is called closed-loop measurement, and it is the main reason retail media has grown into a core line in many brands' media plans.

Almost every large retailer now runs some version of this, and so do many smaller ones. Amazon Ads is the biggest network for most online brands, which is why the rest of this page uses it as the working example.

The Three Places Retail Media Ads Show Up

Retail media networks sell a few different kinds of inventory. Knowing which is which makes every network's media kit easier to read.

• On-site ads. Sponsored listings in search results and on product pages, usually bought per click in an auction. This is closest to the sale and the easiest to start. On Amazon these are Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display.
• Off-site ads. The retailer's shopper data is used to show ads on other websites, apps and streaming services. These are usually bought per thousand impressions. On Amazon this is Amazon DSP, which reMKTR runs as a service.
• In-store and owned-media ads. Screens, receipts, email and app placements. These matter most for retailers with physical stores.

Most brands should start on-site, where intent is highest, and add off-site once they want reach beyond people already searching.

How Amazon Fits In, With Real Numbers

Amazon's network is split into the two systems above: self-serve sponsored ads billed per click, and Amazon DSP billed per impression. Many brands only ever use the first. The second is where reach and measurement questions get harder.

For a sense of what off-site retail media looks like in practice: across 30 advertisers we manage on Amazon DSP in July 2026, the portfolio ran 78.4 million impressions at a $4.00 CPM and a blended $1.42 cost per click. It produced 57,137 attributed purchases at a blended $5.49 cost per acquisition, with a 6.04x return on ad spend across the whole book. 20.1% of those purchases came from shoppers new to the brand.

That is one mixed portfolio in one month, not a promise for your account. It is useful as a sanity check on the scale of costs and results, and as a reminder to ask any vendor which window and how many advertisers sit behind a number they quote.

What Most Explainers Leave Out: Measurement Is Not Neutral

Every network reports its own results on its own system. That is useful, and it is also a reason to ask questions. Three are worth putting to any retail media network, or to anyone who manages it for you.

• What counts as an attributed sale? Ask for the attribution window and whether the sale would have happened without the ad.
• Who designs and computes any incrementality test? A holdout test is the cleanest answer to whether an ad added sales. It matters whether the party being measured designs it, and whether it is written into the agreement.
• Are on-site and off-site results reconciled? A shopper can see a display ad and then click a sponsored listing. Without reconciling the two, the same purchase can be claimed twice. Inside Amazon, Amazon Marketing Cloud is where that reconciliation is done.

These questions apply to every vendor, including us.

A Checklist for Judging Any Retail Media Network

Before you put budget into a network, run through this list:

• Does the retailer's audience match where your customers actually shop?
• Is the minimum budget realistic for your size? Check the network's own current page, since minimums change.
• Can you buy on-site and off-site, or only one?
• Do you get search term, placement or line-item level reports, or only a summary?
• Is there a way to measure new-to-brand shoppers?
• What are the data rules, and can you take your results with you if you leave?
• How does the retailer or agency charge: flat fee, percentage of ad spend, or a mix? Compare on the same basis.

Smaller brands can often get most of the value from a single network done well, instead of spreading thin across many.

Who Should Use Which Route

If you sell on Amazon and are new to advertising, start with sponsored ads on your own catalog. They need no minimum and give you your first real data. If you already run sponsored ads well and want reach beyond search, Amazon DSP is the next step, and it benefits from experienced buying and proper measurement.

reMKTR runs Amazon DSP as a managed service at remktr.com. We are part of the Full Circle group, which has $500M+ in managed Amazon revenue across 100+ brands. If you want a full-service team handling the whole account, Full Circle at fullcircleagency.com does that. If your goal is simply sponsored ads on autopilot, Dr. PPC at drppc.ai costs $300 a month plus 2% of ad spend, with the first 30 days at $1, Orbit included and no contract.