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JULY 6, 2026 |
Retail media is entering a more defined phase. As growth begins to normalize, the story is no longer about expansion, it's about share. Download this new report to see how advertisers and retail media networks should adapt as the market consolidates. | | | |
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Walmart is aligning Walmart Connect, Walmart Connect International, and Sam's Club Connect (formerly Sam's Club Member Access Platform) around shared technology, platforms and capabilities while maintaining separate brand identities. The goal is to simplify how advertisers buy, measure, and scale retail media campaigns. |
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But beyond the organizational changes, the move offers a window into how one of retail media's largest players sees the industry's future. |
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"Retail media is entering a new chapter," said Harvey Ma, vice president and general manager of Sam's Club Connect. "The first phase was about building networks. The next phase is about connecting capabilities." |
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The move comes as brands have become increasingly vocal about the growing complexity of retail media, where dozens of retail media networks (RMNs) each operate their own platforms, measurement systems and workflows. |
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"Our goal is to reduce complexity, not add to it," Ma said. "Advertisers have been clear that they want fewer disconnected systems and more consistency." |
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Why Sam's Club matters |
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While the announcement encompasses Walmart's global advertising business, Ma believes Sam's Club contributes something unique to the broader strategy: membership. |
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"Sam's Club Connect changes retail media because membership gives us a persistent, relationship-based view of our members, not just a transaction-based view of shoppers," he said. |
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Key stat: Nearly all (92%) commerce media leaders in the US, UK, and Germany are likely to invest in agent-specific measurement and diagnostics in the next two to three years, the leading agentic AI use case among those surveyed, according to April 2026 data from Koddi. |
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Beyond the chart: |
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The top current AI use cases in the US include creative generation (74%), workflow automation (70%), and planning/forecasting (64%), per Koddi.
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Commerce media leaders in the US are most comfortable delegating decisions to AI agents, with human override, when adjusting creative variants/formats (96%) and optimizing budgets within agreed limits (94%). But they’re far less comfortable (74%) with AI agents launching entirely new campaigns without human review, found Koddi. |
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Use this chart: If you're building a commerce media or retail media strategy, don't treat agentic AI as just another advertising channel. Prioritize investments in measurement, data infrastructure, and AI visibility now, so your organization can understand how autonomous agents discover, rank, recommend, and ultimately transact on behalf of consumers before these behaviors become mainstream. |
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