A global shift that’s changing how brands reach customers

Retail media isn’t a buzzword.
It isn’t a “trend.”
It’s a fundamental shift in how commerce and advertising now work together — and the numbers prove it.

Globally, retail media is growing faster than search, social, and display combined.

• In 2023, global retail media spend reached an estimated $128 billion (GroupM).

• It is projected to hit $168 billion by 2025, growing at 20–25% annually (McKinsey).

• Some markets are expanding even faster — the U.S. grew 26% YoY, Europe 28% YoY, and APAC is projected to grow over 30%.

Once you understand why this is happening, the conclusion is obvious:

Retail media isn’t going anywhere. It’s becoming a new default.

1.1 The Global Transformation of Retail Media

It started simple — then it exploded

For decades, the concept seemed obvious:

“If customers are already in the store, why not engage them when they’re choosing what to buy?”

But the last 3–5 years have completely changed the landscape.
Retail media has gone from an experiment to one of the top three fastest-growing advertising channels in the world.

Why? Because three global forces all hit at the same time:

1) The end of third-party identifiers (the privacy reset)

In the last five years:

• Over 50% of mobile IDs have become unavailable due to ATT and privacy rules

• Google is deprecating 3rd-party cookies for 2+ billion Chrome users

• 70–80% of users globally now browse in environments with restricted tracking

This means traditional digital targeting is shrinking.

Meanwhile, retailers hold the most durable data in the industry:

• real purchases

• tied to real customers

• tied to real behaviors

• refreshed daily

Retailers have something online platforms no longer do:
clean, consented, high-intent first-party data.

2) Stores becoming hybrid digital environments

Ten years ago, stores were almost fully offline.
Today, many are digitally instrumented spaces:

• digital signage networks

• loyalty apps with millions of MAUs

• smart POS systems

• AI-enabled cameras and sensors

• mobile checkout and click-and-collect

• inventory APIs updating every 5–30 minutes

McKinsey reports that over 60% of retailers across the U.S., U.K., and Japan now have the infrastructure to activate retail media assets in-store.

The physical world is finally measurable —
not by clicks, but by actual sales.

3) Brand budgets shifting to what works (ROI pressure)

Global CMOs are under more scrutiny than ever:

• Up to 40% of digital spend is wasted on impressions that don’t convert (ISBA, ANA).

• Only 15–20% of digital campaigns can correctly measure incremental lift.

Retail media flips this on its head:
It can show actual incremental sales, store by store, SKU by SKU.

Marketers want answers they can defend:

• Did this ad lift sales?

• Which stores responded?

• Which customers bought because of it?

Retail media is one of the only channels that answers these questions reliably.

Put these forces together and something big happens:

Retail media becomes a global market where stores are the distribution layer, data is the operating system, and advertising becomes measurable again.

This shift isn’t Japanese, American, or European.
It’s structural.

1.2 The In-Store Moment: The Most Valuable Impression in the World

It’s not attention… it’s intention

Every marketer wants one thing:
to influence a customer right before they make a decision.

Online platforms try to approximate this moment.
Stores own it.

When a shopper stands in front of a shelf:

• they’re within 30 cm of the product

• they’re deciding in 3–7 seconds

• 60–70% of decisions happen right here (POPAI)

• 82% of FMCG purchases are unplanned or influenced in-store

• Conversion is 10–50× higher than any online impression

That is not attention.
That is pure commercial intent.

Online, you can measure interest.
In-store, you can measure decision.

This is why global brands now allocate:

• 10–20% of their digital budgets to retail media

• with some CPGs moving toward 25–30% in the next two years

Retailers are responding by turning:

• screens

• shelf tags

• basket touchpoints

• in-aisle displays

…into measurable, high-performing media assets.

The closer you are to a purchase,
the more impact your message has.
It’s simple math.

1.3 Why Big Ad Platforms Won’t Win This Market

Retail breaks the assumptions that digital ad tech was built on

Everyone asks:

“Why can’t Google or Meta just dominate this too?”

Simple:
the mechanics of retail are incompatible with their infrastructure.

Reason 1 — They don’t operate inside physical stores

Retail media requires:

• on-site hardware

• national installation operations

• planogram consistency

• device maintenance

• compliance workflows

• retailer trust and long-term partnerships

In other words:
things that Silicon Valley doesn’t do and cannot scale.

Reason 2 — They don’t have SKU-level context

Online “context” = a webpage.

Retail context =
a specific SKU on a specific shelf in a specific store with a specific inventory state at a specific time.

This requires:

• POS data

• inventory APIs

• shelf metadata

• store-level seasonality

• local substitution patterns

No ad network has this.
Only retailers do.

Reason 3 — They cannot link exposure → behavior → purchase

Meta: sees a view.
Google: sees a click.
Retailers: see transactions.

Closing this loop requires:

• in-store exposure data

• movement/dwell signals

• confirmed purchases at the SKU level

• a decision engine that learns from outcomes

Big tech sits outside this loop.
Retail media platforms like ours sit inside it.

Reason 4 — Retailers won’t hand transactional data to big tech

Globally:

• 75% of retailers say control of data is their top reason to run their own media network (BCG).

• Nearly 90% do not want external ad platforms owning or analyzing their POS data.

This alone makes a Google or Meta takeover structurally impossible.

Retail media will be won by:

• retailers

• and specialized infrastructure built for retail from day one

ReceiptRoller belongs squarely in that second category.

1.4 Why We Build for a Global Market — Not Just Japan

Retail looks different everywhere, but it works the same way

Japan is our home market, but we built ReceiptRoller with global scalability in mind.

Because while culture varies, retail structure doesn’t:

• stores

• shelves

• categories

• POS systems

• vendors

• promotions

• shopper missions

• price elasticity

• inventory dynamics

Japan’s retail environment is demanding:

• some of the highest store density in the world

• operational standards that leave no room for system failures

• high-frequency purchasing patterns

• limited space, fast turnover, and SKU complexity

If your retail media technology works here,
it works anywhere.

Retailers around the world face the same problems

Whether in Tokyo, London, São Paulo, or LA, the pains are identical:

• fragmented data

• no closed-loop attribution

• slow or manual reporting

• non-reactive content

• underutilized in-store screens

• lack of SKU-level intelligence

We solve these at the architecture level, not the cosmetic layer.

A design that naturally scales internationally

ReceiptRoller is built on universal “retail primitives”:

• store

• SKU

• category

• inventory

• POS transaction

• impression opportunity

Because these primitives exist everywhere, expanding markets doesn’t require rewriting the system.

This is why retail media is becoming a global operating system for commerce-driven advertising — and why we’re building to lead in that future.