[CLSTR]
< Back to situations

Monitor this situation.

[SITUATION] · [ACTIVE] · [BUSINESS]

3 clusters · 7 sources · 18 days · First seen · Last updated

Global retail media market growth and concentration

Overview

The global retail media market is projected to exceed $200 billion by 2026, with U.S. advertising spend expected to reach approximately $71.09 billion that year. While the sector is expanding, growth rates are beginning to decelerate; excluding Amazon, global growth is projected to drop to 9.8% by 2027.

Market concentration remains extremely high. In the United States, Amazon and Walmart are expected to absorb roughly 89% of new retail media spending in 2026. Amazon’s dominance is also evident in Europe, where it controls more than two-thirds of investments in several major markets, including France. In the U.S., Amazon alone captured 78% of spending in 2025, while generating $76 billion in advertising revenue over the last 12 months.

Retailers are leveraging these high-margin segments to bolster profitability. Walmart reported $6.4 billion in advertising income for 2025, a 46% year-over-year increase. Notably, while Walmart’s traditional retail business operates on approximately a 4% margin, its retail media segment achieves around 70% profitability. Other players, including Target, Instacart, and DoorDash, are also seeing substantial growth.

Retail media is becoming a primary channel for specific sectors, expected to account for 55.8% of global media investments for alcoholic beverage brands and 54.9% for the food sector by 2027. However, experts warn that an increasing number of advertising formats and interruptions could potentially “degrade the shopper experience and impact campaign efficiency.”

Entities

Target · Walmart · Amazon · WARC Media · Instacart

Timeline

  1. 6 days ago

    [BUSINESS] 2 sources
    Walmart and major retailers see surge in Retail Media revenue

    Retailers like Walmart and Amazon are seeing massive growth in high-margin Retail Media advertising, while market data shows a split between physical and digital grocery dominance in Mexico.

  2. 19 days ago

    [BUSINESS] 3 sources
    Retail media market projected to exceed $200 billion by 2026

    The global retail media market is expected to surpass $200 billion by 2026, though growth is slowing as Amazon and Walmart dominate the majority of new advertising spend.

  3. 23 days ago

    [BUSINESS] 2 sources
    Walmart and Target see rapid growth in retail advertising revenue

    Retailers like Walmart, Target, and Amazon are seeing advertising revenue grow significantly faster than core merchandise sales as they expand into connected TV and commerce media.

Sources

adweek.com · brandspurng.com · cbnews.fr · ecommerce-news.es · merca20.com · pymnts.com · tastewise.io

This summary has been updated 1 time: see revision history