After the Gold Rush
What RMNs Should Do—and Not Do—Now That the Easy Money is Gone
Has retail media already peaked?
That’s the question the industry is now asking following a multiyear boom of retail media networks (and more recently, commerce media networks) flooding the market.
“Every other retailer in the world looks at [retail media] and goes, oh, I want a piece of that,” said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis, on the Jason & Scot Show podcast (h/t Kiri Masters). “And now every ad agency in my holding company, and all of our competitors, all have stood up armies of retail media people. And I actually don't think the retail media opportunity is near as exciting outside of the Amazon ecosystem as some people will have you believe.”
Goldberg captures a growing skepticism—among both brands and retailers—that the fortunes promised at the outset of the retail media wave may not materialize. Or they’ll be concentrated among a few winners like Amazon and Walmart.
Brands are growing frustrated at the lack of standardization, reporting transparency, and ROAS that appears increasingly disconnected from the reality of their P&L. Sticker shock keeps them from shifting budget to emerging RMN opportunities like off-site advertising, CTV, and in-store media.
Retailers worry that the challenges of scaling an RMN may not be worth it if retail media is a winner-take-most market where the rest are left fighting for scraps. The honeymoon is over and brands are demanding more data, better tools, and greater accountability. And investment from once-willing—even enthusiastic—brand partners is hitting a wall.
The easy money is gone. RMNs are now faced with figuring out what happens after the gold rush.
My friends at EMARKETER are running a survey to uncover the inner workings of retail media networks. If you work in-house for a US-based RMN, please take 15 minutes to share your insights and help move the industry forward (and don’t forget to pass it along to your team)! CLICK TO TAKE SURVEY
After the Gold Rush
The recent RMN gold rush is not unlike the California Gold Rush of the 1840’s. In fact, you can almost overlay a timeline of the post-pandemic boom of RMNs to the rise in US gold production in the early years.
The interesting thing is that even after the California Gold Rush’s initial peak subsided, significant gold production continued for decades afterward. In fact, 70% of the total gold production from 1848-1888 occurred after the first 7 years of the gold rush.
Annual production would never again reach the same levels as the first few years. The gold nuggets had been unearthed, and the easy money was gone. Individual prospectors packed up their picks and shovels and settled into their new lives.
But there were still new fortunes to be made as the US gold market transitioned into its industrialization phase. Fresh capital funded corporations that developed sophisticated mining technologies, like hydraulic drilling, to surface new—albeit smaller—deposits of gold.
Over time, these deposits added up.
Retail Media’s Trough of Disillusionment
Retail media is similarly entering its post-Gold Rush phase.
Its sharp ascent began during the pandemic, circa 2020-21, as rush of CPG and other brands plowed their ad dollars into ecommerce. Massive government stimulus spurred an unprecedented advertising boom that disproportionately concentrated in retail media. This gold rush encouraged dozens of new RMNs to join the party.
As the economy rationalized in 2022-2023, advertisers spent more cautiously and RMN revenue growth no longer came so easy. Many retailers reverted to what they know best—leveraging the JBP process to ask brands for bigger retail media commitments using shelf space as a cudgel. Brands largely fell in line, but resentment began to simmer.
By 2024-2025, the brand-retailer relationship had grown strained, sentiment around the channel had shifted, and dollars began to dry up.
The disillusionment set in.