Retail Media Network Statistics By Market Growth And AI Agents (2026)

Introduction

Retail Media Network Statistics: Retail Media Networks, or RMNs, have become one of the fastest-growing parts of the global ad business in 2026, basically turning retailers into real digital media companies. And, since third-party cookies are still vanishing and advertisers are leaning hard into first-party consumer data, retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Carrefour, and Instacart keep expanding their advertising ecosystems to pull in high-margin income. Brands are also nudging more and more of their digital ad money toward retail media, because these platforms deliver clear sales attribution, close-the-loop reporting, and ads that are very well aimed. A lot of industry people now treat retail media like the “third major advertising channel”, right next to search and social media, so it is becoming a strategic focus for retailers, consumer brands, agencies, and tech providers across the globe.

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1. In the U.S., retail media advertising is forecast to hit USD 69.3 billion in 2026, with Amazon and Walmart taking 89% of the incremental ad spend.
2. Walmart earned USD 6.4 billion from advertising in FY2026, showing an impressive 46% year-over-year climb.
3. Amazon’s advertising segment reached almost USD 69 billion in 2025, which further confirms it as the largest retail media network in the world.
4. Globally, the Retail Media Network, aka RMN, market is expected to reach USD 25.53 billion in 2026 and USD 34.73 billion by 2031, growing at a 6.35% CAGR.
5. Online retail media made up 77.35% of the RMN market in 2025, while in-store media is projected to grow at an 11.62% CAGR.
6. In 2025, 69% of advertisers increased their retail media budgets, compared with 54% that boosted their social advertising spending.
7. Retail media campaigns are kinda delivering 2-3× higher CTR than regular display ads, which shows people have more purchase intent.
8. Walmart put roughly 170,000 digital screens out across 4,700 U.S. stores, and that’s pushing the in-store advertising measurable growth pretty fast.
9. Amazon’s Rufus also went past 250 million monthly active users, and it’s handling about 274 million AI queries every day, so conversational shopping is being adopted really quickly.

Retail Media Giants Accelerate Growth While Smaller Networks Fall Behind

• According to authoritative EMARKETER 2026 forecasts, U.S. retail media spending as a whole will climb to $69.3 billion in 2026, and Amazon plus Walmart will capture a combined 89% of all incremental ad dollars.
• In the official Q4 FY2026 filings, Walmart generated $6.4 billion in global ad revenue for FY2026 alone, which shows a sizable 46% year-over-year growth.
• Retailers like eBay, Kroger, Target, Macy’s, and Etsy seem to sit in that middle lane for expansion, with projected growth rates roughly 12% to 19%, even though their precise revenue numbers are intentionally redacted in the graphic.
• The above data points to scale becoming a real competitive advantage in retail media. While the biggest networks keep pulling in most of the advertising dollars and continue growing faster, the smaller retail media platforms could lose share as advertisers start concentrating budgets on higher-coverage ecosystems, with better performance and measurement tools, more or less.

Retail Media Networks Continue To Outperform Digital Advertising Channels

• Retail media networks (RMNs) are still one of the fastest-growing parts of digital advertising, even though growth is kinda normalizing after the record highs we saw in 2023.
• Walmart Connect said it saw an impressive 44% lift in U.S. advertising revenue in early 2026, and that was mostly tied to better e-commerce results and streaming platform integrations, which sounds pretty logical.
• On the global side, Walmart’s ads business climbed 37% year over year in 2025, suggesting retailers are really turning advertising into a higher margin revenue stream, not just “extra” spend.
• At the same time, Amazon’s advertising grew 22% in 2025, landing at almost $69 billion in annual revenue, and that basically reinforces its top spot within the retail media world.
• In-store retail media advertising is projected to cross $1 billion by 2029, helped along by the quick uptake of connected displays and smart shelf technologies.
• Internationally, the pace seems strong too; in Australia, 62% of businesses were actively using RMNs in 2025, while 39% of advertisers in Australia planned to raise their retail media spending in 2026
• Walmart’s e-commerce sales rose 24% year over year, showing how ongoing online retail strength keeps feeding advertising potential.
• Taken together, the information points to retail media as a core business tactic now, where ad margins are increasingly beating the margins you typically get from traditional retail operations.

Retail Media Networks Market Growth Through 2030

(Source: mordorintelligence.com)

• The retail media networks (RMN) market is going into a pretty strong growth period, mainly because retailers are monetizing their digital ecosystems more and more, using first-party data and a kind of closed-loop measurement.
• According to Mordor Intelligence, the global RMN market reached USD 24.01 billion in 2025, and it is expected to climb to USD 25.53 billion by the end of 2026, then keep moving up to USD 34.73 billion by 2031. This works out to a 6.35% CAGR during 2026 2031.
• When you look at market segmentation, the expansion logic shows up in several places. For example, online retail media placements made up 77.35% of the market in 2025, and at the same time, in-store advertising inventory is expected to be the quickest mover, growing at an 11.62% CAGR through 2031.
• If you zoom in on ad types, display ads brought in 44.55% of the revenue in 2025, while video advertising is forecast to rise at an 11.78% CAGR over that same window.
• Retailer-owned platforms still basically lead the scene, with 67.45% market share in 2025, and third-party aggregators are projected to grow at a 9.07% CAGR from 2026 to 2031.
• Across industry verticals, consumer packaged goods (CPG) represented 25.75% of total spending in 2025. Meanwhile, beauty and personal care are predicted to expand at a 9.39% CAGR.
• Amazon, Walmart Connect, and Roundel together totaled close to 40% of global retail media spending in 2024, which suggests a moderately concentrated market, but one that is getting more competitive, day by day.

Retail Media Outpaces Traditional Digital Advertising Channels

• Retail media has kind of become one of the strongest performing advertising channels; in practice, it keeps pulling in bigger marketing budgets and, overall, it tends to outperform a lot of those more traditional digital formats.
• In the United States, based on EMARKETER, 17.2% is the expected CAGR through 2028, and the actual year-over-year growth for 2026 is projected at roughly 17.9%.
• Advertiser confidence keeps climbing, with 69% of advertisers saying they’re increasing their retail media budgets in 2025, compared with 54% that expanded spending on social advertising.
• Retail media click-through rates (CTR) are reported to be 2 to 3 times higher than standard display advertising, mostly because the targeting leans harder on purchase intent.
• Also, Connected TV (CTV) retail media campaigns saw higher conversion rates than the more conventional streaming campaigns during 2025, which kind of shows how pairing premium video with commerce-driven targeting can work in a really direct way.
• Retail media now represents nearly one-fifth of U.S. digital advertising spending, while search advertising stays put as the world’s largest digital advertising channel.
• The above data suggests brands are slowly moving budget away from open web display advertising, and toward retailer-owned media platforms, so retail media is turning into one of the fastest growing, and most performance-driven parts of digital advertising.

The Rise Of In-Store Retail Media & Smart Shelves

• In 2026, physical stores are becoming huge advertising channels, and 55% of consumers are still finding new products in-store, while 54% say the importance of in store discovery keeps increasing.
• So even with all the fast digital takeoff, brick-and-mortar spots still feel like a key slice of the customer journey (Numerator).
• The same research also points out that shoppers end up dealing with more than three product discovery touchpoints on average, and they swing by 68 retail banners each year, which basically means there are lots of chances for retailers to nudge purchase decisions (Numerator).
• Walmart has rolled out around 170,000 digital screens across 4,700 U.S. stores, and the placements aren’t random—self checkout areas, endcaps, and the store aisles are all in the mix, to catch attention at the point of purchase (Talk Business & Politics; U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Walmart Connect).
• The above screens are built to connect to Walmart’s wider retail media system, so brands can reach people across websites, mobile apps, and actual physical stores, using a more connected advertising playbook.
• UPS reports that 21% of Gen X shoppers prefer to uncover new brands inside stores, and 46% start their shopping journey either via a retailer’s website or by going to a physical store. It makes it seem like online and offline experiences are more like side by side, not rivals (UPS).
• AiOO says modern in-store retail media merges anonymous audience detection with real-time campaign activation and SKU-level point of sale attribution, so the advertising impressions can be tied directly with actual purchases.
• Also, Epsilon mentions that retailers can measure how digital retail media affects physical store sales by using exposed audiences, control groups, and transaction data that’s linked back to POS, which basically brings closed-loop attribution into brick-and mortar settings.
• The above numbers pretty much show that in-store retail media has turned into a real core pillar for omnichannel marketing.
• Since 55% of shoppers are still running into products first while they are in physical stores, Walmart’s 170,000-screen retail media network, plus its continued funding for smart shelf tech, highlights how retailers are reshaping high-intent shopping spaces into trackable advertising surfaces that smoothly connect digital engagement to in-store sales.

AI Agents: The Existential Threat to Search-Based Media

• In 2026, generative AI shopping assistants are quickly changing the way consumers find products, because retail search is shifting from keyword-based browsing to these more natural, talk-like conversations.
• According to Jarvio, Amazon Rufus has already passed 250 million monthly active users, it processed over 274 million daily queries by late 2025, it makes up something like 14% of Amazon’s total searches, and it’s expected to go beyond 35% of overall search volume.
• Also, Jarvio mentions that shoppers using Rufus are about 60% more likely to finish a purchase, which shows the strong effect AI helpers can have on conversion rates (Jarvio).
• On top of that, industry research says conversational shopping is starting to feel more normal now.
• Genrise estimates that around 10-15% of shopping interactions are now AI-assisted, and that number should keep growing as retailers plug intelligent shopping agents into their digital storefronts.
• Rather than leaning on typed keywords, these assistants look at customer intent and then suggest items through back-and-forth responses, so AI-driven recommendations are getting more important, bit by bit.
• Major retailers are moving fast, embedding these kinds of AI assistants right inside their shopping environments.
• For example, Amazon has brought Alexa for Shopping across its website and mobile app; it uses things like product catalogues, customer reviews, behavioural signals, and even shopping history to deliver more tailored suggestions (Amazon).
• Salesforce and IBM also point out that conversational AI mixes natural language processing, machine learning, and first-party data, which helps them offer more personalised recommendations, shopping support, and even checkout help. That, in turn, reduces how much people rely on classic search results pages.
• AI-assisted brands are kinda competing hard to get picked for AI-generated recommendations. Not only using sponsored keyword placements anymore.
• Instead, it’s more about being present inside those AI suggestions. This shift is reshaping how people find products, and it starts to feel like a new era of conversational commerce.

Conclusion

Retail Media Networks have turned into one of the most powerful and fastest-growing advertising channels in 2026. This is happening mostly because of first-party data, AI-powered personalization, and sales attribution that you can actually measure. Industry leaders like Amazon and Walmart keep dominating, and retailers are increasingly finding ways to monetize both digital and physical shopping environments through omnichannel advertising. Meanwhile, conversational AI shopping assistants are changing the game because they move traditional keyword-based search toward intent-driven product discovery. That means new opportunities for brands, but also new competitive pressure. Companies that invest in retail media, AI-driven commerce, in-store digital experiences, and privacy-first data strategies will be in the best position to improve advertising performance and push long-term revenue growth.

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