Future of Retail Media: Connecting All Consumer Touchpoints
How can retailers and brands bridge the gap between digital influence and multichannel purchases? Ranjana Choudhry, SVP of Media and Data Platforms at Inmar Intelligence, says the answer lies in leveraging influencer content, AI-driven personalization, and integrated touchpoints to boost engagement and ROI. Choudhry explains how seamless shopper journeys, real-time analytics, and technologies such as live shopping and machine learning are key to creating consistent, impactful consumer experiences across channels in the evolving retail media landscape.
Progressive Grocer: What strategies should retailers adopt to connect the dots between pre-onsite influence—such as social media engagement or CTV ads—and final purchase decisions to create a seamless shopping experience?
Ranjana Choudhry: Retailers need to embrace a holistic approach that recognizes shopping as a fluid, omnichannel experience. Consumers transition between entertainment, social engagement, and product discovery long before they make a purchase decision. Bridging this gap can be accomplished by connecting inspiration to action. Integrating digital incentives earlier in the journey—such as placing personalized offers within influencer content, CTV ads, or social commerce platforms can help shoppers make this connection. Additionally, ensuring a seamless shopping experience, like enabling one-click product additions from social media content to retailer shopping carts, can create a more intuitive and effective consumer journey.
PG: How can retailers and brands effectively integrate influencer marketing into their retail media strategies to drive engagement and conversion?
RC: Influencer marketing presents a massive opportunity for retail media networks to extend their impact beyond traditional advertising channels, with 73% of shoppers looking to creators for purchase inspiration. By collaborating with trusted creators, retailers can inject authenticity into their messaging, reaching shoppers in moments of discovery. Successful integration involves embedding influencer-driven content into multiple touch-points—from social media to in-store displays and personalized digital incentives. For example, a shopper might see a recipe video from an influencer, then encounter an in-store digital ad showcasing the same featured products alongside a discount offer. This kind of continuity not only enhances engagement but also drives measurable conversion rates.
PG: With the increasing need for brands to connect traditional and digital advertising ROI, how is Inmar addressing the challenges of measurement attribution across different retail media networks?
RC: Measurement and ROI attribution are indeed critical challenges in the retail media landscape. Inmar is committed to providing comprehensive and automatic cross-channel reporting and real-time campaign performance tracking. By leveraging advanced analytics and standardized metrics, we aim to offer advertisers transparent insights into campaign effectiveness, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and optimize their marketing strategies.
Measurement in retail media is evolving beyond simplistic last-click attribution. Brands and retailers need to adopt more sophisticated multi-touch attribution models that account for the entire consumer journey—from initial inspiration to final purchase. Leveraging AI-driven insights, brands can better track engagement across different touchpoints, including influencer content, digital ads, and in-store experiences. Additionally, tying retail media performance metrics to customer lifetime value rather than just short-term conversions can help brands gain a deeper understanding of the long-term impact of their investments.
PG: One major challenge in retail media today is the disconnect between touchpoints, leading to fragmented consumer experiences. What steps should retailers and advertisers take to create a more integrated and consumer-centric retail media ecosystem?
RC: Retailers must prioritize a cohesive strategy that links their various media touchpoints into a unified shopper journey. This means shifting away from siloed retail media efforts and instead investing in connected experiences—such as syncing social media endorsements with in-store activations or aligning digital promotions with loyalty programs. One effective approach is leveraging AI and predictive analytics to serve personalized content across multiple channels, ensuring that shoppers receive consistent and relevant messaging at every stage of their journey.
PG: Looking ahead, what emerging technologies do you believe will significantly impact the future of retail media networks?
RC: Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are set to revolutionize retail media networks. AI can enhance personalization by analyzing consumer behavior in real-time and enabling hyper targeted advertising. Additionally, utilizing AI in measurement can help isolate the true behavior changes brands want to measure - helping them quantify the impact of their investments.
Additionally, advancements in LIVE shopping capabilities will help connect exposure and endorsement points to seamless shopping. This has already been extremely prevalent outside of the U.S. and as we’ve seen more retailers adopt Influencer strategies, we believe this is the missing piece to drive more engagement here in the U.S.
Ranjana Choudhry is the SVP of Media and Data Platforms at Inmar Intelligence, a billion-dollar MarTech organization that uses data science and technology to deliver innovative solutions for brands, retailers, and healthcare organizations. Previously, she served as VP of Advertising and Social Media at Wakefern Food Corp, a $19 billion retail cooperative, where she spearheaded marketing and digital content strategies, iconic promotions, and multi-channel campaigns. With over 25 years of global marketing and communications expertise, Ranjana began her career at Grey Advertising. While at WPP, she led over 400 team members across 220 countries, driving Colgate-Palmolive’s brand strategies in regions spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Ranjana also shares her expertise as an adjunct professor at NYU SPS, teaching Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy to future marketers.