The idea of connecting online commerce media to in-store ad space and being able to understand the impact on each other almost seems like science fiction. Can what happens online really translate to ad inventory in the physical world? Sure, we have out-of-home advertising, but these ads have largely been static or driven by contextual data.

For most retailers, 80-90% of their customers make purchases in their physical stores. To take full advantage of commerce media, it’s critical that they bridge the gap between online and offline commerce. Some retailers have managed to connect the two worlds in interesting ways while developing new approaches for the future.

Can Offsite Ads Meet the Consumer at the Point of Purchase?

A big advantage of online commerce media is how close you can get to the point of purchase. Retailers have managed to find several ways so far to replicate this proximity in their physical stores.

Shopper marketing is not a new invention, where in-store banners, print magazines or brand-sponsored displays have been around for some time. However the notion of digital in-store inventory brings things much more in line with online commerce media.

One solution is to put up digital screens along the aisles. Some brands are putting up special promotions to encourage customers to go to another aisle while others have placed QR codes in their in-store ads. For customers buying cream cheese for example, the ads could promote bagels to compliment their purchase. These in-store ads could work a lot like Amazon recommendations below a product, though they would offer the brand much more creative expression to stand out to browsing shoppers.

Many stores are indeed using customer data to determine what appears on their screens. Tesco in the UK, for example, is using their Clubcard loyalty program (with a sign-ups driven by exclusive discounts) to access customer data for in-store advertising purposes.

Self-checkout systems are being used for advertising as well, getting brands similarly close to the point of purchase as their online commerce media counterpart.

But we’re not at the point where online commerce media and in-store media are one campaign that can be launched with the push of a button. The ecosystems are still quite different and are not yet at the point of convergence.

Is In-store Commerce Media Able To Close the Loop?

With loyalty programs, retailers are able to use in-store audience measurement that almost closes the loop but we’re not quite there yet. As with online commerce media, some kind of user ID such as a sign-in will be required to make this level of measurement possible.

It’s still early days for measurement, but already we’re seeing offsite commerce media take advantage of a similar proximity to point of purchase as online commerce media enjoys. The groundwork is laid with retail media to close the loop from ad exposure to purchase online and offline, but some more work needs to be done.

Some advanced marketers are making use of privacy-compliant Data Clean Rooms to bring together online and offline data sets from multiple commerce media networks across many media channels to compare performance and better plan their media spend in the future.