Retail media ad spend growth measures how quickly advertising budgets are moving toward retailer-owned platforms, marketplace ads and commerce media networks. For e-commerce teams, the key question is not only how large retail media is becoming, but whether it adds incremental demand or simply becomes a new cost of being visible at the point of purchase.
Back to the hub: E-commerce Statistics.
This page belongs to the Traffic & Marketing silo. For related marketing metrics, compare this with paid search share of traffic, social share of traffic, and incrementality test adoption.
Benchmark snapshot
Key numbers and signals
Use these as directional benchmarks, then check source scope before citing a number as e-commerce-specific.
U.S. retail media revenue
IAB/PwC reported retail media network advertising revenues reached $53.7B in 2024.
U.S. retail media YoY growth
The same IAB/PwC report put 2024 retail media revenue growth at 23% year over year.
Europe retail media estimate
IAB Europe reported retail media advertising in Europe at about €13B for 2025 in its key stats infographic.
| Benchmark | Reference point | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. retail media size | $53.7B in 2024 | Retail media is now a major media category, not a small experimental line item. |
| U.S. growth rate | +23% year over year in 2024 | Growth outpaced broader digital ad revenue growth, increasing budget pressure on commerce teams. |
| European retail media | About €13B in 2025 | Retail media is no longer only a U.S. marketplace story; Europe is building its own network ecosystem. |
| Measurement risk | Incrementality is not automatic | Brands should test whether retail media creates new demand or captures sales that would have happened anyway. |
| Budget impact | Retail media competes with search and social | As retail media grows, acquisition budgets may be split across more paid surfaces. |
Benchmarks on this page combine e-commerce-specific data where available with broader digital advertising and retail media data when the source is widely used for e-commerce planning. Always label the metric scope when citing it.
Interpretation
Why retail media growth matters for e-commerce
Retail media sits close to the shelf, the search result, and the checkout journey. That makes it attractive for performance teams, but it also means retailers may need to pay to defend visibility inside channels that already control shopper demand.
Marketplace visibility
Sponsored product placements can become necessary in categories where organic marketplace visibility is crowded or algorithmic ranking favors paid placements.
Closed-loop reporting
Retail media networks often provide purchase-level reporting, but closed-loop reporting does not prove incrementality by itself.
Margin pressure
When retail media becomes a required cost of shelf visibility, it can reduce contribution margin even if platform ROAS looks strong.
Cross-channel planning
Retail media should be compared with paid search, paid social, affiliate, email and organic demand rather than treated as a separate budget island.
Application
How to use retail media growth data
- Separate market growth from brand performance. Retail media growth shows budget migration, not whether one retailer campaign is profitable.
- Demand incrementality proof. Use holdouts, geo tests, search term controls or retailer-provided incrementality tools where available.
- Watch cannibalization. Retail media may shift sales between paid and organic placements on the same retail platform.
- Connect to margin. Evaluate retail media against contribution margin, not only platform ROAS.
Methodology
How this benchmark should be read
- Retail media can include retailer-owned websites, marketplace sponsored products, off-site audience extension, in-store digital media and commerce media networks.
- The U.S. IAB/PwC benchmark and the IAB Europe benchmark are not identical in market definition, so cite them with geography and year.
- For e-commerce profitability, retail media should be analyzed with incrementality and total marketing efficiency, not only campaign-level ROAS.
Sources
Sources used for this dataset
Cite this page
How to cite this dataset
Retail Media Ad Spend Growth. Best For Ecommerce. Updated 2026-05-31. Available at: https://bestforecommerce.com/ecommerce-statistics/traffic-marketing/retail-media-ad-spend-growth/