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Australia\u2019s retail media industry \u2013 forecast by Morgan Stanley to be worth $2.8 billion by 2027 \u2013 might have been lagging behind that of North America or Europe prior to Covid. But as more retailers adopt platforms and more brands divert marketing budgets to the fast-growing channel, the future has never looked better. <\/p>\n
Rob Odd, regional CEO \u2013 Asia, Pacific and Japan with global advertising and marketing technology company Epsilon, says the maturity of retail media in the US plays into the hands of Australian businesses that can tap into overseas learnings and advances in the technology to deploy a more comprehensive offer and reach the heights being seen abroad a lot quicker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Key to retail media\u2019s success here, he says, will be the next generation of technology that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver a hyper-personalised experience for consumers, critical to achieving omnichannel integration. <\/p>\n
As Odd explains, retail media is an opportunity for a retailer to use its assets \u2013 most importantly, including its data \u2013 to have a unique conversation with a customer and allow brands to access that customer as well. \u201cIt’s about opening up engagement and getting a better understanding across the customer lifecycle \u2013 both directly as a retailer and also with the perspective of an advertiser or brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offering online, off-site, and in-store marketing opportunities is critical to success. But the real benefits come when you link all those channels with a customer ID so you have a consistent and contextually relevant conversation with the customer. Without that link across channels your messaging and approach can become disjointed and inconsistent leading to a poor customer experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of people in the market saying they do omnichannel retail media, which is great but it’s only one element. The other key ingredient is linking those channels to a unique customer. After all, the customer experience is critical to a successful retail media network. <\/p>\n
\u201cLinking all channels together is critical to ensuring a retailer can provide a true omnichannel, contextually relevant customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Odd says Epsilon is seeing significant investment in retail media. \u201cWe are still seeing consistently high growth in more mature markets and this bodes well for the growth trajectory in Australia-New Zealand and the broader Asia-Pacific region.\u201d Odd is bullish about the growth trajectory of retail media in Apac, suggesting that in only a few years it could rival other more mature markets or regions.<\/p>\n
Epsilon\u2019s point of difference is that it brings the company\u2019s unique capabilities in applying artificial intelligence against person-first identity to retailers looking to address advertisers\u2019 desire to intelligently engage shoppers on retailers\u2019 properties and across the open web. Epsilon\u2019s Core AI analyses every potential shopper encountered, regardless of where they\u2019re found, ensuring 100 per cent of potential buyers are evaluated for engagement. <\/p>\n
The company\u2019s Core ID, which it describes as the industry\u2019s most accurate and privacy-centric consumer identifier, powers the recognition of a specific individual in any channel and feeds additional data on the shopper into the AI\u2019s decision-making process. Armed with person-level insights, 5000 or more decisions are evaluated in the milliseconds before a bid must be placed, drastically improving outcomes. <\/p>\n
The AI also learns from the result of each engagement, continually rewriting its models to further optimise outcomes across channels and time. This allows advertisers and retailers to go far beyond delivering the \u2018right message to the right person at the right time\u2019. AI also determines where to engage shoppers at any given time, how often to engage them in a channel or across channels, harmonises engagement across channels, and optimises the spend to acquire an impression based on the value of the shopper.<\/p>\n
Retail media is not just for the majors<\/strong><\/p>\n A common misconception in the retail industry is that retail media is only workable for large retailers. <\/p>\n Not so, explains Odd. There’s an opportunity for everyone to tap into it. While there is a little bit of extra work necessary for smaller retailers, they can take advantage of the technology as much as anyone else. <\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn’t say anyone is too small, it’s just about activating the right channel and taking the right, phased approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Groundwork is critical when setting it up, he says. \u201cIn the past, there’s been an expectation as soon as you set up a retail media network, you’re instantly going to make millions of dollars.\u201d But the reality is different. \u201cIn the current climate, you need to understand what your point of differentiation is going to be. How are you going to position yourself as a retailer with your inventory and your data as beneficial to brands who want to target those customers or spend on your retail media network?\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes collaborations with similar retailers may pay off. For example, in the US Epsilon has developed the Grocery One Network, enabling a group of smaller retailers to offer a larger, combined single retail media network. \u201cIndividually, they were too small to compete with the big retailers, but combined, they can punch it out with the best with the best of them,\u201d says Odd. \u201cThey’re using this network effect to compete with the big boys. That’s an interesting approach and something that is generating a lot of interest in other regions, like Apac.\u201d<\/p>\n Why personalisation is key<\/strong><\/p>\n Personalisation is a critical layer that goes on top of standard retail media, he explains. \u201cOne of the greatest benefits of retail media is that you can influence the customer\u2019s decision when they are at their highest propensity to purchase \u2013 right at the checkout. <\/p>\n \u201cHaving that personalised approach knowing what that customer wants and serving them at the right time, on the right device, at the right moment, is super critical to getting that conversion. That’s where retail media differs from most other channels.\u201d<\/p>\n That personalisation is key to building a rapport with customers \u2013 not just influencing sales at key decision-making points but as a brand-building tool. <\/p>\n \u201cRetail media gives you a unique opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with your customer. And it’s not all about selling products, it’s about testing and learning, taking insights from the data to improve messaging, testing product developments, and pricing, for example. Both retailers and brands can tap into all these learnings which makes retail media unique.\u201d<\/p>\n Real-time monitoring<\/strong><\/p>\n Another compelling factor in retail media is the ease of its measurability \u2013 often in real-time. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can see that a customer clicked on a particular ad, put a product in their basket and purchased it. We are one of the few channels where closed-loop reporting can give you accurate data output to say your ad drove this many sales. You can see how many sales are being attributed to a specific ad and that level of granularity of reporting is critical to help brands justify their marketing spend.<\/p>\n While noting there is still work to be done \u2013 and that the retail media landscape is constantly evolving \u2013 Odd sees an opportunity in future to seamlessly connect in-store into a retailer\u2019s retail media network offering. While booking a campaign on in-store inventory is the easy part, it is the accurate measurement and ensuring there is a link to the customer that makes the biggest impact. <\/p>\n The post Retail media\u2019s new era: personalised content and precision reporting appeared first on Inside Retail Australia.<\/p>\n\n