4 Challenges of In-Store Media Networks in Digital Grocery

Retail media networks became quite a rage during the pandemic as increasingly more consumers embraced online channels. Retail media networks are grocer-owned digital channels offered for advertising purposes to third-party businesses. While retail media networks are beneficial, in-store media networks are an essential piece when developing a marketing strategy in the grocery industry. 

Leveraging media networks in physical stores has been a staple for a while now. However, with both online and offline media networks available, the question that often arises is how to allocate investments between the two in the best way possible. So, while we have earlier discussed the benefits of in-store media networks, it is also critical to understand the challenges that come along with that. This can help better prepare the grocers before investing in in-store media networks.

Here are some of the challenges of in-store media networks:

‍Operation in Silos

In-store media networks can help grocers understand and improve the shopping experience within their stores. However, this is only part of the shopper’s journey. Once the customer moves to an online platform and the retail media networks are not in place to deliver targeted online media campaigns, the entire shopper journey can become murky. The only way to fully leverage media networks, whether online or in-store, is to capture a complete view of customers across every channel they visit. 

‍Data Collection 

Since retail media networks have digital identifiers, it is relatively more straightforward to collect data across all touchpoints of a customer’s online shopping journey. However, gathering information in physical stores can take a lot of work. For instance, while in-store media networks can leverage the purchase data of a customer, collecting data points like product awareness can prove to be cumbersome and time-consuming. However, with the personalization advantage that comes with in-store media networks due to the ‘personal touch,’ gathering data across all touchpoints can be fruitful in the long run. 

‍Fierce Competition

In-store media networks can be fiercely competitive since many brands and businesses are eyeing the same media campaign space. Hence, brands have to be more cognizant and work towards managing ad campaigns effectively. If not managed properly, this can result in increased costs with reduced campaign effectiveness for brands. This is more challenging as the brands might only be privy to some of the first-party data since the grocers essentially own it. Hence, a grocer-brand partnership facilitating proper campaign management is the way to move forward. Such a collaboration can help brands better understand how to maximize their campaign effectiveness, while grocery retailers can help improve the customer experience by personalizing product advertisements.   

‍Campaign Measurement

For in-store media networks to be leveraged to their full potential, it is not only important to put the advertisements out, but it is also crucial to measure the impact of advertising on sales. To measure campaigns effectively, groceries and brands need to build capabilities to track the results of new versus return customers or keep a tab on category-wise performance. Brands also need to develop an ability to track the performance of their promotions across different in-store media networks. Effective campaign measurement can help grocers and brands improve customer engagement and sales conversion. 

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