Over the past few years, there has been a surge in retail media networks and today the landscape is growing increasingly crowded with traditional retailers, fulfillment companies, and technology companies all vying for the same consumer packaged goods (CPG) and brand dollar.

Merkle’s E-Retail Media Solutions group led research to understand what retailers are focused on as they develop their digital media network offerings. We also wanted to marry this research to what CPG and brand manufacturers desire when selecting a retail media network.

CPGs have more choices than ever about where to spend their dollars to support e-commerce. Understanding where to best put that next dollar can be confusing, at best. According to our CPG survey respondents, Amazon Ads, Walmart’s WMX, Target’s Roundel, Home Depot’s Retail Media+ and CVS’s CVS Media Exchange (CMX) are the top five retail media networks with spend of more than $50k a month.

The majority of CPGs we surveyed are working with these retail media networks to access sales reporting, build a stronger partnership with the retailer, or fortify merchant/retailer negotiations. But CPGs still need more from retail media networks. Our research found that CPGs will be able to increase their spend if they receive additional services from the retailer, such as more in-depth reporting and self-service options that offer greater visibility into category benchmarks and insights.

Providing additional insights allows CPGs to fund the programs outside of direct response budgets by tapping into brand funding and ensuring that their agencies, which are key partners in this relationship, are also seeing the value of spend shifting from traditional media or programmatic channels to retail media networks.

86% Of CPGs have established a center of excellence to manage their retail media network relationships.

When asked what CPG’s motivations for working with retail media networks are, 48% shared that in order to partner on monetization efforts, retailers must balance the demands that are placed on a CPG, with a clear value exchange that gives CPGs greater access to reporting and impact to sales.

What Do CPGs View as the Biggest Benefit of Retail Media Networks?

CPGs find closed-loop reporting and superior shopping experience to be the most important benefits of retail media networks followed closely by a better shopping experience.

Want to learn more? Read Merkle’s new report, The Rise of Retail Media Networks, here and see even more of what CPGs are saying in our survey.