Retail media has exploded into one of marketing’s fastest-growing sectors, but behind the scenes, many retailers are still trying to connect dozens of disconnected systems while advertisers struggle to navigate an increasingly fragmented ecosystem.
In this episode of Retail Media Unboxed, Drew Cashmore, Chief Strategy Officer at Vantage, explains why retail media has evolved far beyond an advertising channel into a competitive business platform. He discusses why composable architecture is becoming essential, why technology investment—not just media sales—will determine which retailers succeed, how interoperability and standardized APIs could unlock the industry’s next phase of growth, and why the industry’s obsession with measurement standardization may be distracting from the much bigger opportunity.
Five Key Takeaways
1. Retail media has become a retail operating strategy—not simply an advertising business.
Drew argues that retail media now drives customer acquisition, engagement, and long-term competitive advantage. Rather than treating it as incremental advertising revenue, retailers increasingly see it as a core capability that strengthens the entire business.
2. Fragmentation—not demand—is the industry’s biggest bottleneck.
Many retailers operate dozens of disconnected systems across ad serving, social commerce, in-store media, content management, and measurement. Without connective infrastructure, advertisers default to the simplest products instead of investing across richer retail media opportunities.
3. Technology investment will separate tomorrow’s winners from everyone else.
Retailers routinely invest heavily in IT and martech while underinvesting in retail media infrastructure. Drew believes meaningful growth will require the same kind of long-term technology commitment that helped companies like Walmart transform their businesses.
4. AI won’t eliminate the need for people.
While agentic AI will simplify workflows, retail media still requires leaders who understand retail operations, advertising, technology, data, organizational change, and commercial strategy simultaneously. Developing that talent will be just as important as building better technology.
5. The industry may be overvaluing measurement standardization.
Drew predicts today’s obsession with perfectly standardized measurement will eventually fade. Consumers are already shopping within retail environments, and brands ultimately need to reach them there regardless of whether every retail media network measures performance in exactly the same way.
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