By Paula Hunsche, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships at QSIC
The other night, I opened TikTok with zero intention of shopping. Minutes later, I am purchasing the name-brand hoodies my kids have been asking for at 60% off with an influencer’s discount code. It only took a few clicks to complete the purchase, and then I was the “hoodie hero” to my kids. In the same week, while shopping at a convenience store, a new soda flavor was featured on the in-store radio. It was easy to find in-store, already front and center, so we decided to give it a try.
At first glance, these moments seem unrelated. But they share the same underlying shift: media and retail are collapsing into a single experience where influence and transaction happen almost simultaneously.
The lines between media and retail aren’t just blurring—they’re disappearing. Retailers are building media businesses. Media platforms are building retail engines. Both of these phenomena are part of a growing evolution in the industry. The result is an emerging influence economy that’s reshaping how shoppers discover, evaluate and buy.
Consider 7-Eleven. The convenience store chain rivals the daily reach of top media networks with over 13 million in-store shoppers a day, and now it’s turning that scale into a media platform designed for real-world awareness and point-of-sale activation. As the leading immediate-consumption retailer, 7-Eleven reaches consumers at the exact moment decisions are made, turning in-store media into a powerful point-of-purchase channel where awareness and action converge in real time.
This same compression of influence and transaction is playing out on the media side as well.
Media platforms are no longer stopping at inspiration. They are moving directly into commerce and trying to own the moment when interest turns into action. TikTok Shop is the strongest example. In just two years, U.S. GMV grew from $15.1 million to $1.1 billion, proving that a media environment can collapse discovery and purchase into a single step.
Netflix is taking a similar approach. The first Netflix House locations opened in November, with more planned. These spaces translate the company’s content into retail, dining and immersive experiences. It is the same strategy expressed physically by using audience attention to spark commercial behavior.
The shift is clear. Retailers are building media businesses and media platforms are building retail engines.
But the shopper does not experience these moves as separate systems. They experience a single journey that stretches across screens, sites and stores. When retail and media evolve in isolation, that journey becomes fragmented and hard to measure, regardless of how much progress each side makes on its own.
Yet, both sides are moving fast. They are expanding into each other’s territory, layering in new capabilities and investing heavily in reach, audience, context and conversion. On paper, the convergence looks inevitable.
But structurally, the two worlds still operate very differently. Media is incredibly good at generating intent at massive scale, but it does not own the environments where most purchasing still happens. It does not have a network of thousands of stores where that intent turns into real-world behavior.
That is the gap. Media can create demand, but without shared signals or aligned execution inside the store, the handoff is incomplete. The shopper feels the disconnect because their experience still jumps between ecosystems that do not fully speak to each other.
The opportunity is not imitation. The opportunity is coordination. The store is where real transactions are taking place. It is the one environment where intent, attention and purchase converge, which makes it the natural bridge between media and commerce. When treated like a platform, the store becomes the connective tissue that links influence to transaction and turns a fragmented path into a continuous, measurable journey.
Retail Is Adopting the Media Model: Backed by Measurement, Demand and Real Scale
Retail has already shown it can adopt the logic of media. Walmart Connect is a clear example, using connected TV, influencer content and in-store screens as part of a coordinated media system. Other major retailers are taking similar steps and treating their stores as audience environments rather than simple locations.
Retailers understand the importance of reach, audience definition and measurable outcomes. What is changing now is the level of operational discipline behind it. More retailers are standardizing networks, centralizing content delivery and building real-time visibility into what plays across their stores. When that foundation is in place, the store stops being an isolated channel and starts acting like a true platform.
Retail is not catching up. Retail is stepping into a moment where it can lead, because it finally has the tools to operate its media business with the same precision that media companies bring to theirs.
The Road Ahead
Retailers and media buyers want to influence the same moments, but still operate on different datasets, measurement models and incentives. The technology already exists to unify them. A shopper can see an offer on connected TV, get a reminder on social and receive an in-store message prompted by context or location—all measured against the same outcome.
The barrier is communication among systems. Until those signals flow across environments, the influence economy will remain fragmented. When they do connect, the store becomes the conduit turning intent into action and making conversion real at scale.
