Retail media has gone from niche digital add-on to frontline battleground. Here are 10 big players shaping the space – and the execs behind the ad dollars.
Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash
Amazon’s retail media ad revenue is set to exceed $60bn this year. That figure, flagged in a recent Warc report, solidifies its status as the third-largest ad platform in the US, behind only Google and Meta, and well ahead of traditional media stalwarts. But the retail media story isn’t just Amazon’s any more.
As commerce and advertising converge, retailers around the globe are leveraging first-party data, shopper behavior and growing media arms to turn transactions into targeting engines. The result: a fragmented but fast-growing ecosystem now worth close to $100bn – and still accelerating.
From the US to the UK to China, we’ve spotlighted 10 of the biggest players in the market leading the charge in retail media. Here’s why they’re worth watching in 2025, along with the key movers driving their momentum.
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1. Amazon Ads
2024 ad revenue: $56.2bn
Key exec: Paul Kotas, SVP of advertising
Amazon remains the clear frontrunner in retail media. With over $56bn in ad revenue, it’s setting the standard for what a full-funnel commerce platform can look like and expanding beyond endemic brands to capture budgets from CPGs, automakers and even Hollywood studios. Kotas, a longtime Amazon veteran, has been instrumental in scaling the business from promoted products to a global advertising ecosystem.
2. Walmart Connect
2024 ad revenue: $4.4bn
Key exec: Rich Lehrfeld, SVP and general manager
Walmart isn’t chasing Amazon’s scale; it’s carving out a different lane, rooted in omnichannel data and store-level access. A 27% YoY revenue jump helped, but the real headline is its acquisition of Vizio, giving Walmart a foothold in connected TV advertising. Walmart Connect is positioning itself as the bridge between physical retail and addressable media, and during Lehrfeld’s four+ years, the business has grown more than 10X in revenue and advertiser base.
3. Instacart Ads
2024 ad revenue: $1.01bn
Key exec: Ali Miller, VP of product management
Instacart’s strength lies in its timing. Sitting between grocery brands and high-intent shoppers, it has quietly built a billion-dollar ad business. Partnerships with players such as PubMatic extend its reach into programmatic pipes, while Miller oversees a roadmap that blends in-app UX with revenue-generating media placements. In a world where food equals frequency, Instacart’s value proposition is sticky – literally.
4. Target Roundel
2024 ad revenue: $649m
Key exec: Cara Sylvester, EVP and chief guest experience officer
Roundel has leaned heavily into Target’s brand-friendly ethos: curated, data-driven, and never creepy. Sylvester, whose remit spans the broader guest experience, has helped Roundel integrate consumer insights across platforms, making personalization a feature rather than a flaw. It may be smaller than Walmart Connect, but Roundel plays the long game on loyalty and brand alignment.
Key partner: Dunnhumby
Tesco doesn’t get the global headlines, but its UK platform is a case study in smart retail media at scale. By pairing Clubcard data with Dunnhumby’s analytics, Tesco offers brands precise targeting across both online and in-store touchpoints. It’s a reminder that in some markets, loyalty cards are still the most powerful cookie in the jar.
Total company revenue: $130.35bn (ad revenue undisclosed)
Key exec: Eddie Wu, CEO
Alimama is more than just a media network – it’s an operating system for commerce. Embedded within Alibaba’s sprawling ecosystem (Taobao, Tmall and more), Alimama fuses social, shopping and search into one continuous experience. Under Eddie Wu, Alibaba is emphasizing integration over expansion.
Kroger’s advantage is literal: precision. With millions of households generating first-party data through its loyalty programs, it has built a performance-oriented ad network that resonates with CPG brands. The company has championed transparency and closed-loop measurement, though the blocked merger with Albertsons has slowed ambitions for rapid scale.
Carrefour’s answer to the media network boom is built on behavioral insight. Loyalty card data, combined with in-store browsing patterns, fuels its cross-channel targeting engine. While Carrefour doesn’t break out ad revenue publicly, its investment in clean rooms and self-serve tools signals a shift toward advertiser-led growth, particularly in the EU market where privacy compliance matters.
Mercado Libre dominates in Latin America the way Amazon does in the US – and its ad business is starting to reflect that. With mobile-first infrastructure, rich regional data and expanding ad formats, Mercado Libre is helping global brands tap into fast-growing markets. It’s not flashy, but it’s foundational – especially for advertisers seeking growth beyond the US and China.
Unlike others on this list, The Trade Desk doesn’t own a store – it powers the pipes. By enabling multiple retailers to offer programmatic ad inventory with shared measurement and audience matching, it’s quietly becoming the connective tissue of retail media. Think of it as the AWS of ad placement: mostly invisible, deeply critical.
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Amazon might be grabbing the headlines, but the real story is the ecosystem. From France to São Paulo, from groceries to gadgets, retail media is being redefined by those who can turn first-party data into advertising gold – and do it at scale.
These retail media networks alone generate advertising revenues approaching $100bn, but that’s just a fraction of the expanding global retail media ecosystem. It’s a clear sign that this isn’t just a marketing trend, it’s a foundational shift in how products are discovered, considered and purchased. And while Amazon continues to set the pace, the real story is how quickly the rest of the field is closing the gap.
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