{"page":"/blog/retail-media-network-architecture","modified":"2026-11-10","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","columns":["Item","Component","What it does","Data in","Data out","Typical build or buy","Example vendors","Standards that apply"],"rows":[["1","Ad server and auction","Picks which sponsored product, banner or video fills each slot, and prices it","Ad requests from site and app, campaigns, bids, catalog, audiences","Ad decisions, impression and click logs","Usually licensed; the largest networks build","Kevel, Topsort, Criteo, Epsilon Retail Media, Moloco, Mirakl Ads, Koddi, Pentaleap","OpenRTB 2.6 where onsite slots are sold programmatically"],["2","Catalog and product feed","Keeps every SKU, price, stock level and category in sync with the ad server","Product information system, store stock","SKU list with eligibility flags","Built; it already exists in e-commerce","The retailer's own systems","None specific to retail media"],["3","Identity and loyalty data","Links online and in-store purchases to one pseudonymous shopper","Loyalty sign-ups, logins, card transactions","Pseudonymous IDs, purchase history","Built; identity partners for offsite matching","LiveRamp RampID, as used by Kroger in DV360","Hashing rules in PAIR and ECAPI"],["4","Audience builder","Turns purchase history into segments such as \"bought oat milk in the last 60 days\"","IDs and purchase history","Segments, counts, lookalikes","Often built on a CDP","Retailer data science units such as 84.51° at Kroger","Minimum segment sizes set by the retailer"],["5","Clean room","Lets a brand match its own data with the retailer's without either side seeing raw records","Retailer IDs, brand IDs, exposure logs","Aggregated overlaps, reach, sales results","Usually licensed","AWS Clean Rooms, Snowflake, LiveRamp, InfoSum, Databricks","PAIR 1.1; ECAPI guidelines"],["6","Offsite activation","Sends retailer audiences to DSPs and SSPs so ads run on other websites, apps and TV","Segments or matched IDs","Campaign delivery and exposure logs","Partnered; a few build their own DSP","The Trade Desk, Google DV360, Amazon DSP, Yahoo DSP","OpenRTB 2.6; IAB/MRC viewability"],["7","In-store screens","Plays ads on store screens and audio and proves each play","Playlists, store IDs, campaign schedule","Proof-of-play logs, footfall estimates","Licensed screen software plus owned hardware","Broadsign, CRI, Grocery TV, Looma","IAB and IAB Europe in-store standards, December 2024"],["8","Measurement and reporting","Ties exposures to sales and runs incrementality tests","Exposure logs from 1, 6 and 7, sales from 3","Attributed sales, new-to-brand, lift","Built logic on licensed tools","Often in-house; clean room vendors for brand-side joins","IAB/MRC guidelines, January 2024; IAB Europe V2.1"],["9","Self-serve console and API","Lets brands and agencies plan, buy, pay and pull reports themselves","Campaign setup, budgets, creative","Reports, invoices, API feeds","Licensed, then branded","Console products from Kevel, Topsort, Zitcha, Osmos","No common API standard yet"]],"sourceUrls":[[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[],[]]}