Retail Media
Retail media network comparison tool: filter the list, compare networks side by side
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This retail media network comparison tool turns our retail media network list into a shortlist. Filter by country, category, ad surfaces, self-serve access, DSP partners and measurement, then compare up to four networks field by field. Every value links to a dated source. The tool helps you choose; it does not rank networks.
Compare retail media networks
Filters and columns
| Compare | Network | Country | Category | Surfaces | Self serve | Last verified |
|---|
It reads the same dataset as the directory, so a correction made there appears here on the next release. You can export any filtered view as CSV and share a shortlist as a link.
Contents
Key facts
- The market is large and still growing, but more slowly. WARC forecasts global retail media spend of $200.4 billion in 2026 and $223.4 billion in 2027; growth in 2027 is forecast at 11.5%, or 9.8% excluding Amazon (The Desk on WARC, August 2026; forecast).
- One network dominates US spend. Amazon captured 78% of US retail media spending in 2025 and Walmart 7.5%, with all other networks sharing 14.5% (Walrus Intelligence data cited by WARC, The Desk, August 2026).
- Onsite space is filling up. Research cited by WARC found that Amazon, Home Depot, Macy's and Walmart each serve more than 20 ads per page on average (The Desk, August 2026).
- Buying paths are opening up. Walmart Connect began testing its data in Yahoo DSP and through Magnite, on VIZIO inventory, after its exclusive arrangement with The Trade Desk ended; the 28 May 2026 announcement calls it a closed proof of concept (Walmart Connect, 28 May 2026).
- Measurement now has a shared rulebook. The IAB and the Media Rating Council (MRC) published Retail Media Measurement Guidelines in January 2024 (IAB, January 2024). Walmart Connect's Sponsored Search metrics earned MRC accreditation on 16 October 2025 (Walmart Connect, 16 October 2025).
How to use the comparison tool
- Start with where your shoppers are. Pick a region or country and the retail categories that sell your products.
- Choose the surfaces you need. Tick onsite, offsite or in-store, and set whether a network must offer any or all of them.
- Set your buying route. Filter for self-serve access, or for the DSP your team already uses.
- Set your measurement bar. Filter for closed-loop sales reporting, incrementality testing, a clean room or third-party verification.
- Add up to four networks to compare. The compare view lines up every field, highlights differences and links each value to its source.
- Export or share. Download the filtered list as CSV, or copy the link; the link keeps your filters and shortlist.
How to choose a retail media network: seven fit criteria
There is no best retail media network, only a best fit for a given brand, budget and goal. The seven criteria below map to the fields in the tool. Work through them in order: the early ones remove most networks, and the later ones separate the finalists.
7 of 7 rows
| Do the people who buy my product shop here? |
| Reach you cannot convert is waste, however large the network |
| Do I need search placements, offsite audiences, store screens, or all three? |
| Each surface sells a different job: capture demand, extend reach, or influence in the aisle |
| Can my team or agency buy it with tools we already use? |
| A network you can only buy through a managed team adds time and minimums |
| Will I see sales results, and can I test incrementality? |
| Closed-loop reports show sales; only tests show what the ads caused |
| Is the audience big enough for my budget and goal? |
| Scale is reported in different units, so compare it with care |
| Which platform runs the network? |
| Networks on the same platform often share buying tools and reporting |
| Is it live, and when was the record checked? |
| New networks change formats fast; old records mislead |
- Shopper fit
- The question to ask
Do the people who buy my product shop here?
- Fields in the tool
category,country,region- Why it matters
Reach you cannot convert is waste, however large the network
- Surfaces
- The question to ask
Do I need search placements, offsite audiences, store screens, or all three?
- Fields in the tool
surfaces- Why it matters
Each surface sells a different job: capture demand, extend reach, or influence in the aisle
- Buying route
- The question to ask
Can my team or agency buy it with tools we already use?
- Fields in the tool
self_serve,dsp_partners- Why it matters
A network you can only buy through a managed team adds time and minimums
- Measurement
- The question to ask
Will I see sales results, and can I test incrementality?
- Fields in the tool
measurement- Why it matters
Closed-loop reports show sales; only tests show what the ads caused
- Scale
- The question to ask
Is the audience big enough for my budget and goal?
- Fields in the tool
scale_metric,scale_source_url,scale_source_date- Why it matters
Scale is reported in different units, so compare it with care
- Technology
- The question to ask
Which platform runs the network?
- Fields in the tool
tech_partner- Why it matters
Networks on the same platform often share buying tools and reporting
- Status and freshness
- The question to ask
Is it live, and when was the record checked?
- Fields in the tool
status,launched,last_verified- Why it matters
New networks change formats fast; old records mislead
Table by AdSovereign, CC BY 4.0.
Shopper fit comes first. A pet-food brand learns little from a network whose category is home improvement, whatever its scale. Filter by category and country before anything else, then check the profile pages for the formats each network sells.
Surfaces decide the job. Onsite ads sit next to products and capture shoppers who are already searching. Offsite ads use the retailer's data to reach those shoppers elsewhere on the web or on TV. In-store screens reach people in the aisle. The onsite vs offsite vs in-store guide explains how each is sold and measured. If the largest sites already serve more than 20 ads per page, as research cited by WARC found (The Desk, August 2026), offsite and in-store may be where new reach is easiest to find.
The buying route shapes the work. Some networks offer a self-serve console, some sell through partner DSPs, and some only through a managed team. Walmart Connect is a useful example of change. It opened its data to Yahoo DSP and Magnite in June 2026, after its exclusive DSP arrangement with The Trade Desk ended (Marketing Dive, 1 June 2026). The Walmart Connect profile tracks those partners.
Measurement is where networks differ most. Almost every network offers some form of closed-loop measurement, matching ad exposure to sales in its own data. Fewer offer incrementality tests, clean-room access or third-party verification. The IAB/MRC guidelines of January 2024 give you the questions to ask (IAB), and retail media measurement standards explained turns them into a checklist.
Why the tool does not rank networks
Networks report scale in different units: ad revenue, shoppers reached, loyalty members, stores, screens or advertisers. A network that reports stores cannot be placed above or below one that reports annual ad revenue. Many figures are company claims, and they carry different dates. So the tool shows each scale figure with its source and date, and does not let you sort by it.
Market share is a different question with its own page. The concentration is stark: Amazon took 78% of US retail media spend in 2025 (The Desk on WARC, August 2026). For forecasts and shares compared across sources, see retail media market size and share. For what a network might earn for a retailer, the retail media economics calculator does the arithmetic.
What each field means
16 of 16 rows
| Network name as the owner uses it | Walmart Connect |
| Our profile page, if written |
|
| Owning company | Walmart Inc. |
| Home country, and the markets where it sells | US; US |
| Retail category | mass merchant |
| Date, month or year of launch | 2021-01-28 (renamed from Walmart Media Group) |
| Live, pending, closed or rebranded | live |
| Onsite, offsite, in-store | onsite; offsite; in-store |
| Whether a self-serve tool exists | yes |
| Platform vendors, or in-house | in-house; VIZIO |
| DSPs that can buy the network's audiences | The Trade Desk; Yahoo DSP; Google DV360 |
| Measurement offered | closed-loop sales; MRC-accredited sponsored search metrics |
| One scale figure, as reported | about $6.4B global advertising revenue, FY2026 (company results) |
| Where and when that figure was published | Link and date |
| Main source for the row | Link and date |
| When we last checked the row | 2026-11-09 |
network
- What it holds
Network name as the owner uses it
- Example of how it reads
Walmart Connect
profile_url
- What it holds
Our profile page, if written
- Example of how it reads
/networks/walmart-connect
owner
- What it holds
Owning company
- Example of how it reads
Walmart Inc.
country, region
- What it holds
Home country, and the markets where it sells
- Example of how it reads
US; US
category
- What it holds
Retail category
- Example of how it reads
mass merchant
launched
- What it holds
Date, month or year of launch
- Example of how it reads
2021-01-28 (renamed from Walmart Media Group)
status
- What it holds
Live, pending, closed or rebranded
- Example of how it reads
live
surfaces
- What it holds
Onsite, offsite, in-store
- Example of how it reads
onsite; offsite; in-store
self_serve
- What it holds
Whether a self-serve tool exists
- Example of how it reads
yes
tech_partner
- What it holds
Platform vendors, or in-house
- Example of how it reads
in-house; VIZIO
dsp_partners
- What it holds
DSPs that can buy the network's audiences
- Example of how it reads
The Trade Desk; Yahoo DSP; Google DV360
measurement
- What it holds
Measurement offered
- Example of how it reads
closed-loop sales; MRC-accredited sponsored search metrics
scale_metric
- What it holds
One scale figure, as reported
- Example of how it reads
about $6.4B global advertising revenue, FY2026 (company results)
scale_source_url, scale_source_date
- What it holds
Where and when that figure was published
- Example of how it reads
Link and date
source_url, source_date
- What it holds
Main source for the row
- Example of how it reads
Link and date
last_verified
- What it holds
When we last checked the row
- Example of how it reads
2026-11-09
Table by AdSovereign, CC BY 4.0.
The example column shows the Walmart Connect row as recorded in the directory dataset on 9 November 2026. Its sources include Walmart's results and the DSP news (PPC Land on Walmart's FY2026 results, February 2026; Marketing Dive, 1 June 2026). Where a fact is not public, the cell says n/d (not disclosed) rather than guessing. In the release of 9 November 2026, 110 of 155 rows record self-serve access as n/d, which tells you how rarely networks document it publicly.
How current the data is
Every row in the directory dataset carries a last_verified date, and the tool shows it as a badge. Rows checked within 90 days are marked current, rows checked 91 to 180 days ago are marked ageing, and older rows are marked due for review. The banner above the table shows the dataset version and how many rows fall into each band.
In the first release every row was verified on 9 November 2026. The directory is reviewed quarterly, with new networks and closures logged in its changelog (retail media networks directory). Scale figures carry their own publication date, separate from the verification date, because a figure checked last week may still be from last year's annual report. The hub for everything on retail media is retail media.
FAQ
Which retail media network is best?
How many networks does the tool cover?
Can I download the list?
How current is the data?
Why can't I sort by size?
How do I suggest a correction?
How this works on owned infrastructure
This tool answers a buyer's question: which network fits. Retailers use the same fields to answer a different one: which networks rent their stack and which run their own. The tech_partner field shows how many networks depend on a shared platform for ad serving, sponsored products and reporting, which shapes what they can change and how fast. AdSovereign is an on-premise RTB stack (DSP, SSP, exchange, DMP and clean room) that a retailer can run inside its own perimeter, so shopper data stays in its environment and measurement logic is code it controls. The use cases page shows retail configurations; the architecture page shows how onsite, offsite and in-store surfaces connect.
Sources
- The Desk, "WARC: Retail media ad market to top $200 billion as growth slows" (August 2026). https://thedesk.net/2026/08/warc-retail-media-ad-market-to-top-200-billion-as-growth-slows/
- Marketing Dive, "Walmart Connect expands offsite advertising ambitions with Yahoo, Magnite" (1 June 2026). https://www.marketingdive.com/news/walmart-connect-expands-offsite-advertising-ambitions-with-yahoo-magnite/821575/
- Walmart Connect, "Walmart Connect's Sponsored Search Earns MRC Accreditation" (16 October 2025). https://www.walmartconnect.com/resources/articles/2025/walmart-connects-sponsored-search-earns-mrc-accreditation
- IAB and MRC, Retail Media Measurement Guidelines (January 2024). https://www.iab.com/guidelines/final-iab-mrc-retail-media-measurement-guidelines-available-for-download/
- PPC Land, "Walmart Connect hits 41% growth as ad business nears $6.4B" (February 2026). https://ppc.land/walmart-connect-hits-41-growth-as-ad-business-nears-6-4b/
- Retail Media Networks Directory dataset (RMN-0, CSV, CC BY 4.0; published with the directory page on this site). /blog/retail-media-networks-directory
- Walmart Connect, "Expanding access to Walmart first-party data across leading platforms" (28 May 2026). https://www.walmartconnect.com/resources/articles/2026/expanding-access-to-walmart-first-party-data-across-leading-platforms
Changelog
- 9 November 2026. First edition: tool specification over the RMN-0 dataset (19 fields), seven fit criteria, freshness bands, CSV export and shareable shortlists. Next review 9 February 2027.