Criteo Commerce Media Platform: retail media profile, pricing model and alternatives

Criteo sells to both sides of a retail media network. Retailers use its supply-side tools to put sponsored products, display and video on their own pages. Brands and agencies use its demand-side tools to buy those placements across many retailers in one campaign. Criteo's 10-K describes this as a common platform with "network effects unique to our multi-retailer ecosystem" (10-K, FY2025).

The product names matter when you read Criteo's filings. Commerce Max is the brand-side buying suite. Commerce Yield helps retailers package and price inventory. Commerce Grid is Criteo's SSP, which gives other DSPs a programmatic path to retailer audiences. Retail media is one of two reporting segments; the larger one, Performance Media, is Criteo's older retargeting and audience business.

The naming has shifted. A July 2024 release called it the "Commerce Media Platform" (Criteo, 11 July 2024). The FY2025 10-K calls it the "Commerce Intelligence Platform". The underlying retail media products did not change with the name.

A retailer integrates Criteo's ad serving into its search, category and product pages. Brands bid for sponsored product slots in an auction. Since June 2025 retailers can also sell display by auction alongside fixed-price reservations; Costco and Shipt were named as early users (Criteo, 17 June 2025). Onsite video joined the format list in April 2025 (Criteo, April 2025).

Demand reaches the retailer through several doors:

1. Commerce Max, Criteo's own buying tool for brands and agencies.
2. Google Search Ads 360, where Criteo became Google's first onsite retail media partner. The integration opened as a limited beta in the Americas, and "over 200" Criteo retailers could opt in (Criteo, 10 September 2025).
3. Microsoft Advertising, which named Criteo its preferred onsite partner in July 2024 as it wound down PromoteIQ.
4. Mirakl Ads, which brings marketplace sellers and smaller advertisers into Criteo-run placements (Criteo, 17 July 2025).
5. API partners, 14 buying platforms in total according to the 10-K.

Measurement is closed-loop: Criteo matches ad exposure with product sales at SKU level and says the technology is MRC-accredited. How a network's own architecture fits around a vendor like this is shown in retail media network architecture.

Criteo does not publish rates. Its annual report does publish the structure: "We typically charge retailers a negotiated SSP fee and sometimes a technology fee, while brands pay us a negotiated DSP fee" (10-K, FY2025). In other words, Criteo can earn on both the sell side and the buy side of the same impression.

That matters when you calculate your take rate. A retailer comparing offers should ask for both fees in writing, at its expected spend. In February 2026 Criteo's finance chief said take rates were compressing. She gave two reasons: the change at its largest retail client, and a shift toward display, which earns lower rates than sponsored products (PPC Land, 14 February 2026).

On 2 May 2025 Criteo said its largest retail media client would keep the technology under a multi-year contract. The same client would drop managed services and curtail brand sales services from November 2025 (PPC Land, 3 May 2025). That customer made up 5% of Criteo's total 2025 revenue (10-K, FY2025). Criteo has not named it.

The effect is visible in the numbers. Retail media revenue fell 23% to $52.1 million in Q3 2026, with a $20 million headwind from scope changes at two clients. Excluding them, Criteo says retail media contribution grew 10% (Criteo Q3 2026 release, 4 November 2026). New partners kept arriving: DoorDash in October 2025, then Migros, Hyundai Department Store, Lidl, Massmart, Loblaw Advance and Notino in 2026. DoorDash uses Criteo as an extension of its US ad sales team (PPC Land, 12 October 2025); its own network is profiled at DoorDash Ads.

The company itself is changing shape. It moved its legal home from France to Luxembourg on 29 July 2026 and plans to become a Delaware company listed on the NYSE. In July 2026 Reuters and Bloomberg reported a takeover approach by Vista Equity Partners and Quinti Capital; as of 31 October 2026 Criteo had neither confirmed nor denied it (PPC Land, 6 November 2026).

Strengths

• Demand comes with the platform. About 4,700 brands bought Criteo retail media in Q3 2026 (Criteo, 4 November 2026). A new retailer can earn from week one without building a sales team.
• The widest set of buying doors. Google SA360, Microsoft Advertising and Mirakl Ads all route budgets into Criteo placements.
• Audited measurement. MRC accreditation for retail media measurement dates from March 2024.
• Public disclosure. As a listed company, Criteo reports retail media revenue every quarter, which no private rival does.

Limits

• Concentration risk is real. One client's change wiped out a year of growth in the segment, as the 2026 figures show.
• The advertiser relationship is shared. Brands buy through Criteo's tools, so the retailer does not own every buyer relationship. This is a property of the network model, not a defect.
• Two-sided fees. The SSP and DSP fees together set the retailer's real take rate, and neither is public.
• Corporate uncertainty. A second redomicile vote and an unconfirmed takeover report sit over 2027 planning.
• Regulatory history. France's Conseil d'État upheld a €40 million GDPR fine from the CNIL on 4 March 2026 (PPC Land, 7 March 2026). The case concerned Criteo's cookie-based advertising, not its retail media tools.

• The identity of the largest retail media client and of the second client with a scope change. Criteo has not named them.
• Fee levels. The 10-K gives the fee types but no percentages.
• The current number of retailers on the platform. Criteo said "over 200" in September 2025; PPC Land wrote about 225 in February 2026. No 2026 company figure was found.
• Whether Criteo's retail media ad server accepts OpenRTB bids for sponsored products.
• The status of the reported Vista and Quinti approach.

1. Criteo S.A., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (filed 26 February 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1576427/000157642726000014/crto-20251231.htm
2. Criteo S.A., "Criteo Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results", Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K (4 November 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1576427/000162828026069790/exhibit991-8xkq32026.htm
3. Criteo S.A., Form 8-K (4 November 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1576427/000162828026069790/crto-20261104.htm
4. Criteo S.A., definitive proxy statement / prospectus, Form DEFM14A (5 November 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1576427/000162828026070665/criteosa-defm14a.htm
5. Criteo, press releases index (accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/
6. Criteo, "Criteo collaborates with Microsoft Advertising to drive retail media growth" (11 July 2024). https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/2024/07/criteo-collaborates-with-microsoft-advertising-to-drive-retail-media-growth/
7. Criteo, "Criteo debuts auction-based display ads" (17 June 2025). https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/2025/06/criteo-debuts-auction-based-display-ads-to-help-clients-unlock-more-value-in-retail-media/
8. Criteo, "Criteo and Mirakl Ads launch global integration" (17 July 2025). https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/2025/07/criteo-and-mirakl-ads-launch-global-integration-to-accelerate-marketplace-revenue-growth/
9. Criteo, "Criteo and Google announce onsite retail media integration" (10 September 2025). https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/2025/09/criteo-and-google-announce-onsite-retail-media-integration/
10. Criteo, "Criteo secures its first MRC accreditation for retail media measurement" (March 2024). https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/2024/03/criteo-secures-its-first-mrc-accreditation-for-retail-media-measurement/