Epsilon Retail Media (formerly CitrusAd): profile, pricing model and alternatives

Epsilon Retail Media runs a retailer's sponsored products, banners and brand pages, and gives brands a self-serve console to buy them. Its marketing calls it "the industry's first end-to-end, self-serve retail media platform" (company claim, CitrusAd). What sets it apart from other onsite vendors is the second half: offsite media bought with Epsilon's own identity graph.

CitrusAd began as an onsite specialist, and its site still lists grocers such as Coles, Woolworths and Ocado among its logos. Epsilon bought it in 2021 and, on 18 March 2024, relaunched the combined product as Epsilon Retail Media. The relaunch put "artificial intelligence and person-first identity in the ad server", in Epsilon's words. The aim is to recognise the same shopper on the retailer's site and on the open web (Epsilon, 18 March 2024).

Wickes shows the model at work. Its network, Wickes Connected Retail Media, went live on 2 March 2026 with onsite and offsite formats from day one, using Epsilon's COREid graph to bring digital and in-store signals together (Epsilon, 2 March 2026).

Onsite. CitrusAd's ad server integrates server to server with the retailer's site, which CitrusAd says keeps pages fast and avoids ad blockers (CitrusAd). Brands fund campaigns from wallets and see real-time reports by department and category. Epsilon has since added real-time auto-bidding for sponsored ads and monthly instead of daily budgets (Epsilon blog).

Offsite. Epsilon matches the retailer's shoppers to its CORE ID, which it says covers "300m+" people worldwide (company claim). Brands then reach those shoppers on other sites. How this kind of data flow is usually structured is explained in offsite retail media explained.

Measurement. Since 9 March 2026, Epsilon reports how retail media drives in-store sales, not only online orders, inside the same platform (Epsilon, 9 March 2026). It also says onsite and offsite exposures are deduplicated so a sale is not counted twice.

Self-serve example. H-E-B added Epsilon-powered self-service on 11 June 2025. Brands can now launch and manage promoted product campaigns on heb.com and the My H-E-B app themselves, with reporting on sales, cost per click and click-through rate (Epsilon, 11 June 2025). The retailer's network is profiled at H-E-B Retail Media.

Epsilon does not publish prices for Epsilon Retail Media, and no dated trade report of its fees was found. Because the platform bundles onsite serving, offsite media and identity, ask for each part separately. Offsite media in particular may carry a media margin on top of a platform fee, and both shape your take rate.

Strengths

• Offsite reach with first-party identity. CORE ID lets a retailer extend its audiences to the open web without building a DSP.
• Deep grocery history. CitrusAd's logos include large grocers in the UK, Australia and the US.
• In-store sales reporting. In-store attribution, added in March 2026, answers the question most grocers' brands ask first.
• Agency scale. Publicis Groupe owns Epsilon, and since November 2026 also owns LiveRamp (Publicis Groupe, November 2026), which runs a widely used clean room.

Limits

• Holding company ownership. Brands buying through rival agency groups may want contract terms on data use. We found no public neutrality commitment specific to Epsilon Retail Media.
• Two brands, one product. citrusad.com still runs alongside epsilon.com, which can confuse buyers and procurement teams.
• Logos are not current contracts. Some names on citrusad.com also appear with other vendors. John Lewis launched self-serve tools with Epsilon in July 2024 (Epsilon, 31 July 2024) and appointed Kevel for its onsite network in June 2026 (Retail Gazette, 30 June 2026).
• No published certification. We found no MRC or IAB Europe audit of the platform's measurement.

• Epsilon's headquarters city on the pages read, and the acquisition price of CitrusAd.
• How many retailers run Epsilon Retail Media today. CitrusAd's site shows counters for ad requests and retailers that did not display on 9 November 2026.
• Pricing and fee structure.
• Whether Epsilon Retail Media will connect to LiveRamp after Publicis closed that deal.
• Which logo retailers are current clients and for which formats.

1. Epsilon, "Epsilon Retail Media" launch release (18 March 2024). https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/epsilon-retail-media
2. Epsilon, "Retail media network" product page (accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.epsilon.com/us/products-and-services/retail-media-network
3. CitrusAd, home page (accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.citrusad.com/
4. Epsilon, "Epsilon Retail Media: 7 key developments" (blog, accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.epsilon.com/emea/insights/blog/epsilon-retail-media-7-key-developments
5. Epsilon, "Wickes Connected Retail Media launches with Epsilon" (2 March 2026). https://www.epsilon.com/emea/about-us/pressroom/wickes-connected-retail-media-epsilon-partnership
6. Epsilon, "Epsilon launches in-store attribution for retail media" (9 March 2026). https://www.epsilon.com/emea/about-us/pressroom/epsilon-launches-in-store-attribution-for-retail-media
7. Epsilon, "H-E-B launches new self-service capabilities" (11 June 2025). https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/h-e-b-launches-new-self-service-capabilities
8. Epsilon, "Blain's Farm & Fleet elevates specialty retail media offerings" (11 March 2025). https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/blains-farmandfleet-elevates-specialty-retail-media-offerings
9. Epsilon, "John Lewis launches retail media platform" (31 July 2024). https://www.epsilon.com/emea/about-us/pressroom/john-lewis-launches-retail-media-platform
10. Epsilon, "Currys launches retail media solution with Epsilon" (25 July 2023). https://www.epsilon.com/emea/about-us/pressroom/currys-launches-retail-media-solution-with-epsilon