Moloco Commerce Media: retail media platform, Wayfair partnership, pricing model and alternatives

Moloco has two businesses on one AI system. Moloco Ads buys app installs and re-engagement for app marketers. Moloco Commerce Media helps retailers and marketplaces run their own ad business (Moloco, about). The shared engine is called CARA, short for Compound Ad Recommendation Architecture.

For a retailer, the product decides what appears in onsite ad slots: sponsored products, sponsored brands, display and video, across search, browse and discovery pages. Moloco says each retailer's models are trained on that retailer's own first-party data (Moloco Commerce Media). Advertisers manage campaigns in the retailer's platform; Moloco handles targeting, product selection, bidding and optimisation underneath.

It fits two situations. Retailers launching a network can use it as the ad server. Retailers with an in-house stack can plug in its models. Wayfair took the second route: Moloco says the two engineering teams merged technologies and integrated Moloco's APIs into Wayfair's existing in-house ad stack (Moloco, 13 February 2025).

The Wayfair deal, announced on 13 February 2025, is the clearest example. Wayfair wanted personalised onsite display across a catalogue of millions of products. Moloco's models joined Wayfair's own data. In early tests, Wayfair says display click-through rate rose 30% (company and customer claim, Moloco Commerce Media). Wayfair then planned to open the product to all its suppliers. Wayfair's own network is profiled at Wayfair Advertising.

Costco followed. Moloco announced on 19 March 2026 that Costco had chosen it to power onsite ads on Costco.com (Moloco, 19 March 2026). Adweek reported the partnership would start with a beta in the second quarter, soon after Costco renamed its ad business Costco Velocity (Adweek, 18 March 2026). See Costco Retail Media.

Measurement. Moloco offers SKU-level reporting, flexible attribution windows, A/B tests and holdout-based incrementality measurement. Its IAB Europe certification followed an independent audit by ABC UK, which found its measurement and reporting met IAB Europe's retail media standards. Moloco was the third company certified, after Albert Heijn and Nectar360 (Moloco, 7 October 2026). What those standards require is explained in retail media measurement standards explained.

Worked example of A2G. Moloco measures success as A2G: ad revenue as a share of gross merchandise value. A retailer with $1 billion in online sales and $20 million in ad revenue has an A2G of 2%. Moloco says its retailers reached 1% within a year, 2% within two years and, for the strongest, over 3% within three (company claim, internal data, Moloco Commerce Media). Compare those claims with independent figures in retail media network revenue benchmarks.

Moloco does not publish prices for Moloco Commerce Media. One public detail is a pricing option for advertisers rather than a fee for the retailer. Japanese delivery app Demaecan launched "Order Boost Advertising" with Moloco on 26 November 2024, priced so that restaurants pay only when an order is placed (Moloco, 26 November 2024). How Moloco itself is paid by the retailer is n/d. Ask, and model the result against your take rate.

Strengths

• Audited measurement. The IAB Europe certification is the first for a retail media technology vendor (Moloco, 7 October 2026).
• Fits in-house stacks. Wayfair and Costco added Moloco to their own platforms rather than replacing them.
• Outcome-based options. Cost-per-order pricing lowers the entry barrier for small sellers.
• Published benchmarks. Moloco states its A2G method, including how it measures 30-day windows.

Limits

• Onsite only, as far as public pages show. We found no Moloco offsite or in-store retail product.
• Benchmarks are self-reported. The A2G figures come from Moloco's internal data.
• No public pricing for retailers.
• Retail is one of two businesses. Most of Moloco's public material concerns its app advertising business; the retail team's size is not disclosed.

• Moloco's fee model for retailers.
• Whether Costco's beta has moved to full rollout.
• The number of retailers on Moloco Commerce Media.
• Whether Moloco offers offsite or in-store retail media today.
• Moloco's head office address; its about page lists offices without naming one as headquarters.

1. Moloco, "Moloco Commerce Media" product page (accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.moloco.com/moloco-commerce-media
2. Moloco, "About" (accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.moloco.com/company/about
3. Moloco, "Wayfair partners with Moloco to transform display advertising" (13 February 2025). https://www.moloco.com/blog/wayfair-partners-with-moloco-to-transform-display-advertising
4. Moloco, "Costco chooses Moloco" (19 March 2026). https://www.moloco.com/blog/costco-chooses-moloco
5. Adweek, "Costco adds adtech firm Moloco to scale retail media network" (18 March 2026). https://www.adweek.com/commerce/costco-adds-adtech-firm-moloco-to-scale-retail-media-network/
6. Moloco, "Moloco becomes first technology provider to achieve IAB Europe Retail Media Certification" (7 October 2026). https://www.moloco.com/press-releases/moloco-to-achieve-iab-europe-retail-media-certification
7. Moloco, "Demaecan becomes the first company in Japan to adopt Moloco Commerce Media" (26 November 2024). https://www.moloco.com/press-releases/moloco-and-demaecan-announce-collaboration
8. Moloco, "Moloco Retail Media Platform now available on Google Cloud Marketplace" (24 August 2023). https://www.moloco.com/press-releases/moloco-retail-media-platform-now-available-on-google-cloud-marketplace
9. Moloco, "Moloco and MetaRouter partnership" (25 February 2025). https://www.moloco.com/press-releases/moloco-and-metarouter-partnership
10. Moloco, "Moloco closes $150 million Series C financing led by Tiger Global" (29 April 2021). https://www.moloco.com/press-releases/moloco-closes-150-million-series-c-financing