In a recent conversation with the team from Criteo, Melissa Burdick, Co-Founder and President of Pacvue, shared her perspective on the transformation of retail media and how the strategic partnership between the two companies is helping brands navigate this dynamic landscape. Her insights highlight the evolving nature of the space and shed light on what brands need to know to stay competitive.
Redefining Retail Media
Retail media has undergone a dramatic transformation. What started as a way to reach consumers near the shelf has now evolved into an effective approach for driving consumers directly to the shelf.
For Pacvue, retail media represents the sophisticated use of first-party data to connect with audiences throughout their shopping journey, whether online or in-store.
Today, more than 200 retail media networks span a wide range of industries. Financial services, hotels, and airlines have all joined the mix, with PayPal’s recent entry being a prime example of how the scope of retail media continues to grow.
Key Trends Shaping the Future
1. Managing Complexity in a Fragmented Landscape
As more retailers develop their own media networks, brands face the challenge of managing multiple platforms and strategies. This fragmentation, however, is encouraging a more integrated approach to media buying. Forward-thinking brands are breaking down silos between national, retail, and social media teams to better understand incrementality and the impact of their advertising.
2. The Push for Better Measurement
Brands are demanding more sophisticated reporting that goes beyond basic metrics like ad sales and ROAS. They want to understand the full consumer journey and how different touchpoints influence purchasing decisions. This is driving the need for incrementality and multi-retailer reporting in one unified platform.
3. Innovation as a Differentiator
With competition for brands’ advertising dollars intensifying, retailers must innovate to earn their share of media budgets. This has led to developments in:
- Smarter audience targeting capabilities
- Novel shopping experiences like Instacart’s Caper Carts
- Better integration between in-store and online channels
The Power of Partnership
Pacvue’s collaboration with Criteo, which began in 2020, addresses many of these challenges head-on. In today’s fragmented retail media landscape, connecting with multiple retail networks efficiently is crucial. For technology partners, building individual connections to hundreds of retailers isn’t just inefficient — it’s impractical.
This reality makes Pacvue’s partnership with Criteo particularly valuable. As Melissa explains, “Criteo’s scalable model enables Pacvue to onboard new retailers in seconds, a process that would otherwise take months with a traditional one-by-one approach, significantly accelerating our clients’ time to market.”
Looking Ahead
Pacvue is particularly excited about several developments in retail media:
- Expanded access to more retailers – especially across Europe
- Enhanced full-funnel capabilities combining search and display advertising
- Continued innovation in AI and automation, including new tools such as Amazon’s AI image generator (for which Pacvue was a beta partner)
Evolve, Grow, Succeed
As the retail media landscape continues to expand, brands and retailers must adapt quickly to stay competitive. Leveraging first-party data, managing fragmented media networks, and measuring full-funnel performance are now essential strategies. Pacvue’s partnership with Criteo highlights how technology can simplify this complexity, helping brands connect with multiple retail networks efficiently and effectively.
Looking ahead, success in retail media will depend on the ability to innovate and stay agile. Brands that embrace smarter targeting, integrated strategies, and customer-driven value will be best positioned to thrive in this fast-changing environment.
In short: The future of retail media is bright for those ready to evolve.
