Commerce media is advertising sold by a business that sees what its customers buy, targeted on that purchase data and, in principle, measured against the sales it records. The seller might be a supermarket, a payments network, an airline, a food delivery app or, since August, a burger chain. What unites them is proximity to a transaction: first-party records of who bought what, when and where, which advertisers cannot obtain elsewhere now that third-party tracking has grown unreliable. The unit that packages those records into media is a commerce media network (CMN). Retail media, sold by retailers, is one branch of it; IAB Europe places retail media networks inside the commerce category rather than beside it, and retail still accounts for most of the spending, according to eMarketer.

How it works

Three ingredients turn a transaction business into a media owner: data, inventory and a way to close the loop.

The data is usually loyalty, account or order history tied to a logged-in customer. IAB Europe's pan-European definitions, published on March 26, 2025, name the non-retail sellers: travel and mobility services, payment providers, food delivery platforms and classified advertisement services. A bank sees card spending across merchants. A grocer sees baskets down to the stock-keeping unit (SKU). An airline sees routes, fare classes and frequent-flyer tiers.

Inventory falls into three environments. Onsite covers the operator's own website and app, where sponsored product listings are sold per click in the operator's own auction. Offsite applies the operator's audiences to media it does not own, from the open web to connected television (CTV) and social platforms. The third is physical: in-store screens, but also seatback video, airport lounges and drive-thru menu boards.

Access runs through several routes. Large networks sell through self-serve consoles and managed-service teams. Programmatic buyers reach the same data through deal IDs in demand-side platforms (DSPs): Expedia routed traveller segments through Magnite's curation tools in April 2026 so that any OpenRTB-compatible DSP could activate them. Sponsored listings, whose creative the seller assembles from its own product feed, needed new plumbing. IAB Tech Lab finalised an OpenRTB extension on January 24, 2025 that adds a prodfeed object to the bid request, allowed and blocked product category fields (aprodcat and bprodcat) and a Native Ads data type, 13, for product IDs. Aggregators sit on top. When Kroger joined Google's Commerce Media Suite on March 24, 2026, the Display & Video 360 (DV360) offering already listed Best Buy, Costco, Intuit, Kinective Media by United Airlines, Planet Fitness, Shipt and Western Union as data partners.

Measurement is the product. A closed loop matches ad exposure to purchases in the seller's own records. In Europe the reference rules are IAB Europe's Commerce Media Measurement Standards, released as V2 on January 22, 2026. A sale is counted as gross, with returns ignored, unless a network states that it reports net; the document cites an anecdotal 20% gap between the two. The default lookback window is 30 days after a view or click, cut to 7 days for quick commerce. Sponsored products must credit the parent SKU, so a click on one shirt counts sales of every size and colour, while "halo" attribution means same brand, same category. Results reach advertisers through the network's reports, through application programming interfaces (APIs) or through data clean rooms, of the kind Uber opened on LiveRamp's infrastructure in December 2025.

Origin and evolution

The idea predates the label. McKinsey traces commerce media's roots to affiliate advertising, in which publishers earn from the sales they refer. The phrase took hold in 2022. Criteo, the French ad tech company, called itself "the commerce media company" when it launched a DSP named Commerce Max on September 20, 2022, and it later dated the concept's popularity to February 2022, when Amazon disclosed $31 billion of annual advertising revenue. On July 5, 2022, McKinsey put more than $1.3 trillion of US enterprise value at stake by 2026, $820 billion of it for retailers, and suggested that hotels, telecoms operators, banks and carmakers could build networks too.

They did. JPMorgan Chase launched Chase Media Solutions on April 3, 2024, offering brands access to about 80 million customers, according to the bank. United Airlines' Kinective Media went live on June 7, 2024, billed as the first airline network built on travel behaviour data. Mastercard opened a network on October 1, 2025, drawing on more than 160 billion annual payments and quoting returns of up to 22 times ad spend, a figure of its own making. PayPal Ads pitched a transaction graph spanning 30 million merchants and 400 million consumers at CES in January 2026.

Standards trailed the spending. The IAB and the Media Rating Council (MRC) issued retail media measurement guidelines in January 2024. The IAB and IAB Europe published Guidelines for Incremental Measurement in Commerce Media on November 3, 2025, ranking methods by causal strength from randomised experiments down to platform-reported proxies. When IAB Europe renamed its retail standards for commerce media in January 2026, it promised editions for travel and finance networks.

Why it matters

The category is now large enough to be counted on its own. The IAB and PwC recorded US commerce media revenue of $63.4 billion in 2025, up 18%, roughly a fifth of the $294.6 billion digital total. In September the IAB raised its 2026 growth forecast for the channel to 13.6%, against 12.3% for US advertising overall. Globally, WPP Media's December 2025 forecast put commerce advertising at $178.2 billion, overtaking television for the first time.

Buyers want proof of sale rather than proxies such as clicks. They pay for it in fragmentation. A McKinsey survey of 150 US advertisers published in May 2025 found 53% using five or more networks, up from 38% in 2023, with 44% of budgets heading offsite. Buying tools are consolidating in response: Criteo became Google's first onsite retail media partner in Search Ads 360 in September 2025, and Koddi followed with its own network in June 2026.

Budget ownership matters as much. Commerce media draws on trade and shopper marketing funds as well as brand budgets, which is why accounting treatment shapes the reported numbers. Under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), media bought by a retailer's own suppliers is presumed to be a discount on goods and netted against cost of goods sold, unless a separate contract, generic advertising and fair-value pricing can be shown.

Limitations and disputes

The first objection is that sellers mark their own homework. Closed-loop reports come from the party paid for the media, and attributed sales are not incremental ones; a shopper who would have bought anyway still counts. Comparability is weak. In a report published on August 18, 2026 after consulting more than 40 brand heads of media, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recommended a standardised 14-day lookback window, half IAB Europe's default. Amazon, the largest seller, did not take part.

The loop breaks outside a network's own catalogue. An insurer advertising at a restaurant has no sale in the operator's records to match, and panellists at IAB Australia's retail media summit in July 2026 noted that return on ad spend (ROAS) cannot be calculated for products a retailer does not sell, a point that now applies to McDonald's. Maturity lags ambition. A Forrester study commissioned by Koddi, itself a vendor, found only 13% of 788 organisations qualified as trailblazers, with 63% naming measurement as their main barrier.

Market sizes do not reconcile. The same $1.3 trillion circulates with two meanings: McKinsey's 2022 estimate of US enterprise value and Koddi's projection that commerce media will exceed that sum by 2030. A "$100 billion by 2028" US figure attributed to eMarketer is quoted for both retail and commerce media, while McKinsey projected the US commerce media market would pass $100 billion a year earlier, in 2027.

Privacy is the other fault line, since card and bank records are among the most sensitive data a consumer produces. Mastercard describes its data as permissioned. PayPal says its advertising identifier is encrypted, aggregated and de-identified, with merchant names withheld from advertisers. Both are company descriptions rather than audited findings.

Not the same as

Retail media. Advertising sold by retailers against their own shopper data, covered in Explaining retail media network. Every retail media network is a commerce media network; a bank, airline or delivery app is only the latter.

Affiliate marketing. Commission paid to a third-party publisher for a referred sale. Commerce media is sold by the business that records the sale, usually per click or per thousand impressions.

Commerce Media Platform. Criteo's product name for its buying and selling stack. A vendor platform powers networks rather than being one.

Shoppable ads and agentic commerce. Formats and purchase flows that let a viewer or an AI agent buy directly. Either can run on commerce media, but neither requires the seller to hold transaction data.

Recent developments

The category keeps widening. DoorDash recast its ads unit as a global commerce media platform with more than 400,000 advertisers on June 4, 2026, a count that includes long-tail restaurants. In mid-September Lufthansa Group put 72 touchpoints across its airlines on one sales site, sold by the month from 45,100 euros for Lufthansa onboard placements, with no programmatic access or sales-based measurement described in its guides. On September 23, McDonald's told investors that a pilot of its media network had begun in August at 450 company-operated US restaurants. The chain wants a billion-dollar business eventually. Pricing, partners and measurement were not disclosed.

Timeline

  • February 2022: Amazon discloses $31 billion in annual advertising revenue, which Criteo later credits with popularising commerce media
  • July 5, 2022: McKinsey estimates more than $1.3 trillion of US enterprise value at stake from commerce media by 2026
  • September 20, 2022: Criteo, describing itself as the commerce media company, launches the Commerce Max DSP
  • January 2024: The IAB and MRC publish Retail Media Measurement Guidelines
  • April 3, 2024: JPMorgan Chase launches Chase Media Solutions
  • April 2024: IAB Europe publishes its first Retail Media Measurement Standards
  • June 7, 2024: United Airlines launches Kinective Media
  • January 24, 2025: IAB Tech Lab finalises the OpenRTB extension for product listing ads
  • March 26, 2025: IAB Europe definitions separate retail media networks from the wider commerce media category
  • May 29, 2025: McKinsey finds 53% of US advertisers using five or more commerce media networks
  • October 1, 2025: Mastercard launches Mastercard Commerce Media
  • October 9, 2025: IAB Europe opens public comment on Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2
  • November 3, 2025: The IAB and IAB Europe publish Guidelines for Incremental Measurement in Commerce Media
  • November 19, 2025: Koddi releases its Forrester-conducted commerce media maturity benchmark
  • December 8, 2025: Uber launches Uber Intelligence on LiveRamp clean room infrastructure
  • December 10, 2025: WPP Media forecasts commerce advertising overtaking television globally
  • January 22, 2026: IAB Europe releases Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2
  • March 12, 2026: IAB Europe and Mediasense publish guidance on retailer accounting for retail media sales
  • March 24, 2026: Kroger joins Google's Commerce Media Suite in DV360
  • April 16, 2026: The IAB and PwC report US commerce media revenue of $63.4 billion for 2025; Expedia routes traveller data through Magnite
  • June 4, 2026: DoorDash repositions its ads business as a global commerce media platform
  • June 17, 2026: Koddi integrates its commerce media network with Search Ads 360
  • July 2026: The transition period allowing certification under either version of IAB Europe's standards ends
  • August 2026: McDonald's Media Network pilot begins in 450 company-operated US restaurants
  • August 18, 2026: The ANA publishes its Retail Media Measurement Standardization report
  • September 10, 2026: The IAB raises its 2026 US commerce media growth forecast to 13.6%
  • Mid-September 2026: Lufthansa Group Media launches a single sales site for group advertising
  • September 23, 2026: McDonald's discloses its media network at its investor day

Summary

Who. Retailers, marketplaces, payments networks such as Mastercard, PayPal and Chase, airlines such as United and Lufthansa, delivery and mobility platforms such as DoorDash and Uber, and restaurant chains sell commerce media. Brands and agencies buy it, while Criteo, Koddi, Google and Magnite supply the technology. The IAB, IAB Europe, IAB Tech Lab, the MRC and the ANA write the standards.

What. Advertising targeted on first-party purchase data and sold onsite, offsite and in physical locations, with sales reported through a closed loop. Retail media is its largest branch.

When. The idea grew out of affiliate advertising; the term took hold in 2022 with Criteo and McKinsey. Non-retail networks followed from 2024, and measurement standards arrived between January 2024 and January 2026.

Where. On operators' websites and apps, across the open web, CTV and social platforms through DSPs and curated deals, and on screens in shops, lounges, aircraft and restaurants.

Why. Purchase data offers targeting and sales measurement that third-party signals no longer provide, and it gives operators high-margin revenue. Self-reported results, conflicting standards, unreconciled forecasts and privacy questions remain unresolved.