Retail Media Growth Sparks Interest in Contextual Commerce for 70% of Marketers
Summary
The release follows Winterberry Groups February report, which forecasted that US spending on connected commerce—a broad category encompassing various online and offline commerce touchpoints—would exceed $112 billion in 2025. This new research narrows the focus to contextual commerce, a rapidly growing segment within that broader category, with spending expected to exceed $1 billion by 2026. Unlike traditional e-commerce, where consumers must actively search for products, contextual commerce allows transactions to happen within the content people are already engaging with, such as recipes and editorial, to influencer videos and shopping lists. • Measurement misalignment: Fragmentation across platforms and a lack of unified standards continue to create attribution blind spots, reinforcing the need for industry-wide collaboration on metrics and responsible AI practices "Retail media demand is outpacing supply and brands are feeling the squeeze," said Yuni Baker-Saito, co-founder and CEO. NOTICE: This report contains brief, selected information and analysis pertaining to the advertising, marketing and technology industries and has been prepared by Winterberry Group.