The Middlemen Podcast’s “The History of Retail Media” explores how retail media has developed over the past century, challenging the idea that it’s a brand-new phenomenon.

• Origins in Neighborhood Grocers: The episode begins by describing the early days of grocery shopping, when local shopkeepers knew their customers personally and handled all transactions directly. This model shifted dramatically with the rise of supermarkets like Piggly Wiggly, which introduced self-service and larger store formats, fundamentally changing the relationship between brands, retailers, and shoppers.
• Birth of Trade Marketing: As supermarkets grew, brands began competing for shelf space and visibility. This led to the emergence of trade marketing, where brands paid retailers for better placement and promotions—essentially the earliest form of retail media. Listing fees, endcap displays, and in-store promotions became standard, accounting for a significant portion of consumer goods marketing spend.
• Transition to Digital: With the advent of e-commerce, retailers like Walmart and Amazon began to monetize their websites through digital display ads and sponsored search. Amazon’s success with sponsored product listings inspired other retailers to pursue similar strategies, turning retail media into a major profit center.
• First-Party Data and Attribution: The episode highlights the importance of first-party data—information retailers collect directly from shoppers—which allows for precise targeting and measurement of ad effectiveness. This data advantage has made retailers powerful players in the digital advertising ecosystem.
• Evolving Technology and Players: The discussion covers the rise of managed service providers and technology platforms (like Criteo, The Trade Desk, and Epsilon) that help retailers run their own ad businesses. The market is maturing, with more retailers bringing these capabilities in-house and expanding into new formats like in-store digital screens.
• Looking Forward: The hosts note that retail media is not a fleeting trend but a continuation of long-standing practices, now supercharged by technology and data. They predict further growth, more sophisticated tech stacks, and a landscape that increasingly resembles the open web publisher ecosystem, with both large and small players participating.

In essence, retail media’s roots run deep, and its current digital incarnation is just the latest chapter in a long story of brands vying for shopper attention through retailers.

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