# Horizon Commerce and Pacvue connect retail media planning to activation—43% of brands still underutilize in-store

*Platform partnerships now close the loop from strategy to measurement while most physical brands leave shelf-level media spend on the table.*

By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC.
Published 2026-10-08.

Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/horizon-commerce-pacvue-grocery-tv-2026-10-08t09-6
Subject: Horizon Commerce + Pacvue + Grocery TV
Tags: retail media, platform integration, in-store media, attribution, commerce marketing

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Horizon Commerce and Pacvue expanded their strategic partnership to connect retail media planning, activation, and measurement in a single operating system, according to MarTech Cube. The integration brings Horizon's strategy and activation expertise into Pacvue's Commerce Media Operating System, designed to help marketers move from insight to outcomes faster across retail media networks. At the same time, separate IAB and Grocery TV research found that while marketers recognize a full-funnel role for in-store retail media, **43 percent** still underutilize it.

The partnership addresses a persistent friction point: retail media planning happens in one tool, activation in another, and measurement in a third. Brands waste days reconciling data between systems, often missing the window to adjust a campaign while it still runs. The Horizon-Pacvue integration unifies those layers, allowing a marketer to build a media plan, launch it across Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, and other networks, then read performance data in the same dashboard without export-import rounds.

This works because retail media has matured past simple search ads. Brands now run display, video, sampling programs, and in-store screens alongside keyword buys, each with different attribution windows and conversion paths. A fragmented tech stack forces marketers to guess which channel drove the sale. A unified system tags each impression with a common identifier, then traces it through purchase data the retailer shares back. The result is causal measurement, not correlation, and the ability to reallocate budget mid-flight based on what actually moves product off the shelf.

For a small physical-product brand, the steal is simpler than buying enterprise software. Start by running one retail media network—Amazon or Walmart—and use its native campaign manager for both activation and reporting. Do not split planning into a separate spreadsheet. Build the plan inside the platform where you will launch it, using last month's conversion data to set this month's bid strategy. Export a single weekly report that shows spend, attributed sales, and return on ad spend in one view. When you add a second network, keep both dashboards open side by side in browser tabs and compare the same metrics in the same order. The cost is zero beyond your media spend, and you eliminate the reconciliation tax that kills speed.

If you have budget for a paid tool, Pacvue and similar platforms charge on a percentage of ad spend or a flat monthly fee starting around **$500**. The return comes from speed: you see an underperforming keyword Friday afternoon and pause it before the weekend budget burns. You shift dollars from search to display because the dashboard shows display driving repeat purchases at higher margin. You do not wait for an agency to send a deck the following Tuesday. The platform does not make the strategy—you still decide which product to promote and what message to test—but it removes the two-day delay between decision and execution that costs a small brand more than the software fee.

The broader pattern is retail media moving from a direct-response tactic to a full-funnel system that includes awareness, consideration, and in-store conversion. The **43 percent** underutilization figure, per IAB and Grocery TV research, suggests most brands still treat retail media as a last-mile keyword play and ignore the screens, endcaps, and sampling stations that close the sale inside the store. The platform consolidation happening now makes it easier to plan and measure those upper-funnel touchpoints alongside bottom-funnel search, which means a brand that connects the layers today builds an advantage before the playbook becomes common knowledge.

## The takeaway

Unified retail media systems eliminate the reconciliation delay between planning and activation, letting small brands reallocate budget mid-flight based on live conversion data.

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## Publisher

**Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339.
Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**.

- Author: https://www.huanggoodman.com/about
- LLM context: https://www.pops4.com/stash/llms.txt
- MCP endpoint, for AI agents: https://mcp.pops4.com/mcp
- Client dashboard: https://dashboard.pops4.com/
- Catalogue: 70,000+ products, 200+ brands