<strong>43 percent of marketers admit they underutilize in-store retail media despite viewing it as a full-funnel channel, according to research from IAB and Grocery TV reported by The Shelby Report. The gap is not skepticism—it is execution. Brands recognize that screens at shelf drive awareness, consideration, and conversion in a single environment, yet deployment lags behind intent.
The mechanism is proximity. In-store retail media—digital screens positioned in checkout aisles, endcaps, and category zones—reaches shoppers at the moment of highest purchase intent. Unlike social or search, where a customer scrolls past an ad hours before buying, in-store media fires when the cart is open and the wallet is out. The IAB study confirms that marketers see value across the funnel, meaning they understand the channel works for both brand-building and immediate conversion. The friction is not belief. It is budget allocation, attribution complexity, and the operational inertia of legacy media plans.
The disconnect explains why physical product brands are leaving margin on the table. A shopper standing in the beverage aisle who sees a 15-second ad for a new sparkling water on a cooler-mounted screen converts at a rate no Instagram Story can match. The brand gets attribution within store purchase data, the retailer collects margin on the media buy, and the shopper discovers product without friction. Yet 43 percent of marketers—nearly half—report they are not fully leveraging this.
The steal for a small physical-product brand starts with retailer partnerships, not ad spend. Most regional and national grocery chains now operate or license in-store retail media networks. Brands with shelf presence can approach the retailer's media sales team and negotiate a test flight: $500 to $2,000 buys a week of exposure in 10 to 50 stores, depending on the network and geography. The creative requirement is minimal—15 seconds, static or simple motion, product shot with a single message. The targeting is implicit: the screen is in the aisle where the product already sits.
A one-person brand running this play focuses on three levers. First, align the screen message with an on-shelf promotion or new SKU launch to create a closed loop between media and merchandising. Second, request post-campaign sales lift data from the retailer; most networks now provide basket-level attribution showing whether exposed shoppers bought. Third, document the result and use it to negotiate permanent placement or scale to additional stores. The advantage over digital display or social is that the signal is clean—no multi-touch ambiguity, no question whether the shopper saw the ad before entering the store.
The broader pattern is that physical retail is becoming addressable media infrastructure. The same dynamics that drove the rise of Amazon Advertising—closed-loop attribution, high-intent audience, first-party purchase data—now apply to grocery, drug, and mass merchant aisles. Brands that treat in-store screens as a full-funnel channel, not a sampling afterthought, compress the gap between discovery and purchase to seconds. The 43 percent who underutilize the medium are not ignoring it; they are waiting for someone else to prove it works. The first mover takes the margin.
In-store retail media closes the loop between ad exposure and purchase in seconds; test a $500 flight and capture clean attribution.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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