TL;DR: Retail media now accounts for more than one-in-five dollars of total digital ad spend in the U.S. This report benchmarks how marketers are allocating spend, building capabilities, and creating advantages in 2026, with a special view into what separates leaders from laggards.
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(Full report available for download below)
While retail media is the fastest growing digital advertising type in the U.S., many brands still struggle to scale it efficiently. Measurement gaps persist. Operations haven’t kept pace with rapid network proliferation. And many organizations are still figuring out how to integrate AI into day-to-day retail media execution.
To better understand where brands are succeeding and getting stuck, Stratably and Skai surveyed 166 brand and agency organizations on the most pressing retail media challenges and opportunities they expect to face in 2026.
The State of Retail Media Report serves as a practical benchmark for how brands are allocating budget, building capabilities, and making decisions in an increasingly complex retail media environment. It examines what separates leading brands from the rest of the market and where the next competitive advantages will emerge.
What’s Inside the Report
Based on a survey of 166 brand and agency organizations and in-depth conversations with 40 retail media leaders, the report covers:
- Adoption levels across 15 retail media networks
- What leading brands do differently than the rest of the industry
- How budget allocations are shifting between Amazon, Walmart, and more
- How organizations are using generative AI across creative, analytics, and campaign optimization
- The state of incrementality measurement, including real results from leading brands and agencies
Who It’s For
This report is designed for practitioners and leaders responsible for retail media performance and decision-making, spanning retail media, ecommerce, and marketing teams within consumer brands and agencies.
Organizations looking to benchmark their maturity and identify the capabilities that create a sustainable retail media edge will find this report especially valuable.
