Retail Media Market Size Per Country: 6 Countries and Companies Leaving Their Mark

The third wave of digital marketing—retail media—isn’t merely a freak wave. It’s evolved into a significant revenue stream and marketing channel across the globe.

While the retail media landscape shares similarities across markets, each country has unique players and specific strategies for using their digital and offline presence to drive sales. Here’s a look at how main players in six of the biggest markets are using it not only to generate income but also to improve the customer experience.

The United States leads the retail media market globally, with tech and retail giants dominating the scene. About half of marketers feel that retail media’s higher return on investment (ROI) is the main factor accelerating the growth of retail media investments in the US. To put this growth into perspective, it’s estimated that retail media ad spending in the US has reached almost $60B in 2024 and anticipated to reach about $72 billion in 2025 and to exceed $100 billion by 2027.

Amazon sets the benchmark with its powerful ad platform. In 2024, its retail media ad revenues in the US reached $41.95 billion – with strong retailers like Walmart and Target lagging behind with $3.72B (Walmart) and $1.76B (Target), according to eMarketer.

One of the reasons why they managed to become synonymous with retail media is that they take a customer-focused approach. Relevance (and budget) are prioritized and the platform will display products that best match online shoppers’ search. 

Plus, the fact that it has one of the biggest data sets doesn’t hurt. A huge part of its retail media success lies in customer data allowing it to offer brands impressive targeting features. 

Combine these targeting features with its variety of advertising formats and it gives brands flexibility to adapt its offering to their specific goal. Then, with its reporting features, brands can track the results in real time and optimize their campaigns accordingly to meet these goals. 

Part of its strategy for the new year is also to help other retail brands leverage this channel. Its Amazon Retail Ad Service will make its retail media ad tech stack available to smaller brands, like regional grocers and specialist retailers, allowing them to run display and search ads on their own sites.

While Amazon is the dominant player, they had a head start years before everyone else and since then a number of other interesting networks have come to the scene. Walmart Connect and Target Roundel are also worth watching. 

For example, Walmart recorded a growth of 26.4% in 2023, 0.4% higher than the overall US retail media market. In fact, a survey completed during 2023 and 2024 reveals that Walmart Connect was the most-used retail media network in the US with 74% of marketers leveraging it. Amazon was used by only 61% of marketers, followed by Target Roundel with 51%. 

As for the top retail media platforms, Criteo and CitrusAds take the lead. A survey completed among US advertising decision-makers revealed that 82% worked with these two aggregated platforms.  

It’s anticipated that retail media ad spending in Canada will reach $3.7 in 2025. While it’s still far from the country’s digital ad spending that’s expected to exceed $17 billion in the same period, it still managed to grow by 43% since 2023. Plus, it already accounts for 20% of all digital ad spending, according to eMARKETER.  

Much of this growth is driven by Loblaw Companies Ltd., according to Mars United Commerce. Their stats reveal that Loblaw attracts 11 million unique online visitors and 18 million unique in-store shoppers per month. 

For example, in 2023, Loblaw added digital signage advertising to their suite of omnichannel solutions to leverage its huge network of in-store shoppers. This new service allows brands to display internal and external ads on 65-inch video screens positioned in high-traffic areas.

In addition to its in-store efforts, Loblaw Advance (the retail media arm of Loblaw) also uses its PC Optimum loyalty program that has 16 million active users. Combining this program with its eCommerce platforms, brands can reach millions of monthly visitors at its retail banners.   

Like in the US, Criteo and CitrusAd also have a strong presence in Canada. Criteo, for example, is key partners to Albertsons Media Collective, Best Buy, CVS Media Exchange, Dollar General Media Network, Uber and Target Roundel. Other key players include: The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, and Epsilon. 

According to data shared at Retail Media Upfronts 2024, the ad spend on retail media in the UK will add up to more than £1.3 billion (that’s about $1.7 billion). What makes this figure even more impressive is that it excludes Amazon. If you include Amazon, it’s on track to exceed £4 billion in 2025. 

This growth is showing no sign of slowing down and will increase with about £3 billion between 2025 and 2028. 

While Amazon takes the lead, Boots isn’t far behind. 

In 2022, 30% of media agency professionals listed Boots as the most desirable retailer for ad displays. Fast-forward two years and its brand is still healthy, boasting a brand index score of 38 points that puts it in ninth spot on YouGov’s Best Brand Rankings. 

Ollie Shayer, Omni-media Director at Boots, explains that the tech’s rapid evolution has allowed them to improve data activation and measurement. This enabled them to build very innovative, full-funnel, objective-led campaigns. 

To make sense of all this data, they rely heavily on artificial intelligence (AI). It’s been one of the key tools that have helped them to become one of the major retail media players in the UK. 

They’re also the first UK retailer that lets brands leverage loyalty card data within Criteo’s Retail Media Platform. Boots Media Group can link online and in-store data, enabling brands to personalise ads and measure how online media impacts online as well as in-store sales more effectively. 

While Criteo has had a huge impact on Boots, it’s not the only retail media platform that deserves special mention. Another retail media platform that is rated as a top player is dunnhumby Sphere, Dunhumby’s self-serve retail media platform, having partnered with Tesco, one of the biggest and best-known retail media networks. The Trade Desk has also established its presence in the UK through its partnership with Nectar360, another top UK retail media network, which is the retail media network of leading UK retailers such as Argos & Sainsbury’s, allowing advertisers to expand their campaigns across the open web, including online video (OLV) and CTV.

Digital retail media ad revenue in Spain was predicted to reach about $510 million in 2024, about only 4% of the European digital retail marketing. That said, according to data published by Statista Research Department, Spain is expected to be the second-fastest digital retail media marketing in Europe in the next two years (if excluding Amazon). 

What’s more, about six out of 10 eCommerce pros in Spain think about using retail media to boost brand visibility and four out of 10 agencies consider offering retail media as a service. So, there’s growing interest in this channel. 

Mars United Commerce’s Retail Media Report Card for Europe that it published in October 2024 identifies PromoFarma and PcComponentes as two main players fuelling the growth.  

For example, the online pharmacy PromoFarma that specialises in health and beauty products uses retail media to collaborate with external partners and introduce new website visitors to new and top-performing products. Data and natural language processing (NLP) are key to their retail media strategy. 

With first-party data, brands can personalise ads. To ensure that these personalized ads are relevant, NLP is used to extract meaning from users’ search queries via their online store or app allowing them to identify and recommend the most relevant keywords to their partners. 

Beer, bratwurst, and now retail media—these are the things that Germany is known for. According to the Statista Research Department, Germany boasted the biggest digital retail media market in Europe in 2023, generating advertising revenues of $1.71 billion. That said, EMARKETER suggests that it could even have been higher and estimated its retail media ad spending at $2.22 billion for 2023. In 2024, it increased gradually to $2.73 billion, still well ahead of other markets like France. 

The German supermarket chain Rewe, one of the country’s major retail media players, takes quite a different approach to many of the other key players discussed. Top players typically dedicate the biggest portion of their budget to eCommerce platforms. While Rewe started their digital retail media offerings in their online shop in 2022, they now rely heavily on digital tech at the point of sale. 

Lionel Souque, CEO of Rewe Group, explains in an interview with McKinsey & Company, that they have over 3,000 screens, developed by a dedicated team, in their Rewe and Penny stores for displaying ads. They take this approach as it allows them to get as close as possible to the purchase decision, which manufacturers like. 

As for the top retail media platforms, CitrusAd and Kevel are two other key players.

France’s retail media market was about half the size of Germany’s in 2024 ($1.39 billion versus $2.73 billion). In 2025, France’s retail media ad spending will still be below $2 billion, which it’s expected to exceed only in 2026. 

E.Leclerc, which operates a hypermarket chain and an online platform, is one of the main retail media players in France. With the help of Criteo and its ad agency ConsoRégie, it focuses on leveraging customer data. 

Its retail media strategy involves using sponsored product advertising for its non-food website during the holiday season. It’s available for all brands and product categories sold on its non-food site which attracts about 17 million unique monthly visitors. 

With the help of sponsored products, brands can market their products directly on various places such as the home page, search engine results, product and category pages. Not only does it improve visibility, but it also improves customers’ digital shopping experience.  

It also plans to use the same format for its drive-through site. The goal— to strengthen its positions as brands’ preferred partner for retail media. 

Here, Criteo is also a key player, along with budgetbox and Lucky Cart.

Retail media networks across the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, Germany, and France showcase the growing global trend of leveraging retail platforms to reach consumers through targeted advertising. Each country has its unique players, from Amazon’s dominant position in the US (and globally) to Rewe Group in Germany preferring to keep it more local by focusing on digital tech at the point of sale. 

As consumer behaviors continue to evolve, these retail media networks will undoubtedly play an increasingly significant role in shaping the future of advertising. Retail media networks and platforms offer brands powerful tools to engage with customers across both physical and digital spaces.