UNLOCKING RETAIL MEDIA IN IRELAND
Retail Media in Ireland sits at an important inflection point. Interest is high, investment is growing, and the potential is clear, yet progress has been uneven and often slower than expected.
Understanding where promise meets reality, and what is required to unlock sustainable growth, is now critical for advertisers, retailers and agencies alike.
Promise, Progress and Patience Online
Retail Media has become one of the most talked-about yet unevenly developed segments within the Irish advertising landscape. While momentum is building, progress has been slower and less coordinated than many had anticipated.
Traditional Retail Media remains resilient, with strong in-store formats and point-of-sale activations that continue to deliver both scale and familiarity for brands. However, the digital dimension — central to growth in other markets — remains at an early stage in Ireland. Advertisers are eager to access retailers’ rich first-party data, but progress has been gradual.
Several factors explain this slower evolution. While Amazon.ie has now launched locally, many Irish consumers continue to purchase via the UK domain, attracted by broader ranges and sharper pricing. This behaviour limits the scale of Amazon’s domestic audience and the effectiveness of its advertising proposition.
The digital maturity of Irish retailers also varies significantly. Musgrave, Tesco and Dunnes Stores are advancing at different paces, with each building its own model for closed-loop measurement and shopper engagement. Online grocery continues to grow incrementally. Services such as Musgrave’s same-day delivery and Whoosh from Tesco have improved convenience but have yet to drive a major shift in total online grocery share.
Looking ahead, 2026 should bring steady advancement. Amazon’s potential expansion into same-day delivery and the expected entry of new players such as Boots and Deliveroo into Retail Media will help accelerate growth. The trajectory will likely remain steady rather than explosive, as Irish retailers build the digital infrastructure and data sophistication needed to realise Retail Media’s full potential.
For advertisers, this represents a timely window of opportunity. With the Retail Media landscape still at a relatively early stage of development in Ireland, now is the moment to begin testing and learning. For endemic brands — those that sell directly through a retailer’s ecosystem — Retail Media offers the ability to influence shoppers close to the point of purchase using rich first-party data. For non-endemic brands — those that do not sell through the retailer but want to reach its shoppers — it provides access to highly valuable, intent-rich audiences in a brand-safe environment. Getting in early allows advertisers to build capability, refine their approach and establish a competitive advantage before the channel becomes more saturated and cost pressures increase.
The Need for Clear Stakeholder Ownership
As Retail Media gains momentum globally, a familiar challenge is emerging: unclear ownership. Much like the early days of digital advertising, where marketing, digital, social, ecommerce and agency teams each claimed partial control, Retail Media is now grappling with the same fragmentation.
Within brand teams, the lines between trade, marketing and digital commerce are increasingly blurred. Trade teams view Retail Media as an extension of shopper marketing, marketing teams see it as a brand-building opportunity, agencies seek to integrate it into media planning, and retailers — crucially — are becoming both platforms and partners.
This issue is not confined to Ireland. Even in more mature markets like the UK, ownership ambiguity persists, leading to inconsistent investment models and slow progress toward standardisation.
To unlock Retail Media’s full potential, agencies, clients and Retail Media owners must establish clear ownership frameworks that connect brand and trade objectives under a unified strategy. This means defining roles across internal teams and external partners, ensuring alignment on metrics and embedding Retail Media within the broader marketing ecosystem rather than treating it as a siloed channel.
Ultimately, the winners in Retail Media will be those who move beyond territorial thinking to embrace collaboration, shared data and consistent reporting.
Digitisation, Innovation and the Expanding Role of In-Store
Digitisation is reshaping Retail Media, although its evolution in Ireland continues at a measured pace. Innovation is accelerating, but the centre of gravity remains firmly in the physical store. This is where scale, shopper attention and tangible influence converge, which explains why in-store still accounts for the largest share of Retail Media activity. Online retail has recorded modest incremental growth, but it has not yet reached the level of maturity required to shift the balance meaningfully.
Most retailers are now investing in a broader and more sophisticated suite of advertising formats. Elevate (aka Musgrave) is rolling out upgraded in-store screens and improved targeting capability, reflecting a clear ambition to enhance the immediacy and measurability of campaigns. Tesco is expanding its owned inventory, adding new digital touchpoints that allow for more dynamic and data-enabled shopper engagement. Products such as “Store Wraps” and “Scan as you Shop” now allow near and endemic advertisers to target shoppers before and during their shop, with “In-Store Theatre” options also becoming available across Tesco’s largest stores.
These developments mirror the growing appetite among brands for closer integration between the physical and digital paths to purchase.
To date, spend has been concentrated largely among endemic brands, particularly those seeking closed-loop evaluation — connecting an advertisement directly to a measurable outcome and direct sales impact. However, as digitisation improves and more omnichannel opportunities emerge, Retail Media will become a more natural environment for non-endemic brands. Whether promoting financial services, entertainment, telecommunications or travel, brands outside traditional categories can now access rich shopper audiences through first-party data and increasingly flexible formats.
For endemic advertisers, rising digitisation and closed-loop reporting provide clearer evidence of sales impact, making in-store investment more accountable and more effective. For non-endemic brands, richer first-party data and improved targeting create new opportunities to reach high-value audiences well beyond retail categories.
Together, these shifts elevate Retail Media into a fully measurable, omnichannel channel that delivers clear value for advertisers.
