Retail media

Retail media is the ad space and shopping data that a retailer or marketplace sells to brands. In Vietnam it is usually called marketplace advertising. Shopee Ads, TikTok Shop’s GMV Max and sponsored ads on Lazada are all retail media.

What is retail media?

IAB Europe defines retail media as the digital ad space, retail data assets and in-store opportunities that a retailer or marketplace owns and opens up to brands for campaigns. The goal can be awareness, sales or launching a new product (IAB Europe, 101 Guide to Retail Media, September 2023). The definition splits retail media into three groups:

• On-site: ads on the retailer’s or marketplace’s own website and app, such as sponsored products in search results, banners and video. Search ads are usually paid on CPC, while banners and video can be bought on CPM.
• Off-site: using the retailer’s data to buy ads elsewhere, such as social media, CTV and outdoor screens.
• In-store: screens, radio and scanners inside the store.

In Vietnam, retail media almost always means on-site ads on Shopee, TikTok Shop and Lazada. On-site ads only run for products being sold on that same marketplace.

Why is retail media getting so much attention in 2025 and 2026?

Money is flowing in fast. WARC forecasts global retail media spend will reach $223.4 billion in 2027, or 15.2% of all ad spend worldwide. Take Amazon out and growth in 2027 drops to 9.8%, the lowest since WARC started tracking it (WARC, The Future of Commerce Media 2026, August 2026). In other words, the money is concentrating in a few of the biggest platforms.

Southeast Asia is moving the same way. In Q2 2026, Shopee’s ad revenue grew more than 70% year over year, while its GMV grew 28% (Sea Limited, Second Quarter 2026 Results, August 2026). In Vietnam, e-commerce GMV for the first nine months of 2026 reached 411.8 trillion VND, with Shopee holding 53% of the market and TikTok Shop 45% (YouNet ECI, Vietnam E-commerce Report Q3 2026, October 2026). With two marketplaces holding almost the whole market, sellers’ marketplace ad budgets pile into those two as well.

Strengths and limits

The ads appear while shoppers are looking for products, and the marketplace can tie ad views to real orders. IAB calls this closed-loop measurement, built on the retailer’s first-party data (IAB, Retail Media Buyer’s Guide, July 2023).

The limit is that the marketplace both sells the ad space and grades its own results. Each marketplace has its own rules for crediting orders, and advertisers cannot add their own pixel to cross-check. In an IAB Europe survey, 70% of buyers said the lack of a common measurement standard is a barrier to investing in retail media.

Retail media vs. social media ads and search ads

Frequently asked questions

How is retail media different from commerce media?

Commerce media is the broader term. It also covers businesses that are not retailers but hold transaction data, such as food delivery apps, ride-hailing apps and e-wallets. Retail media is the part that belongs to retailers and marketplaces.

Does a high marketplace ROAS mean you are profitable?

Not necessarily. The ROAS a marketplace reports is calculated before marketplace fees, cost of goods and returned or canceled orders, and it may include organic orders too. Compare it with the break-even ROAS of each product. For TikTok Shop, see also GMV Max.

If you run ads on Shopee, TikTok Shop or Lazada and want to review how you set target ROAS, Adtek’s Brand Commerce team can go through it with you via our contact page.