Wolt’s Catalina Salazar discusses why measurement matters - building trust and scale in retail media

Retail media has evolved from an experimental ad channel into one of the most powerful drivers of digital advertising growth.

In fact, it is projected to account for 22% of all digital ad spend by 2025, making it one of the fastest growing segments in the industry. This rapid adoption is fuelled by access to first-party data, a unique advantage that allows retailers and brands to target consumers closer to the point of purchase.

But as retail media networks (RMNs) scale, they face mounting challenges in proving ad effectiveness, demonstrating ROI, and building advertiser trust. Advertisers demand a clear, privacy safe understanding of campaign performance that goes beyond basic engagement metrics to show real business outcomes.

At the same time, privacy regulations and the deprecation of third-party cookies have accelerated the shift toward first-party data collaboration, making it the foundation of modern retail media strategies.

Measurement is the anchor of RMN success. Without accurate, transparent insights, advertisers struggle to assess campaign performance, optimise spending, and justify continued investment. A recent IAB report found that 41% of advertisers feel RMNs lag behind other channels in measurement capabilities. Unlike search and social media platforms, which have spent years refining their attribution models, many RMNs still face hurdles in offering cross-platform measurement, deduplicated attribution, and standardised reporting.

Key pain points include:

●      Inconsistent methodologies: Advertisers lack a uniform way to measure performance across RMNs, making comparisons difficult.

●      Limited transparency: Many RMNs operate as walled gardens, restricting access to raw data and forcing brands to rely on black box reporting.

●      Fragmented insights: Most retail media campaigns span multiple platforms such as onsite, offsite, and in-store. Measuring cross-channel impact in a unified way remains a challenge.

These gaps create friction between RMNs and advertisers, slowing adoption and making it harder for brands to scale their investment in retail media.

The deprecation of third-party cookies has forced the industry to rethink data driven advertising. Instead of relying on traditional mechanisms, retailers and brands must collaborate to unlock insights without exposing sensitive customer data.

A privacy first approach to data collaboration ensures that both advertisers and retailers can gain actionable insights without compromising consumer trust. The key is leveraging a neutral, identity agnostic clean room solution that allows both parties to combine and analyse data securely.

Today’s advertisers expect a comprehensive, privacy safe measurement framework that provides clear, actionable insights. The most advanced RMNs already prioritise:

●      Omnichannel measurement: Understanding the full consumer journey across onsite, offsite (such as social media, search, DSPs), and in-store touchpoints.

●      Deduplicated attribution: Eliminating double counting across platforms to ensure accurate performance measurement.

●      SKU level insights: Connecting ad spend to individual product sales for deeper performance analysis.

●      Incrementality measurement: Determining whether an ad drove a new sale or simply reached an existing customer who would have purchased anyway.

●      Current, easy to access data: Providing current, easy to access data that enables advertisers to adjust campaigns on the fly.

Wolt’s Catalina Salazar: As RMNs continue to scale, the industry must move beyond basic performance metrics and embrace comprehensive, privacy centric measurement solutions.

These capabilities are increasingly seen as the standard for modern retail media measurement, helping advertisers justify spend and optimise for maximum impact.

To meet these evolving demands, leading RMNs and brands are embracing data clean rooms as the foundation of their measurement strategies. Clean rooms enable secure, privacy first collaboration by allowing multiple parties to analyse aggregated data without directly sharing individual-level information.

The right clean room solution should be:

●      Identity agnostic: Avoiding dependence on third-party identifiers that may be restricted in the future.

●      Flexible and interoperable: Supporting various measurement methodologies tailored to different advertiser needs.

●      Independent and neutral: Free from platform biases, ensuring transparent and unbiased attribution.

By leveraging clean rooms, RMNs and brands can move beyond the limitations of traditional walled gardens and build a measurement framework that fosters trust and long-term growth.

As RMNs continue to scale, the industry must move beyond basic performance metrics and embrace comprehensive, privacy centric measurement solutions. The future will be shaped by more advanced attribution models that go beyond last click attribution, allowing advertisers to capture the full impact of media investments across channels and touchpoints.

In parallel, there will be greater cross-platform integration. Connecting RMN data with other advertising ecosystems, such as the Data Collaboration Platform (DCP) provided by AppsFlyer, will deliver a more holistic view of the customer journey. Just as importantly, stronger collaboration between brands and retailers will unlock new insights through secure data partnerships, all built on a foundation of privacy and transparency.

Ultimately, success in retail media is not just about having more data. It is about making that data smarter, more actionable, and privacy first. RMNs that prioritise measurement, trust, and usability will lead the next phase of retail media’s evolution, ensuring sustainable growth for both retailers and advertisers.