The questions every retail CEO should ask about retail media
If you're a retail CEO who's just inherited a retail media operation - or decided it’s a strategic priority - these are the questions to ask your team that separate a real part of your business engine from a project in disguise.
Quick answer
Most retailers have some form of retail media (or shopper marketing) revenue. Very few know what's actually underneath it, who owns it, or what it could realistically be worth. These eight questions to ask internally will tell you quickly whether you have a business, a project, or nothing at all.
Why these questions matter
Retail media has evolved from a specialist niche to a boardroom priority. Analysts are asking about it on earnings calls. Kingfisher named it as a margin lever in their FY results. Sainsbury's CEO is talking about multi-touch attribution and incrementality to investors. Tesco calls their retail media ecosystem "the largest closed-loop media network in the UK." Increasingly, retail media is a core part of the retail engine that drives the business forward to better serve customers.
But for every retailer at that level of maturity, there are dozens where retail media exists as a revenue line that nobody can fully explain, owned by nobody in particular, generating far less than it should.
If you're new to the role, or retail media has just landed on your agenda, the first job isn't to build a strategy. It's to understand what you're actually working with.
The questions every retail CEO should ask their team about retail media
1. Who owns data and media monetisation today?
Is there a single accountable person empowered to make decisions, or is it spread across functions? The answer to this question alone will tell you a lot. If three people in different teams all think they own it - or nobody does - you have an organisational problem before you have a commercial one.
"If three people think they own it - or nobody does - you have an organisational problem before a commercial one."
2. Of your current supplier-funded revenue, how much is contractual versus discretionary?
And how much is tied to in-store activity - point-of-sale, merchandising or print magazine - versus digital? The split matters because contractual in-store spend is not retail media. It's trade marketing with a new name. Many retailers are reporting numbers that include both, which blurs the lines and the picture of what is the baseline vs opportunity. It is not easy. But having a clear view of total supplier investments is the prerequisite to knowing how much retail media revenue is incremental, when your CFO asks.
3. Has anyone modelled what this could actually be worth?
Based on your customer data, visit frequency, and supplier base - what's the realistic size of the prize? Not the aspirational number based on external benchmarks; the credible one based on your actual business. If nobody has done this work, it's usually because nobody owns the question.
4. What are your top ten suppliers investing in data and retail media today?
In absolute spend and as a percentage of their sales value with you. This is the demand signal. A quick review will give you an idea of where you have clear partners, whether there is consistency in terms of proportions invested, and will almost certainly highlight clear gaps (opportunity space).
"Brands will pay a premium for outcomes. They won't pay a premium for reach they can buy cheaper elsewhere."
5. What are the top three things suppliers need in order to invest more?
If your team doesn’t know this off the top of their head from spending time with supplier teams, you are really starting from scratch. It won’t be only three things, but there should be an idea of prioritisation.
But. A few watch outs here: People say and do different things; to truly know, you need to understand their bigger picture - how their business is doing in relation to yours, their priorities, their personal motivations and internal politics.
And money spent on retail media comes from different pots within brands and it’s likely there are at least two, possibly three or four, decision makers to understand. Your account manager needs are very different to those of the media agency director.
I’m writing on the basis that your focus is endemic brands; those that are distributed via your stores. While non-endemic can be a paying customer, I’d recommend to focus first on your core.
6. Do suppliers get closed-loop measurement?
Can they see the direct sales impact of their spend? If not, what do they get? Closed-loop measurement - the ability to connect media exposure to purchase behaviour - is the fundamental commercial proposition of retail media. Without it, you're selling reach, not outcomes. Brands will pay a premium for outcomes. They won't pay a premium for reach they can buy cheaper elsewhere.
Sidebar: Measurement in itself is a whole, largely unsolved, thesis - I’m purposely keeping things brief here but reach out if you’d like to discuss further.
7. What customer data assets are actually live for commercial use today?
Versus still in build, still in legal review, or still being debated internally. There is often a significant gap between what the data team believes is available and what the commercial team can actually sell against in a way that is accessible for suppliers and scalable operationally. Find out which side of that gap you're on.
8. If a supplier came to you tomorrow wanting to spend £500k on data and media this year - what would you recommend, and who would close the deal?
This is the stress test. Walk it through. Who takes the brief? Who builds the proposal? What would you actually sell them? Who executes it? Where does the revenue land in the P&L? If that chain of custody isn't clear, you don't yet have a functioning retail media business.
What to do with the answers
There are many more questions to delve into, but these are the starters to define a contained diagnostic. Who are the target clients and what will they buy? What's the product? What's the org? How does it go to market? What's the size of the prize?
And most importantly, when you line all this up with the core retail business, your end customers and your strategic direction will get you to your why. Not just the commercial opportunity, but how retail media can be a win-win-win for customers, for suppliers, and for the retail business.
What to do next becomes clear as you work through each element. Each area gets a clear "so what." The roadmap writes itself.
"The retailers who go furthest, fastest are the ones who ask the hard questions and don't ignore the operational transformation required."
In my experience working with retailers from Sainsbury's and Tesco through to building Delivery Hero's retail media business from €15m to €120m across 20+ markets - the retailers who go furthest, fastest, are the ones who are relentless about the core business and how retail media fits in as part of the engine, not as an add-on. The ones who ask the hard questions, make the tough calls and don’t ignore the operational transformation that is required to make this work. Not the ones who spend 12 months on strategy that sits in a slide deck.
Who this is for
Carroll Commerce works with retail CEOs, CCOs, and Chief Digital Officers who know retail media is a strategic priority but need an experienced operator to diagnose where they are and build the commercial momentum to move. If these questions have surfaced issues you'd like to think through, get in touch with Tara Carroll.
FAQ: The questions every CEO should ask about retail media
What is retail media?
Retail media is the ecosystem that allows brands to reach shoppers using a retailer's first-party data and media inventory - on their website, app, in-store, and across the wider web. For retailers, it's a high-margin revenue stream built on data and audience they already own. See more detail on what retail media is here.
How much revenue can retail media generate for a retailer?
It varies significantly by scale, customer data depth, and commercial maturity. Tesco and Sainsbury's operate at hundreds of millions in annual retail media revenue. For mid-sized retailers, a realistic starting point is modelling the opportunity based on your customer data volume, visit frequency, and supplier base - rather than benchmarking against the largest players. Carroll Commerce can help retailers do this modelling as part of an initial diagnostic.
Who should own retail media inside a retail organisation?
This is one of the most common and consequential questions. Retail media sits at the intersection of commercial, marketing, data, and technology - which means it often ends up owned by nobody, or contested by several teams. The most effective structure is a dedicated retail media function with a single accountable leader, clear mandate from the CEO or CCO, and defined handshakes with category, marketing and tech. Without this, retail media almost always stalls.
What is the difference between retail media and trade marketing?
Trade marketing - end-of-aisle displays, promotions, print - has existed since the 1990s and is typically funded from supplier trade budgets, negotiated between buyers and account managers, and difficult to measure. Retail media uses digital infrastructure and first-party data to make supplier investment measurable, targeted, and directly linked to sales outcomes. Many retailers are currently reporting a combined number that includes both - separating them is an important early step.
How long does it take to build a retail media network?
A meaningful retail media capability - with a clear product, commercial model, and measurement infrastructure - typically takes 12 to 24 months to build properly from scratch. The transformation to embed retail media in the business takes much longer. The retailers who move fastest are those with strong CEO mandate, a clear operating model from the start, and an experienced operator leading the build rather than a strategy team producing recommendations.