AI Search to Disrupt Discovery for Retailers — Here's 3 Companies Thinking Outside The Box

Three Companies Monetizing Moments That Most Retailers Ignore
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[00:00:00] Kiri Masters: New research from E-marketer and Bain asked retail media network leaders what actually worries them and the top concerns were related to AG agentic shopping, 36% put zero click [00:00:15] or Gen AI search disrupting discovery at the top of their concerns List another 28% flagged AG agentic AI changing ad buyer decision making.

[00:00:26] This is because if AI shopping agents [00:00:30] handle product discovery and possibly even in the future purchase decisions, sponsored search revenue is at risk. The audience data driving offsite display also becomes. Less scarce [00:00:45] retail media leaders, in my opinion, are right to worry about the long-term future of their p and l.

[00:00:52] Steven, newborn partner and global leader of Bain's retail media practice said on the webinar, sharing the survey results [00:01:00] that retailers need to experiment with alternate ways of working with brand partners.

[00:01:05] But three companies are testing approaches that might matter. They're each building a win-win model for brands and retailers outside of the [00:01:15] standard, onsite, offsite in-store media playbook.

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[00:01:20] Kiri Masters: So here's the thing, more than 200 retail media networks compete for advertiser budgets, and the distribution of spend is highly. [00:01:30] Concentrated with just two players. Amazon with about 75% of US retail media spend, and Walmart, with 7% of US retail media spend. Everyone else is fighting over about [00:01:45] 16% of retail media revenue, and most networks offer the same kind of products to advertisers.

[00:01:54] Sponsored product listings, offsite display audience extension, And while retail [00:02:00] media has grown at an incredibly strong clip the last few years, growth is slowing from 25.1% in 2024 to a projected 15.6% this year [00:02:15] per the IAB.

[00:02:16] And this creates a backdrop where retailers need to really get creative with win-win solutions that they're offering their brand partners that are differentiated from an Amazon [00:02:30] or a Walmart, it's very difficult to beat Amazon at its advertising game.

[00:02:35] So without further ado, here's a quick primer on three companies doing something a little bit different. First one is rocked. Now you've probably seen rocked in [00:02:45] some post-purchase journeys. Once you've clicked buy at a retailer, you might have been served an offer for a discount on a Disney subscription

[00:02:58] Or a trial of [00:03:00] another kind of subscription. Those are the ones that I've seen at least. And what the bet is here is that people are most receptive to offers right after they complete a purchase. Not beforehand. So rocked uses [00:03:15] machine learning to serve ads on thank you, or order confirmation pages personally as a shopper, I see this in a lot of places, and they just signed on with PayPal as well, which really give rocked an additional [00:03:30] rocket ship here. So an interesting case study that they shared with me was with BJ's Wholesale Club and BJ's actually ran ads on rocked, um, rocks Network to attract new members to their wholesale club and their member acquisition [00:03:45] grew 3000% year over year through these rocked ads, and they were able to capture, uh, digitally savvy new members averaging 10 years younger than BJ's existing customer base.

[00:03:58] So these offers [00:04:00] that are shown to customers post-purchase really do. Work very well, and it gives the retailer themselves a bit of a halo effect because they're sort of giving this gift to a customer after they've completed a purchase. [00:04:15] So a real win-win and a very smart opportunity for retailers to consider. Retailers know that a marketplace model can dramatically boost product [00:04:30] assortment, shopper engagement, and total revenue. But to get the most out of your marketplace, you need an ad tech solution that can really engage sellers. Miracle Ads is powering the future of retail media for leading [00:04:45] retailers to activate both three P Sellers and one P brands.

[00:04:49] Learn more@miracle.com. That's M-I-R-A-K l.com.

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[00:04:57] Kiri Masters: Number two, swish. [00:05:00] And this is a really cool solution. It is programmatic product trial, and the bet here is treat the product itself as media by putting full size samples [00:05:15] directly into online grocery. Based on purchase behavior, how it works is CPG brands fund product additions to grocery orders, targeting specific households or demographics or [00:05:30] behaviors.

[00:05:31] Every trial counts as a full sale for the retailer. And enters the shopper purchase history. So this is the genius part of Swish. What I really liked is that for the retailer, it's a win. They're getting the product [00:05:45] sale because the CBG brand is treating it as a sale, which is great. , And having it show up in your purchase history now puts it into my repurchase algorithm.

[00:05:59] I'm more [00:06:00] likely to see it, be reminded of it again. I just think this is so smart. It's limited right now at, um, Stater Brothers Markets in California. It's a new company. Um, I think it's a really interesting [00:06:15] concept to check out for emerging brands or, uh, larger CPG brands doing new product launches, new flavors, things like that.

[00:06:24] 'Cause it really helps to. Solve the cold start problem by [00:06:30] removing choice friction entirely. I love this concept. I'm really wishing swish all the very best. But that and then . Company number three, nift, which is gifting as acquisition. And the bet here is to turn [00:06:45] thank you moments into brand discovery opportunities through personalized gifts delivered after consumer actions like reviews, payments, loyalty point transfers, or app downloads.

[00:06:59] So [00:07:00] how it works is nif s. AI matches consumers with relevant gift offers from over 12,000 merchants at receptive moments through the customer journey. So one company that Nift worked [00:07:15] with was Klarna and Klarna reported a 30% click-through rate and a 40% gift activation rate from working with Nift.

[00:07:25] 88% of recipients rate gifts positively and [00:07:30] 70% plan to use the brand again.

[00:07:32] So all very cool ideas and innovative ways that retailers and brands can work together to activate new customers, introduce new products [00:07:45] into the ecosystem. And I just love hearing about these new ideas because they could be a little bit more AI proof in a couple of different ways.

[00:07:54] When an AI agent handles your grocery order, you're not gonna see sponsored product ads. [00:08:00] You're not going to be browsing the retailer's website. You won't be clicking on those display ads, but the agent is still gonna complete transactions. Your order is still going. Tori Arrive potentially with a new sample.

[00:08:14] Confirmation [00:08:15] pages will still load customers will still enjoy these discovery moments. Research conducted by Harris Poll for Rocked shows that 56% of shoppers are most excited while completing a [00:08:30] purchase. 70% want shopping experiences that surprise and delight them. Look, these three companies are not gonna replace existing retail media revenue streams alone, but they do offer [00:08:45] unique ways for retailers and brands to partner together.

[00:08:47] And I think that now is the right time to be thinking outside of the box. I'll be covering more of these opportunities in the future. So stay tuned.

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