What Is a Retail Media Network?
A retail media network is an advertising channel built around a retailer's own physical or digital environment, sold as inventory that advertisers can buy into directly. In stores, that usually means digital screens placed where shoppers are already making purchase decisions, rather than screens installed purely to serve the venue's own messaging. This matters for anyone comparing retail media network options against general retail digital signage or a mix of place-based advertising formats, since the two are often described using the same vocabulary but sold in different ways.
This article is written for advertisers and agencies who are seeing "retail media" treated as its own budget line and want to understand what actually falls under that label, how it's bought, and what can realistically be measured before committing spend.
Retail media in plain language
Retail media is advertising inventory tied to a retailer's environment — its website, app, or physical store — rather than to a general media property like a website network or a transit shelter. Industry work by IAB and IAB Europe's in-store retail media standards frames it in a similar way: in-store retail media is advertising inventory built around a store's physical environment and the data that environment generates, not just any screen a retailer happens to own.
That definition matters because it separates retail media from the broader category of place-based media, which includes any advertising delivered inside a defined physical environment — cafés, clinics, gyms, and other venues that aren't retail stores at all. Retail media is a subset of place-based media, specifically anchored to retail and grocery environments.
How retail media differs from general retail digital signage
Not every screen in a store is retail media inventory. A lot of retail digital signage exists purely to serve the venue itself — promoting the store's own products, displaying wayfinding, or running ambient content that has nothing to do with outside advertisers.
Retail media only exists once that screen inventory is opened up as a sellable advertising channel, with a defined process for outside brands to buy in, targeting logic based on venue type and location, and reporting the advertiser can actually use. The screen hardware can look identical in both cases. The difference is entirely in how the inventory is packaged, sold, and reported — which is also why the two topics need to be evaluated separately rather than treated as interchangeable.
What counts as retail media inventory
Retail media inventory generally falls into a few recognizable categories: entrance-area screens, aisle or shelf-adjacent screens, and checkout-area screens. Industry guidance on in-store retail media standards organizes store environments into distinct zones for exactly this reason — a screen at the entrance serves a different advertising purpose than one at checkout, even within the same store.
In-store screens, checkout media, and venue-level placements
Placement inside the venue affects what a screen is actually good for. Based on what Totemian has observed managing screens across retail media inventory in different venue types, screens positioned near the point where a shopper is actively deciding what to buy — an aisle end-cap, a shelf area, or a checkout line — tend to be more useful for advertisers than screens placed purely for ambience or wayfinding elsewhere in the store.
This doesn't mean every entrance or ambient placement is worthless; it means the placement itself is part of what an advertiser is buying, not an afterthought to be decided after the media plan is set. It's also part of what separates a well-thought-out retail media buy from general digital signage advertising across broader screen networks, where placement logic is often less granular.
How advertisers buy into a retail media network
Buying into a retail media network typically means working with the retailer or media owner directly, rather than through a fully self-serve programmatic marketplace — at least for in-store inventory at this stage of the category's development. Today, Totemian's retail media inventory is bought and managed this way: content scheduling and delivery are handled directly by Totemian's team rather than through a self-serve or programmatic buying interface.
One thing advertisers new to this category often underestimate is that the value of a placement is tied to more than the screen itself. A grocery store or retail venue that shoppers visit repeatedly has an existing relationship with those visitors — that relationship is part of what gives the inventory its worth, alongside placement and content fit. It's a factor worth asking about when evaluating a venue, not something a media plan can assume applies equally everywhere.
For agencies planning to advertise across retail venues as part of a broader local or regional media mix, this also means confirming upfront which venues, zones, and reporting fields are actually included in a given buy, since retail media terms vary by network and aren't standardized the way search or social buying is.
How retail media is measured
Retail media measurement is still maturing as a category. IAB Europe's Commerce Media Measurement Standards, updated in early 2026 following industry feedback, exist specifically because retail media networks have historically reported performance in inconsistent ways, making it hard for advertisers to compare one network against another.
For in-store campaigns, it's worth separating what's actually confirmed delivery from what's an estimate of exposure. Proof of play and total delivered plays confirm that a piece of creative ran, on which screen, and how often — that's delivery data. Venue-level counts of shoppers who stayed near a screen, and separate counts of people who passed by without stopping, are typically estimates of exposure based on sensor or venue activity data, not confirmed views or outcomes. Neither should be read as evidence of sales impact on its own; they describe delivery and estimated exposure, not results.
How Totemian Brandboards function as retail media inventory
Totemian's Brandboards are professionally managed digital signage screens installed inside real-world venues across Metro Vancouver, including grocery and retail locations. When a Brandboard sits inside a retail or grocery venue and is opened up to outside advertisers, it functions as retail media inventory in the sense described above — sold, scheduled, and reported on as a distinct advertising placement rather than as general venue signage.
Venue fit still matters at the content-review stage. Totemian applies the same logic across venue categories: content that doesn't fit a venue isn't run there, the same way health-related creative isn't run in restaurant venues. In grocery and retail settings, that means disturbing or otherwise unsuitable creative is excluded, regardless of whether it would otherwise be permitted elsewhere in the network.
This is currently a Metro Vancouver network. A national or Canada-wide retail media buy that includes Totemian inventory would include Metro Vancouver as one part of that plan, not the entire footprint.
Making the decision
Whether retail media network inventory belongs in a media plan comes down to three practical questions: which venues and zones are actually available, what buying process is used to get into them, and what reporting is provided to confirm delivery versus estimated exposure. Totemian Brandboards inside Metro Vancouver retail and grocery venues answer the first two questions directly, and the measurement section above lays out what to expect from the third.