In the last few years, the commerce marketing world has focused most of its attention on retail media — and understandably so, given that eMarketer expects spending in that area to reach $106 billion by 2027.
What hasn’t been examined nearly as much is the other side of commerce media: contextual commerce. But with retail media inspiring many marketing organizations to rethink their full-funnel media investment strategies, it’s now more important than ever for marketers to understand how best to navigate this critical area of their overall plans.
Contextual commerce is being used either to complement buys from retail media networks by filling capability gaps they may have, or to optimize national media work by targeting addressable audiences and gaining closed-loop sales attribution.
Since fall 2022, Mars United Commerce has been helping marketers better navigate the retail media landscape through our quarterly Retail Media Report Card. We have now committed to providing similar guidance to the contextual commerce arena, where the proliferation of new vendors and opportunities has combined with the introduction of new capabilities from existing partners to make it increasingly hard for brands to find the right partners.
Beginning in July 2024, our Contextual Commerce Report will present an objective approach to plotting third-party vendors across a series of criteria, and from there use a common framework to evaluate their capabilities and integration with key retailers. The goal of the report won’t be to rank or recommend vendors, but to give brands the information they need to consider the various options available and make their own smart investment decisions.
If you would like to receive a copy of the Contextual Commerce Report when it becomes available, please fill out the form below.
