For a decade, “retail media” was shorthand for one thing: advertising on Amazon. That is no longer true. In 2026, a fast-widening field of retail media networks — from Walmart Connect to Instacart, Target Roundel, Kroger, and the quick-commerce apps — is competing for the same brand budgets, and each one carries its own shopper, its own auction, and its own rules. For sellers, the rise of retail media networks beyond Amazon is not a distraction. It is the single biggest change to where your ad spend should live.

Why retail media networks are multiplying beyond Amazon

The economics are simple. Retailers sit on something advertisers crave and the open web is losing: first-party purchase data tied to real transactions. As third-party cookies fade and privacy rules tighten, a retailer that knows exactly what a shopper bought last week can target and measure with a precision that display networks cannot match. Advertising is also high-margin revenue that props up razor-thin retail economics, so every retailer with scale now wants an ad business.

The result is a crowded landscape. Amazon still anchors the category, but Walmart Connect has become a serious second pillar, grocery and delivery apps have built credible networks, and quick-commerce platforms are standing up ad products almost as fast as they launch in new cities. For a brand, the question has shifted from “how much do I spend on Amazon?” to “how do I allocate across a portfolio of networks that behave differently?”

Retail media is no longer a single channel you optimise. It is a portfolio you allocate — and the newest networks are often the least contested.

The networks that matter in 2026

Not every network deserves your budget, and the right mix depends on your category and where your buyers actually shop. Use this as a directional map, then validate against your own sales data.

Network type Best fit What wins there
Walmart Connect Everyday CPG, home, value brands Sharp price story, in-store + online reach
Instacart / grocery Food, beverage, household staples Basket context, replenishment, coupons
Target Roundel Beauty, apparel, lifestyle Brand-led creative, guest loyalty tie-ins
Quick-commerce apps Impulse, convenience, urban buyers Speed, availability, top-of-list visibility

The pattern is consistent: the newer or more specialised the network, the less competitive the auction tends to be — which often means cheaper clicks for brands willing to learn a second or third platform while competitors stay parked on Amazon.

How these networks differ from Amazon Ads

Treating every retail media network like Amazon is the most expensive mistake brands make when they expand. The surfaces look similar — sponsored products, sponsored brands, display — but the mechanics underneath diverge in ways that change your strategy.

Shopper intent is not the same

An Amazon search often signals a shopper comparing options across a whole category. A grocery app shopper is usually re-filling a known basket, and a quick-commerce shopper wants something now. The same ad creative and bid logic will not perform identically across those mindsets.

Measurement maturity varies widely

Amazon’s reporting is deep and well documented. Younger networks may offer thinner attribution windows, less granular search-term data, or delayed reporting. Judge a new network on a longer window and a wider set of signals — incrementality and new-to-brand share, not just last-click return in the first week.

Auction density and cost structure

Amazon’s most valuable keywords are fiercely contested. On a newer network, the same intent may be far cheaper simply because fewer advertisers have arrived. That gap is a real, if temporary, arbitrage — and it closes as each network matures.

Incrementality: the number that actually decides allocation

The trap with a portfolio of networks is chasing gross sales on each one. If your Walmart or Instacart sales simply move buyers who would have purchased anyway, you have added operational overhead for no net growth. If they reach a shopper Amazon never showed your product to, you have expanded your market.

Measuring which of the two is happening should be the first thing you instrument on any new network — not an afterthought. Practically, that means:

  • Separate branded from non-branded spend on every network so you can see what you truly pay to acquire a new customer.
  • Bid to margin, not to rank. Winning the top slot on a loss-making SKU is a vanity metric on any platform.
  • Watch new-to-brand share as the signal that a network is expanding reach rather than reshuffling existing demand.
  • Hold a test-and-learn budget for emerging networks instead of committing your full catalogue on day one.

A disciplined way to expand across networks

Brands that win across retail media treat expansion as a sequence of validated bets, not a land grab. A realistic ramp looks like this — pace it to your category and margin.

Phase Focus Primary signal to watch
Weeks 1–4 Prove one new network with hero SKUs Conversion rate vs. Amazon baseline
Weeks 5–8 Harvest search terms, tighten structure Spend efficiency and cost per new buyer
Weeks 9–12 Add a second network, layer display New-to-brand share and assisted sales

Many accounts see the sharpest efficiency gains once they replace broad automatic spend on a new network with intent-matched manual campaigns built from harvested search terms. The exact improvement varies by category, but the direction is reliable: disciplined structure means less wasted spend and a meaningfully better return than the launch baseline. In practice, brands that spread a fixed budget across two or three well-matched networks often cut wasted spend by roughly a third compared with pouring everything into a single saturated auction.

The brands that lose money expanding usually scaled spend on a new network before they understood how its shoppers actually buy.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Copy-pasting Amazon campaign structures onto networks with different shopper intent and ad surfaces.
  • Judging a young network on last-click return in week one, before its attribution has anything to show.
  • Spreading budget too thin across every available network instead of proving one at a time.
  • Ignoring the cheaper-click window on emerging networks until competitors have already crowded in.
  • Optimising each network in isolation instead of managing them as one portfolio against total incremental growth.

Retail media in 2026 rewards brands that treat the field as a portfolio — matching each network to the right shopper, instrumenting incrementality from day one, and letting margin-aware discipline decide where the next dollar goes. Amazon remains the anchor, but the growth is increasingly happening around it.

Want to see which retail media networks your catalogue is actually leaving money on before you spend on a single one? Get a free AI audit and get a network-by-network opportunity map.