Retail Media Breakfast Club

Walmart just made a pretty big move toward the future of AI shopping, and I think there are some important implications for retail media that brands and agencies need to be paying attention to.
In this episode, I'm resharing and unpacking Doug Chavez's analysis of Walmart's new operating rules for AI shopping agents, including why he believes the shelf is becoming an API, how agentic commerce could fundamentally change brand choice and repeat purchases, and what this means for retail media monetization, measurement, and product data. I also share a few additional thoughts on Walmart's Agent Gateway, the advertising opportunities already emerging for machines, and why Amazon is taking a very different approach to AI-powered shopping.
Are we looking at the next major evolution of retail media? And are brands actually prepared for a world where machines, rather than humans, are making more of the shopping decisions?

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] – Introducing Doug Chavez's perspective on AI shopping agents and why AI assistants might actually consolidate the shopping journey.
[01:36] – Walmart's new AI agent operating rules explained: agent profiles, the Agent Gateway, and the terms governing agent shopping.
[02:45] – Five implications of agentic commerce for brands: intent, repeat purchases, retail media monetization, measurement, and trust.
[05:19] – Why agentic commerce is no longer a future experiment and what brands need to do to prepare their product data, content, and media plans.
[07:17] – My take on Walmart's Agent Gateway, Sparky, and the emerging possibility of advertising formats designed for AI agents.
[10:03] – Walmart versus Amazon: why their competing philosophies on third-party AI shopping agents could reshape retail media.

Links & Resources
This piece by Doug Chavez originally ran on the Mars United Commerce blog on October 27, 2026, and is republished with permission.
Doug's piece from August actually set this concept up, well before Walmart's announcement: The Shelf Is Becoming an API
Follow Doug Chavez, Global EVP, Mars United Commerce/Publicis Commerce, on LinkedIn
Walmart just published its operating rules for AI agents shopping on a customer’s behalf.
Walmart's Agent Gateway is still a beta for companies and developers.
Walmart says outside agents connect through Sparky, its own shopping assistant. 
Sparky has been running ads — sponsored prompts — since earlier this year. 
Read my related articles:Amazon is playing agentic commerce chicken. Other retailers should not.
Agentic Shopping Poses an Existential Threat to Retail Media, Part 1 and Part 2 

I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
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In 2020, I co-authored the book Instacart for CMOs because I believed Instacart was one of the most under-recognized marketing channels available to consumer brands. Fast-forward six years, and Instacart's advertising business has become a major revenue driver. And now, DoorDash is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire the company for around $17 billion. While the headlines will focus on delivery and competition with Amazon and Walmart, I think the real story is what this deal could mean for retail media.
In this episode, I break down three reasons why a combined DoorDash and Instacart could be good for the retail media ecosystem, even if the implications for advertisers are less clear. From creating a stronger challenger to Amazon and Walmart, to bringing on-site and off-site retail media technology together under one roof, there are some compelling opportunities here. But what happens to advertiser leverage, competition, and costs when two major platforms become one? I'd love to hear where you land on this one.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] Why Instacart's advertising business is at the center of the potential DoorDash acquisition.
[02:08] Why combining DoorDash and Instacart could create a stronger challenger to Amazon and Walmart in retail media.
[05:45] How Instacart's Carrot Ads and DoorDash's Symbiosis technology could give regional grocers a more complete retail media solution.[07:36] Why retail media standardization and consolidation could be essential for regional grocers.
[08:35] What the potential deal could mean for advertisers, especially smaller and challenger brands.
[09:36] Why established CPG brands may still need both platforms, and how a merger could reduce their negotiating leverage.
[10:15] My overall take on the acquisition and why I'm inviting the industry to weigh in.

Links & Resources
In 2020, I co-authored a book called Instacart for CMOs. It was the follow-up to Amazon for CMOs.
Check out Andrew Lipsman's comments about Instacart on LinkedIn
Check out my LinkedIn poll about the Instacart acquisition
Read my related articles:‘I’m a realist’: Gopuff’s head of ads on why it handed its onsite adtech to Instacart (The Drum)

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop: latest episode
I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

What happens when your personal AI agent starts selling you things? I’ve spent the last decade analyzing the retail media ecosystem, but I’m increasingly fascinated by what happens when advertising meets AI. In this episode, I’m sharing the inaugural episode of my new show, AdGentic, where I make a prediction that might be a little controversial: personal AI agents will ultimately be monetized through advertising, not subscriptions or transaction fees.
We’ve seen this story play out before with Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Amazon. Platforms start by delivering a great consumer experience, and eventually, the business model kicks in. But AI agents introduce a new twist: they know an extraordinary amount about us, what we want, and what we’re trying to accomplish. Could that intelligence lead to more relevant, genuinely useful advertising? Or will paid placements and hidden commercial incentives undermine the trust we place in our AI assistants?
I break down the economics behind AI agent monetization, explore the ad formats that could emerge from retail media and other digital advertising models, and share what I’d like to see from the next generation of AI advertising. Because I believe ads are coming to personal AI agents. The real question is whether we can make them work for consumers.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
01:20 – Why I believe ads are coming to personal AI agents, and why advertising will win over subscriptions and fees.
03:03 – What Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Amazon reveal about the evolution of platform monetization.
05:15 – The rise of ensh*ttification: how platforms gradually shift value from users toward advertisers and themselves.
06:30 – The three consumer app business models: subscriptions, transaction fees, and advertising.
08:23 – Why subscriptions and transaction fees create problems with incentives, and why retail media offers a useful lens.
11:30 – Emerging AI ad formats, from sponsored prompts and sponsored agents to rewarded ads and off-site advertising.
14:20 – The risk of hidden paid rankings and biased AI recommendations, and why transparency matters.

Links & Resources
AdGentic is live! Subscribe to the show:Newsletter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

Read my related articles:Maybe Ads in AI Don't Have To Suck?
I Really, Really Hoped That Ads in AI Wouldn't Suck. Now We Find Out.
Are AI Ads the Next Big Ad Surface? How Retail Media Can Thrive

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Is multi-touch attribution (MTA) past its expiration date? In this third part of my MTA series, I’m exploring why retailers like Albertsons Media Collective, Best Buy Ads, and Amazon are bringing it back, and whether new approaches can overcome the data quality issues that gave MTA a bad reputation.
Better data doesn’t necessarily mean better decisions. From banner ads getting credit for impressions that don’t influence shoppers to media buyers lacking the time or flexibility to act on insights, I’m looking at MTA’s real-world limitations and whether it can deliver value despite incomplete, retailer-specific measurement.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
00:41 — Is multi-touch attribution past its expiration date? I introduce the central question of this third installment in my MTA series.
01:24 — Why MTA got a bad name, and how Albertsons Media Collective and Best Buy Ads are reintroducing attribution capabilities under new approaches and terminology.
02:30 — The data quality problems behind traditional MTA, including the risks of combining individual-level exposure logs with cohort and panel data.
04:20 — Why better data doesn't automatically solve viewability problems or stop ads from receiving credit simply for appearing on a page.
05:10 — What media buyers really need to make better decisions, and why perfect attribution data may still be impractical to act on.
08:55 — How Amazon approaches multi-touch attribution, including holdout experiments designed to test whether ads actually drive incremental behavior.
11:20 — Why marketers are still investing in MTA, and why the reality of committed media budgets may matter more than the promise of a perfect attribution model.

Links & Resources
This is part 3 of my series on MTA, catch up on the other instalments:Part 1 - Do brands really want MTA?
Part 2 - Why retailers are reviving MTA

Part one of this series drew a lot of impassioned comments on LinkedIn about whether MTA is still relevant.
Amazon announced its MTA in October 2024.
Siloed or incomplete data was the top reason marketers gave for doubting their measurement (49.5%) in a July 2025 survey of 196 US marketers by EMARKETER and TransUnion. 
Read my related articles:This Agency Abandoned MTA, Here's Why
Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
'Not 100% altruistic': ad measurement veteran on what retail media is really optimizing for
The Other Side of the Story: Why Retailers Struggle with Media Measurement & Standardization

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

What does it take for a retail media network to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape? Sometimes, the answer isn't building more ad tech: it's knowing what makes you special as a retailer and doubling down on that. In this episode, an expansion on my recent article for The Drum, I unpack Gopuff's partnership with Instacart, and why adopting its Carrot Ads technology could be a smart move, giving Gopuff access to a much larger pool of advertiser demand while freeing its team to focus on the bespoke campaigns that only Gopuff can deliver.
I explore how Gopuff leverages its young audience, cultural relevance, and rapid fulfilment to create distinctive brand experiences, from Keebler cookie sampling to the M&M's Rescue Squad Halloween activation. I also look at why owning inventory and the last mile gives Gopuff a competitive advantage, how shared incentives between advertising and merchandising teams can drive better outcomes, and why moving products matters far more than performative vanity metrics like ROI and ROAS.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] – Why retail media networks need to lean into what makes them unique as retailers.
[01:55] – The Gopuff–Instacart partnership: Carrot Ads, advertiser demand, and the limits of building your own ad tech.
[03:55] – How Gopuff uses its youth audience and cultural relevance to create distinctive brand activations.
[04:37] – Keebler cookie sampling and the M&M's Rescue Squad: turning fast delivery into an experiential advertising opportunity.
[07:00] – Why owning inventory and the last mile gives Gopuff an advantage when cultural moments happen.
[09:13] – Shared incentives, merchandising alignment, and the concept of “cubic profitability.”
[10:37] – Why moving products is the metric that matters — and the risks facing fast-delivery retail media.

Links & Resources
A version of this piece was first published to my column at The Drum on October 16, 2026, as ‘I’m a realist’: Gopuff’s head of ads on why it handed its onsite adtech to Instacart
Details about the Gopuff and Instacart deal that announced in September
Follow Michael Peroutka, Gopuff’s head of ads and strategic partnerships, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Instacart Ads’ Third Act: Ali Miller on Building the Infrastructure Powering Retail Media’s Future
Costco: The Retail Media Network That Refuses to Promote Itself
Bulldust Metrics In Retail Media

I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn