Retail Media Breakfast Club

The honeymoon is over for retail media. Sponsored products are reaching saturation, and the networks looking for their next growth opportunity are facing some pretty unattractive trade-offs. So what if there's another way to generate high-margin revenue without building a sales team, disrupting the customer experience, or cannibalising existing advertiser relationships?
In this special episode of Retail Media Breakfast Club, I'm pressure testing Nift, a commerce media marketplace that lets brands offer customers gifts at key moments in their journey. I look at whether this really is a win-win-win for advertisers, retailers, and customers, and why so many retail media networks are still sleeping on it. From the economics and customer experience to the operational hurdles, ownership questions, and where Nift actually makes sense, I'm digging into what retailers need to know before they jump in.
What I cover:
Why sponsored product ads are reaching saturation and where retail media growth could come from next.
How Nift works and why gifts might be a better customer experience than traditional advertising.
What Planet Fitness and Foot Locker are seeing from Nift partnerships.
The revenue opportunity, margins, and the business case for retail media networks.
The biggest objections from retailers, including control, ownership, and advertiser relationships.
Where Nift fits into a retail media strategy, and where it doesn't.
An important disclaimer: this edition was commissioned by Nift to provide an independent assessment of its commerce media offering. Nift engaged me knowing I’d be including my usual spicy take and seeking anonymous feedback from the RMN community. That’s why this bonus edition of Retail Media Breakfast Club is called ‘Pressure Test’.
Timeline
00:00 – Why the retail media honeymoon is over and the search for the next revenue opportunity.
02:46 – What Nift actually is: a marketplace connecting brands, retailers, and customers through gifts.
04:20 – Are gifts genuinely better than ads? What Planet Fitness and Foot Locker say about customer experience.
07:34 – Why Nift's advertiser demand could be a major advantage for retail media networks.
09:37 – The three big objections retailers have: control, size of the prize, and doing something new.
10:30 – The revenue opportunity: what a retailer could realistically make from a single placement.
13:13 – Where Nift makes sense for retail media networks, and the organisations most likely to benefit.
15:06 – My verdict: should retail media networks adopt Nift, and what does it mean for the future of commerce media?

Links & Resources
Huge thanks to Nift for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about Nift
Read the newsletter version of this podcast: The future of retail media is.... gifts? [PRESSURE TEST]
Read my related articles:Beyond banner ads: how retailers are monetizing the moments that actually matter (The Drum)

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What happens when shoppers stop searching with keywords and start having conversations with retailers? And what does that mean for the future of retail media?
In this episode, I'm revisiting my recent article for The Drum and unpacking some fascinating insights from Forrester on the future of conversational commerce and why the humble retail search bar might be about to undergo its biggest transformation in decades. I explore what this shift means for retailers, brands, and retail media networks, from AI-powered shopping assistants and conversational ad formats to the infrastructure retailers need to build to keep up. If you've been thinking about AI shopping, agentic commerce, and where sponsored product advertising goes next, these are insights you should be paying close attention to.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:55] – Why a chatbot-style government website offers a glimpse into the future of retail website design.
[02:13] – How Google and AI assistants are changing shopper search behaviour, and why traditional retail search struggles to keep up.
[04:05] – Forrester's ADVICE framework: the three requirements retailers need to understand for conversational search.
[06:46] – Why keyword-based sponsored product advertising breaks down when shoppers start asking conversational questions.
[09:33] – Kroger's conversational ads and why automatically extending existing campaigns into shopping assistants is an interesting starting point.
[10:58] – The shift from “search and select” to “review and accept,” and what that could mean for retail media economics.
[12:52] – Why retail media leaders should use the AI shopping opportunity to finally fix product catalogs, taxonomy, and underlying retail technology.

Links & Resources
An earlier version of this piece was published to my column at The Drum on October 27 as 'Retail media was built on the keyword search bar. Its days are numbered'. It is reproduced here with permission.
Forrester: Agentic Commerce? Conversational Commerce? The Future Of Owned Digital Shopping Experiences by Emily Pfeiffer 
Forrester: To Prepare For The Future Of Owned Search, Take Our ADVICE by Emily Pfeiffer
Follow by Emily Pfeiffer, Forrester Principal Analyst, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Should retail media get back to what it does best? (The Drum)
The Political Gift of an AI Mandate
‘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 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

Are ChatGPT ads actually delivering results, or are advertisers paying a premium to be part of the AI hype cycle? I've been hearing from performance advertisers for a while now that ChatGPT ads aren't pulling their weight. And a new academic working paper, published by Christian Schulze, seems to reinforce that concern, finding that ChatGPT ad visits generate significantly less revenue than paid Google search visits.
But then there's a very different story from measurement firm WorkMagic and supplement brand Dose, which found that ChatGPT ads drove 2.3 times more orders than click attribution gave them credit for. So how can both findings be true? 
In this episode, I dig into what each study actually measured, why Amazon halo sales could be an important missing piece of the puzzle, and whether advertisers are simply paying too much for the privilege of experimenting with a brand-new ad platform. I also share the two questions I'd want answered before putting more money into ChatGPT ads.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] Are ChatGPT ads underperforming? Why new research suggests advertisers aren't getting the returns they're paying for.
[00:55] Two studies, two different stories: Comparing the academic research with the Dose and WorkMagic case study.
[01:56] ChatGPT ads versus Google Search: What the research reveals about revenue per visit and advertising costs.
[04:16] The Dose case study: How ChatGPT ads generated 2.3 times more incremental orders than click attribution reported.
[06:36] The Amazon halo effect: Why ChatGPT ad performance might be better than website click data suggests.
[08:00] Is the ChatGPT ad premium justified? Comparing a brand-new advertising platform with Google's established search ecosystem.
[09:48] Two questions advertisers should ask before investing more in ChatGPT ads: What's happening after the click, and will CPCs normalize?

Links & Resources
Read the newsletter version of this episode to get a clear breakdown of the different studies: Is advertising in ChatGPT kind of mid?
Christian Schulze, a professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, shared a new working paper on LinkedIn this week under the line "ChatGPT's ads don't pay"
Follow Professor Christian Schulze on LinkedIn
A case study that did the rounds a few weeks ago, from measurement firm WorkMagic and supplement brand Dose. It found ChatGPT ads drove 2.3x more orders than click attribution gave them credit for.
Read my related articles:ChatGPT Ads Are Here. I'm Not Panicking.
What it means for retail media when AI chat has only 2 ad slots
Amazon Extends Its DSP Into ChatGPT Ads

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

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