Walmart, Amazon, and Target Pivot to Shoppable CTV for Growth

Retail media networks are exhausting their most profitable on-site real estate, forcing a land grab for off-site inventory in the connected TV space. By integrating first-party purchase data into CTV, retailers can offer brands high-reach awareness paired with lower-funnel performance metrics. This shift moves the industry beyond simple search ads into a full-funnel model where the television screen becomes a measurable commerce surface. For streaming platforms, retail data is becoming the critical currency that justifies premium ad rates. Watch for Kroger Precision Marketing or Instacart to announce similar CTV partnerships or acquisitions before the Q3 2026 earnings cycle to remain competitive in the holiday ad market.

The convergence of retail media and connected TV is accelerating as analysts project U.S. retail media ad spend will reach nearly $70 billion in 2026, with off-site channels like CTV expected to account for $17.05 billion of that total, per eMarketer. This growth represents a 29.5% year-over-year increase, significantly outpacing the broader digital advertising market. Industry experts note the shift is driven by the erosion of traditional third-party cookies, making retailer-owned first-party data the primary tool for accurate household targeting and closed-loop measurement.

In the months preceding the recent surge, other major players have positioned themselves for this transition. Per Modern Retail, January 2026, retailers like Kroger and Albertsons have moved beyond digital-only plays to install thousands of in-store screens, treating the physical aisle as the 'lower-funnel' counterpart to CTV's upper-funnel reach. Kroger’s partnership with Barrows Connected Stores and Albertsons’ deal with Stratacache signal that the barbell strategy — using video for reach and in-store for conversion — is the emerging industry standard.

Furthermore, the entry of non-endemic players like Mastercard and United Airlines into the media network space, reported by Retail Media Age in late 2025, has intensified the competition for performance-driven ad dollars. These rivals are using transaction data to challenge retail media networks for budget, forcing leaders like Walmart and Amazon to deepen their infrastructure through acquisitions like Vibe.co. This consolidation at the platform layer suggests that owning the self-serve tools and measurement pipes is now just as important as owning the shopper data itself.