Retail Media Market: Why good retailers make bad ad tech decisions

This article from The Drum, written by commerce media columnist Kiri Masters, explores the organizational and financial challenges that hinder retailers from adopting new adtech, despite the availability of advanced technology. It describes the gap between technology capabilities and an organization's ability to approve and implement it, using the example of a retail media leader who manually adjusts an inadequate ad server to compensate for poor forecasting. The article outlines four eras of retail media: in-house builds, economic pendulum swings, cloud/composable architectures, and AI-era data requirements. It contrasts different RMN strategies, such as Costco's hand-built stack and Ace Hardware's use of CitrusAd, highlighting that tech choices often reflect historical timing rather than current needs. It discusses the 'budget clock' and 'career clock' that constrain decisions, and concludes with expert insights on proposition-led strategies versus technology-led ones, noting the trend of advertiser consolidation on major DSPs.