The Commerce Media Maturity Curve: Where Does Your Brand Sit?

Every CPG brand is doing some form of retail media. The question isn’t whether you’re active on Amazon, Walmart Connect, or Loblaw Advance—it’s how sophisticated your approach has become.

Some brands are still in reactive mode, responding to retailer requests and managing campaigns platform by platform. Others have built integrated systems where awareness, consideration, and conversion work together, measured against business outcomes rather than channel metrics.

Most sit somewhere in between—doing good work in pockets, but without a clear view of what a fully mature commerce media operation looks like or how to get there.

This framework lays out the progression. It’s not about judgement—every brand starts somewhere. It’s about understanding where you are, what’s holding you back, and what the next level looks like.

Key Takeaways

• • Commerce media maturity exists on a spectrum, from reactive channel management to integrated full-funnel systems
• • Most brands plateau at the channel optimization stage—strong platform-level performance that doesn’t translate to overall business growth
• • The shift from channel optimization to integrated strategy requires shared goals, cross-channel visibility, and different ways of measuring success
• • Maturity isn’t about spending more—it’s about how coordinated and intentional your approach has become
• • Assessing where you sit honestly is the first step toward building a roadmap to the next level

Stage 1: Reactive Channel Management

At this stage, retail media is something that happens to you more than something you drive.

You’re running campaigns because the retailer asked you to, or because your competitors are active and you feel you need to be present. Budget allocation is based on historical patterns or retailer negotiation rather than strategic intent. Each platform is managed independently—often by different team members or agencies—with little coordination between them.

The symptoms are familiar:

• • Campaign setup is rushed, often reacting to retailer deadlines
• • Performance reporting happens, but insights rarely change behaviour
• • There’s no clear view of total retail media spend across platforms
• • Success is defined as “campaigns are running” rather than measurable outcomes
• • Product content and media are completely disconnected

Brands at this stage aren’t failing—they’re just not yet treating commerce media as a strategic lever. It’s a cost of doing business rather than a growth driver.

What It Takes to Move Forward

The shift from reactive to proactive starts with visibility. You need to know what you’re spending, where you’re spending it, and what you’re getting in return—across all platforms, in one view. You need a calendar that looks forward, not just a dashboard that looks back. And you need someone accountable for retail media performance, not just campaign execution.

Stage 2: Channel Optimization

This is where most brands land—and where many get stuck.

At this stage, you’re actively managing retail media as a performance channel. You’ve got dedicated resources, whether internal or agency. You’re optimizing campaigns based on data. You’re hitting ROAS targets and can demonstrate returns on your investment.

Each platform is run well:

• • Amazon campaigns are structured and regularly optimized
• • Walmart Connect is getting attention proportional to its importance
• • Loblaw Advance or Instacart are part of the mix where relevant
• • Reporting is regular, and teams are held accountable to KPIs

The problem isn’t execution—it’s that each channel is optimized in isolation. The Amazon team is focused on Amazon metrics. The Walmart team is focused on Walmart metrics. Everyone is doing their job well, but there’s no view of how channels interact or whether the sum is greater than the parts.

The symptoms at this stage:

• • Strong channel-level ROAS but flat overall growth
• • No clear understanding of incrementality—are you driving new sales or capturing existing demand?
• • Potential cannibalization between channels goes undetected
• • Upper-funnel investment (if any) is disconnected from lower-funnel retail media
• • Trade, shopper marketing, and retail media operate as separate workstreams

Channel optimization is a necessary stage—you can’t skip it. But it’s not the end state. Brands that stay here too long find themselves working harder without moving the needle.

What It Takes to Move Forward

The shift from channel optimization to integrated strategy requires asking different questions. Instead of “how do we improve Amazon ROAS?” it’s “how do our channels work together to drive business growth?” This requires cross-channel visibility, shared KPIs that transcend platforms, and a willingness to make trade-offs between channels based on overall outcomes.

Stage 3: Integrated Commerce Media Strategy

At this stage, retail media becomes commerce media—a coordinated system rather than a collection of channel tactics.

Channels have defined roles. Maybe Amazon is your volume driver and new customer acquisition engine. Walmart is your scale play in grocery. DTC builds margin and first-party data. Loblaw Advance reaches Canadian shoppers at the point of decision. Each platform serves a purpose, and investment is allocated accordingly.

Upper-funnel and lower-funnel are connected. Programmatic and connected TV build awareness among target shoppers. In-store digital reinforces messaging at the point of decision. Retail media captures conversion. The stages work together, and measurement connects the dots.

The characteristics of this stage:

• • Clear channel roles aligned to business objectives
• • Coordinated promotional and campaign calendars across platforms
• • Cross-channel measurement that tracks customer journeys, not just channel performance
• • Investment decisions based on incrementality and business outcomes, not just platform ROAS
• • Media and content strategies developed together, not in parallel
• • Regular cross-functional alignment between ecommerce, brand, and sales

Brands at this stage can answer questions that earlier-stage brands cannot: What’s the incremental contribution of our retail media investment? How does upper-funnel awareness translate to lower-funnel conversion? Where should the next dollar go to drive the most growth?

What It Takes to Move Forward

The shift from integrated strategy to market leadership requires pushing the boundaries—testing emerging channels, building proprietary data advantages, and shaping the commerce media landscape rather than just responding to it.

Stage 4: Market Leadership

Few brands operate here consistently, but it’s the horizon to aim for.

At this stage, commerce media is a competitive advantage—not just a cost of doing business or a performance channel, but a genuine differentiator. You’re not only executing well across channels, you’re shaping how the ecosystem evolves.

The characteristics:

• • First-mover advantage on emerging channels and formats (in-store digital, shoppable media, AI-powered discovery)
• • Proprietary measurement and attribution capabilities beyond what platforms provide
• • Deep retailer partnerships that unlock exclusive inventory or data
• • Commerce media strategy informs product development, innovation, and go-to-market
• • Organizational structure reflects the integrated nature of commerce—not siloed by channel

Brands at this stage are setting the pace. They’re the case studies others reference. They’re not asking “what are our competitors doing?”—they’re too busy defining what best-in-class looks like.

Where Do You Sit?

Most brands reading this will recognize themselves somewhere between Stage 1 and Stage 3. That’s normal. The question isn’t where you are—it’s whether you’re moving.

A few diagnostic questions:

• • Can you see your total commerce media spend across all platforms in one view?
• • Do your channel teams share goals, or are they optimizing independently?
• • Can you explain how upper-funnel investment connects to lower-funnel results?
• • Are you making trade-offs between channels based on business outcomes, or just growing each channel’s budget in parallel?
• • Is your media strategy developed alongside your content strategy, or separately?
• • If you answered “no” to most of these, you’re likely in Stage 1 or early Stage 2. If you answered “yes” to most, you’re approaching Stage

The Bottom Line

Commerce media maturity isn’t about spending more. It’s about how coordinated, intentional, and measurable your approach has become.

The brands that progress through these stages don’t do it by accident. They invest in visibility, build cross-functional alignment, and hold themselves accountable to business outcomes—not just platform metrics.

If you’re not sure where you sit—or what it would take to get to the next level—we can help you figure that out.

Get in touch → commercemediaagency.co

 

Visit commercemediaagency.co to learn more about our approach.