1. Lack of a clear business case and clear goals

Without a good business case, it is difficult to determine whether a retail media strategy will pay off for your organization. If you don’t have clear goals, it is difficult to stay on course, measure success and adjust your strategy when necessary. So plan first, think about what you want, how you want to do it, and who you need for this. You can then start a pilot and evaluate it properly. With insight and the learnings from the test phase, you are ready to roll out your strategy.

Also, read the following article: These are the preconditions for implementation success, scalability, and returns, according to Streaem retail media experts.

2. No, or insufficient customer insights

To sell your advertising space to the right party, you first need to know who your customers are and what their needs are. Brands prefer to conduct targeted, data-driven, and efficient campaigns. Only when a potential advertiser has insight into who your customers are, they can make a good decision. Therefore, invest in collecting and analyzing customer data.

3. Insufficient support

A successful retail media strategy is teamwork. Without the support of internal stakeholders, such as IT, marketing, e-commerce, and finance, it will probably not become a success. You simply need them in different parts of your strategy. The best argument for support is to demonstrate that something works. 

4. Bad implementation

Inadequate implementation leads to an incoherent whole, poor user experience and advertisers dropping out. So also make sure you have enough manpower and resources to implement your strategy. Assign the coordination between different teams to one team member.

Good implementation also requires good monitoring. Track advertisement performance, measure customer engagement, and adjust pricing and ad sizes based on customer feedback and analytics.

5. Insufficient integration with other channels

Retailers who forget to seamlessly integrate their retail media strategy with other marketing channels and points of sale risk confusing or frustrating customers and losing advertisers. Consumers expect a consistent brand experience regardless of the channel they use.

A lack of insight is at least as undesirable. This occurs when the retailer cannot share enough data because different channels are not connected to each other and there is no integral (performance) insight in one central location.

6. Lack of flexibility and adaptability

Retailers that are not flexible enough to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer trends fall behind. A failing retail media strategy is then lurking. Continue to evaluate and learn, and adapt your strategy to the changing needs and expectations of customers and advertisers.

Digital signage is an indispensable tool in your retail media strategy. Discover the possibilities in our e-book.