"Tyviso made integration into the EE infrastructure smooth and fast. Their single‑API connection, clear documentation, and strong support meant our engineers had everything live rapidly. A couple of years on, the collaboration remains just as strong, with functionality continuing to improve thanks to how quickly Tyviso can deliver new features and optimisations."
Retail media has become one of the fastest-growing segments of digital advertising in both the United States and Europe. In the US, retail media ad spend is expected to reach nearly $60 billion in 2025, driven largely by networks such as Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, and Target Roundel. Europe is slightly behind in maturity but growing rapidly, with the market projected to reach over €30 billion by 2028 as major retailers like Tesco, Carrefour, and Zalando expand their media networks.
More broadly, this growth sits within the rise of commerce media, a wider category that includes advertising across the entire commerce journey, from retailer websites and marketplaces to brand-owned ecommerce experiences and other media environments powered by commerce data.
Overall, retail media is benefiting from retailers’ first-party purchase data, closed-loop measurement, and the continued growth of e-commerce, positioning it as a key channel alongside search and social advertising.
For ecommerce brands, retail media represents both an advertising channel (a way to reach customers on other retailers' platforms) and a revenue opportunity (a way to monetise your own traffic by hosting relevant commercial placements). It's the latter that this article focuses on, exploring how post-purchase retail media can unlock incremental revenue from transactions that are already happening.
What Is a Retail Media Network?
A retail media network is a platform that enables brands to advertise directly within a retailer's owned digital environment. Unlike traditional digital advertising, which reaches audiences based on inferred demographics or behavioural data, retail media reaches customers at or near the point of purchase, when they are in a confirmed buying state. These ads typically appear within retailer websites, mobile apps, search results, product listing pages, and increasingly across off-site channels using retailer first-party data.
Large retail media networks such as those operated by major marketplaces and grocery retailers, have established this model at scale. What's changed recently is the accessibility of retail media infrastructure for mid-market and enterprise ecommerce brands that don't operate at that scale but still have valuable, high-intent audiences.
For these brands, building a retail media capability means activating their own checkout traffic as a commercial asset, allowing relevant partner brands to reach their customers in a way that benefits all parties:
- The advertiser gets access to a high-quality, transactional audience
- The retailer generates revenue from traffic they were already driving
- The customer receives a relevant, brand-safe offer at a moment when they're genuinely open to it
This creates a model where the customer journey works harder at every stage, turning existing traffic into a stronger commercial opportunity without adding friction to the purchase experience. It allows brands to extract more value from the journey while keeping the experience relevant and seamless for the customer.
Which Retail Media Placement Delivers the Most Value?
Within the retail media space, the post-purchase window is consistently one of the highest-performing placements across the commerce journey. The reason is straightforward: at this moment, the customer has completed a transaction. All the friction and uncertainty of the purchase decision is behind them. They're in a state of positive completion, their attention is on the brand, and they're genuinely open to what comes next.
This is categorically different from other advertising moments. A display ad reaches someone who may or may not be in a buying state. A sponsored listing reaches someone who is searching but has not yet decided. A post-purchase placement reaches someone who has just spent money and is therefore demonstrably in a transactional mindset.
The conversion rates on well-executed post-purchase placements consistently reflect this advantage. Brands activating post-purchase retail media typically see engagement rates that significantly outperform placements at other stages of the journey because the audience is uniquely qualified and uniquely receptive.
How to build a Post-Purchase Retail Media Strategy?
Activating post-purchase retail media requires thinking carefully about several interconnected components:
- Partner and Advertiser Curation
The brands that appear in your post-purchase experience reflect directly on your own brand. Brand safety requires rigorous curation, including approving partners before they go live, monitoring the quality of their offers, and removing any placements that do not meet the standard.
Curation also drives performance. Relevant, well-matched partner offers consistently outperform generic ones. A post-purchase offer that genuinely complements what the customer has just bought, whether by category, lifestyle affinity, or occasion, will convert at a higher rate and create a better customer experience than an offer that feels random.
The distinction between endemic and non-endemic advertisers is relevant here. Endemic brands, meaning those whose category naturally complements your own, are the easiest starting point for post-purchase retail media because the relevance is already there. Non-endemic brands can also perform well, provided the offer is genuinely valuable and the placement is thoughtfully designed.
- Placement Design and Native Integration
Post-purchase retail media performs best when it feels like a natural extension of the shopping experience rather than an interruption. Placements that match the visual language of the confirmation page, use language that echoes the brand's tone, and feel like a reward rather than a promotion consistently outperform those that look like banner ads.
Investment in placement design is one of the highest-leverage optimisation opportunities in retail media.
- Measurement Architecture
Retail media needs clear measurement to prove it is worth the investment.
For the retailer, the main question is whether it is generating meaningful extra revenue. For the advertiser, the question is whether it is delivering a better return than other channels.
The most important metrics to track include revenue per thousand completed transactions, conversion rate, click-through rate, and any impact on the retailer’s own repeat purchase rate. This last point matters because a strong post-purchase experience can improve customer loyalty, even when the offer itself comes from a partner brand.
- Ongoing Optimisation
The best retail media strategies evolve through continuous optimisation. They test different partner categories, placement positions, offer formats, and audience segments to find the combination that maximises both revenue and customer experience.
Platforms with built-in A/B testing capabilities make this process straightforward. Over time, systematic testing leads to significant performance improvements, while the learnings from each test strengthen future partner selections and placement decisions.
What is commerce media?
Retail media sits within the broader category of commerce media, the umbrella term for advertising and commercial activity that takes place within the buying journey itself. As third-party cookies have declined and first-party data has become more valuable, commerce media has grown significantly because it reaches customers based on real purchase intent and real shopping behaviour.
For ecommerce brands, this shift creates a major opportunity. The first-party data built through customer transactions holds growing value for advertisers seeking qualified audiences.
This includes:
- what people buy
- how often they buy
- which products they buy together
- the price points they respond to
Retail media networks turn that data value into revenue. Post-purchase stands out as one of the strongest points in that journey because the customer has just completed a purchase, showing both intent and spending power in a way that predictive modelling cannot match.
What Results Can You Expect From Post-Purchase Retail Media?
Results from post-purchase retail media vary by category, traffic volume, and implementation quality. Typical ranges for well-implemented programmes include conversion rates of 3–15% on post-purchase offers, meaningful incremental revenue per thousand transactions, and positive secondary effects on repeat purchase rate. The experience of receiving a relevant, brand-safe offer after a purchase creates a positive brand association that extends beyond the immediate transaction.
The most important variable is the quality of the partner and offer curation. High-relevance, high-quality offers from well-matched brands consistently outperform generic placements by a significant margin, which is why investment in the curation process delivers disproportionate value.
How Tyviso Improves the Commerce Journey at the Post-Purchase Stage?
Tyviso helps ecommerce brands turn the post-purchase stage into a stronger retail media opportunity. By enabling relevant, brand-safe offers after checkout, Tyviso supports retail media networks in monetising high-intent customer attention at the point where purchase has already taken place. This gives retailers a practical way to generate incremental revenue from existing transactions, while helping advertisers reach qualified audiences in a more effective retail media environment.
For brands evaluating their options, the table below compares building a post-purchase retail media approach internally with working with Tyviso to accelerate performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a retail media network?
A retail media network is a platform that allows brands to advertise directly within a retailer's owned digital environment. Post-purchase placements are among the highest-performing retail media formats.
How do ecommerce brands generate revenue from retail media?
By showing relevant, brand-safe offers from partner brands to customers immediately after they complete a transaction. The partner pays for access to the audience; the retailer keeps the incremental revenue generated.
What is commerce media?
Commerce media is the broader category of advertising and commercial activity embedded within the buying journey. It includes retail media networks, sponsored listings, and post-purchase placements. They are all characterised by reaching customers based on actual purchase intent rather than demographic or behavioural inference.
Is retail media only for large retailers?
No. While the largest retail media networks are operated by major marketplaces, the infrastructure for post-purchase retail media is now accessible to mid-market and enterprise ecommerce brands of all sizes. Any brand with meaningful checkout traffic has a valuable audience to monetise.
Transcript
"Tyviso made integration into the EE infrastructure smooth and fast. Their single‑API connection, clear documentation, and strong support meant our engineers had everything live rapidly. A couple of years on, the collaboration remains just as strong, with functionality continuing to improve thanks to how quickly Tyviso can deliver new features and optimisations."