How Retail Media Platforms Can Tackle Challenges and Drive Growth in a Digital-First World

As retail media grows at a breakneck speed, platforms are feeling the heat to not only manage the growing complexity of ad placements but also to deliver scalable, efficient solutions that create real value for advertisers. Retail media platforms are fast becoming central to innovation in data-driven advertising, unlocking new revenue streams and enabling precision ad placement. But, with great opportunity comes a host of challenges—balancing scalability, privacy concerns, and effective campaign management.

In this blog, we’ll break down the core challenges retail media platforms face and offer actionable solutions to help you rise above the competition. With a clear strategy, you’ll be better equipped to scale efficiently, differentiate in the market, and drive long-term success.

1. Building a Scalable, Transparent Infrastructure

   Challenge: As the retail media ecosystem evolves, platforms must scale infrastructure efficiently while maintaining transparency with advertisers. With the demand for granular campaign control and real-time performance insights, the pressure on platforms is immense. The goal? Ensuring advertisers get the data they need without compromising platform performance.

   Solution: Cloud-native infrastructures like Google Cloud or AWS offer the kind of scalability and flexibility retail media platforms need. They can handle sudden spikes in data and traffic effortlessly. But beyond handling growth, retailers need to provide white-labeled, self-serve interfaces that empower advertisers to manage their own campaigns with full visibility into real-time performance​.

   By integrating a composable cloud solution, like the Retail Media Orchestration Toolkit from EPAM, platforms can combine the power of multiple best-in-class technology vendors within a unified environment. This streamlines operations, reduces costs, and accelerates time to market​.

   Tip:
   Consider leveraging microservices architecture that allows individual components of your platform to scale independently. This approach ensures bottlenecks are minimized, keeping your platform agile and responsive as demand surges​.

2. Personalizing Advertising at Scale
   Challenge: Managing personalized ads for diverse audiences across thousands of touchpoints is a huge challenge for retail media platforms. Maintaining relevance while scaling for thousands of advertisers—without sacrificing performance—can feel like walking a tightrope.

   Solution: AI-driven insights are the key to delivering personalized experiences at scale. Machine learning models can process vast amounts of data, generating real-time recommendations for ad targeting and creative optimization. By integrating AI that leverages both first-party and third-party data, platforms can deliver hyper-relevant ads while remaining compliant with privacy regulations.

   Tip:
   Ensure your AI models are designed to learn and adapt to shifting consumer behaviors. Platforms should also offer predictive analytics tools that help advertisers understand the best timing and placement for their campaigns.

3. Optimizing Campaign Management Efficiency
   Challenge: As retail media platforms grow, managing increasingly complex campaigns across various product categories, ad formats, and audience segments becomes overwhelming. Manual processes not only consume time but also detract from higher-level strategic goals, making it difficult for teams to focus on innovation and long-term growth.

   Solution: Automation is the key to optimizing campaign management at scale. AI-powered tools can handle tasks like product-level bidding, creative optimization, and audience segmentation—processes that would otherwise require hours of manual work. By automating these essential tasks, platforms can significantly reduce the potential for human error and free up teams to focus on more strategic activities. Tools that offer customizable features enable advertisers to tweak campaign parameters based on real-time performance, giving them greater control over their campaigns​.

   Tip:
   Ensure that your platform’s automation tools are flexible and allow advertisers to make real-time adjustments. The ability to fine-tune campaign parameters based on live data will enhance both efficiency and advertiser satisfaction, ensuring long-term loyalty to your platform.

4. Navigating Aggregator or Multi-Channel Platform Complexity
   Challenge: As retail media platforms increasingly operate across aggregators and multi-channel environments, managing campaigns becomes more complex. Whether working with global giants like Amazon, Walmart, or a network of regional players, platforms must navigate disparate reporting systems, inventory sources, and budget allocations. This fragmentation can lead to operational inefficiencies and a diminished ability to optimize campaign performance across multiple channels.

   Solution: Platforms can mitigate this complexity by offering centralized dashboards that allow advertisers to manage campaigns across all aggregator platforms from a single interface. These dashboards should integrate data from various sources, providing a unified view that simplifies reporting and analysis. Cross-platform integration empowers advertisers to make data-driven decisions, eliminating the need to jump between systems. This unified visibility allows for more strategic budget reallocation and campaign optimization across all channels.

   Tip:
   Incorporate cross-channel performance comparisons within your platform’s dashboard to help advertisers easily identify which aggregator or platform delivers the best return on investment (ROI). This comparative approach not only saves time but also helps advertisers optimize media spend efficiently, driving better results across the entire ecosystem.

5. Ensuring Compliance with Privacy Regulations

   Challenge: With evolving privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, retail media platforms face the challenge of delivering valuable, data-driven insights while complying with stringent privacy laws. The balance between personalization and privacy becomes more complex as platforms handle larger volumes of consumer data.

   Solution: Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) like Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) allow platforms to securely analyze and share data without exposing sensitive personal information. Retail media platforms should also invest in first-party data strategies that allow them to offer advertisers valuable insights while maintaining compliance with regulatory frameworks​.

   Tip:
   Be proactive in communicating your platform’s commitment to data privacy. Offering advisory services or educational resources on compliant data practices can position your platform as a leader in privacy management, thereby strengthening your relationship with advertisers.

6. Empowering Advertisers with Hybrid Service Models
   Challenge: Retail media platforms often struggle to balance the needs of self-serve advertisers who prefer autonomy with the needs of larger advertisers who require managed services. As platforms scale, offering both models without compromising service quality becomes increasingly complex.

   Solution: A hybrid service model offers the perfect balance. Allow advertisers to manage routine campaigns using self-serve tools while providing high-touch managed services for more complex or large-scale campaigns. This flexibility ensures that platforms can meet the varying needs of advertisers, from small businesses to large enterprise clients

   Tip:
   Offer tiered service packages that allow advertisers to transition smoothly between self-serve and managed services based on their campaign needs. Providing dedicated account managers for top-tier clients ensures that personalized attention is available during key campaigns, helping to build stronger relationships.

7. Monetization Opportunities for Retail Media Platforms
   Challenge: As retail media platforms continue to grow, finding new ways to monetize beyond traditional ad placements is critical. Platforms need to provide value-added services that justify premium pricing while retaining advertiser loyalty.

   Solution: Platforms can differentiate themselves by offering advanced analytics packages, strategic consulting services, or custom integrations tailored to advertiser needs. These services not only provide deeper insights and support but also open up new revenue streams that go beyond simple media buys.

   Tip:
   Highlight your platform’s ability to offer predictive analytics tools that help advertisers allocate their budgets more effectively across different networks. By providing actionable insights and helping optimize campaign spend, your platform can become a trusted partner for advertisers, driving long-term loyalty and recurring revenue.

Conclusion: Empowering Retail Media Platforms for Long-Term Success

Retail media is rapidly evolving, and platforms need to stay ahead of the curve by tackling challenges related to scalability, automation, privacy, and campaign complexity. By addressing these challenges, retail media platforms can unlock new growth opportunities, provide unparalleled value to advertisers, and ensure their long-term success in a highly competitive market.

At MediaMint, we’re helping retail media platforms navigate these complexities with AI-driven solutions, automation tools, and privacy-compliant strategies. Our tailored approach enables platforms to scale seamlessly, optimize campaigns, and deliver tangible results for advertisers.

Want to see how MediaMint can help your platform thrive in this dynamic retail media landscape? Contact us today and explore how our solutions can help you drive long-term success.