Digital retail media advertising in the UK - statistics & facts
The UK economy has been struggling with multiple issues simultaneously in recent years. Brexit, the pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war have been chipping away at foreign trade and consumer confidence, to name but a few, and businesses have turned to advertising to secure their shares of wallets. A relatively new ad medium – e-commerce platforms – has been gaining awareness. In advertising jargon called digital retail media, it attracted an estimated four billion British pounds in spending in 2023, and it is expected to grow by over 25 percent annually until 2026. However, the lion’s share of the expenditure ends up in the pockets of non-UK corporations, as industry research shows that UK-based players only generated 283 million British pounds in digital onsite retail media revenue in 2023.
Last available data shows that Tesco’s website and app had a combined digital audience of 16.11 million adults in 2021, approximately 29 percent of the UK adult population. This ensures broad ad reach. The loyalty program was supplemented by the Tesco Media and Insight platform in late 2021. Its task is to combine Clubcard data and in-store insights with data tools to provide advertisers with all that is necessary to target ads to their liking. However, when UK media agency professionals were asked which retailers were the most desirable to display ads on, Tesco was not among the top choices.
Tesco needs to improve its reputation among marketers
Tesco seems to have all a supermarket needs to monetize retail media in the United Kingdom. The company is not only the largest UK grocer in general but also the most successful food and beverage online retailer in the UK, promising high sales volumes. It has been operating a customer loyalty program – Tesco Clubcard – since the 1990s. In 2024, 22 million UK households were active members. The company has recently taken steps to move the program to an app, allowing advertisers to address the users via in-app sponsored products or brands ads, as well as with targeted campaigns, based on their previous purchases and demographic data.Last available data shows that Tesco’s website and app had a combined digital audience of 16.11 million adults in 2021, approximately 29 percent of the UK adult population. This ensures broad ad reach. The loyalty program was supplemented by the Tesco Media and Insight platform in late 2021. Its task is to combine Clubcard data and in-store insights with data tools to provide advertisers with all that is necessary to target ads to their liking. However, when UK media agency professionals were asked which retailers were the most desirable to display ads on, Tesco was not among the top choices.
