Unlimitail - statistics & facts
Selling ad spaces on e-commerce platforms can be a profitable side operation for retailers. In the United States and in Asia, the business is booming. Alibaba and Amazon each generated well over 35 billion U.S. dollars selling ad services in 2022. In Europe and in Latin America, the model is still in its infancy and seems to be gaining speed at a significantly slower pace, owing to a significant fragmentation of the market. Ad revenue of Europe’s largest local player, Zalando, stood at 300 million dollars in 2022, whereas Latin America’s market leader Mercado Libre’s reached 430 million dollars. The Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest advertising agency holdings, and Carrefour, one of the world’s largest retailers, have set out to speed the process up and reap the profits. In June 2023, the two companies launched a joint venture called Unlimitail that, they hope, will bring out the full potential of retail media in these two regional markets.
Notably, Latin American names were missing. Companies from that region might be less willing to take a risk betting on a new player, especially one that is not local. They might prefer to hold their investments, knowing that Mercado Libre, with an almost universal presence in Latin America and a profound understanding of the market, expressed ambitions to diversify its operations and become a media platform.
Recipe for success
Publicis brings the industry expertise to the table. With its acquisitions of Epsilon (2019), CitrusAd (2021), as well as Profitero (2022), it gained know-how in data-driven personalization, retail media adtech, and e-commerce intelligence. Knowledge, skill, and technology allow Publicis to create a solid fundament for the partnership. Carrefour brings in what the agency is missing. According to press releases, Unlimitail will work with Carrefour data based on eight billion transactions and on 80 million consumers worldwide, most likely collected over the retailer’s e-commerce business and loyalty program. This means that Unlimitail will be based on first-party data and will be unswayed by the tremors caused by Google’s third-party cookie deprecation of 2024.First testers
Carrefour properties will not be the only businesses to profit. The platform was from the onset meant to serve other online retailers as well. Within the first six months, Unlimitail won 13 partners willing to put the new solution to test. Six are French, a further five are based in other European countries, including Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain. However, the attractiveness of the platform reached beyond European borders, drawing companies from Israel and Morocco to join. The former is represented by the Electra Group and Electra Consumer Products, the latter by Carrefour’s franchise partner LabelVie and the Moroccan branch of Bringo – Romanian on-demand delivery services specialized in supermarket goods.Notably, Latin American names were missing. Companies from that region might be less willing to take a risk betting on a new player, especially one that is not local. They might prefer to hold their investments, knowing that Mercado Libre, with an almost universal presence in Latin America and a profound understanding of the market, expressed ambitions to diversify its operations and become a media platform.
