# Nearly 50% of grocers underutilize retail media as Horizon Commerce, Pacvue consolidate measurement

*Platform integration closes planning gaps while half the grocery channel leaves ad revenue on the table.*

By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC.
Published 2026-10-05.

Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/retail-media-ecosystem-horizon-commerce-pacvue-grocery-tv-iab-study-2026-10-05t0
Subject: Retail Media Ecosystem (Horizon Commerce + Pacvue, Grocery TV + IAB Study)
Tags: retail media, grocery, measurement, platform consolidation, cpg, attribution

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According to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Grocery TV reported in Supermarket News, nearly **50%** of grocery retailers are not fully deploying retail media infrastructure, even as CPG brands increase spending in the channel. The same week, Horizon Commerce and Pacvue announced an expanded integration linking planning, activation, and measurement across retail media networks, per MartechCube.

The IAB/Grocery TV research found that while marketers increasingly view in-store retail media as a full-funnel channel—not just point-of-sale activation—grocery operators have not built the data and measurement layers required to capture that demand. The Horizon Commerce and Pacvue partnership directly addresses the fragmentation: Horizon's strategy and activation layer now connects to Pacvue's Commerce Media Operating System, creating a continuous loop from campaign planning to closed-loop attribution. Brands can plan a retail media buy, execute across multiple grocery and mass networks, and measure incremental sales inside a single workflow.

The mechanism that drives value is **unified measurement**. Retail media historically fragmented by retailer: Kroger's platform, Albertsons', Walmart's, each with proprietary dashboards and attribution windows. A brand running campaigns across three grocers reconciles three data sets with three definitions of conversion. Horizon and Pacvue collapse that into one view, pulling purchase signals and audit data from disparate networks into a common schema. The brand sees which creative, placement, and audience segment drove lift—and reallocates spend in real time. For grocers already operating retail media, this raises yield by surfacing underperforming inventory. For the **50%** not yet monetizing their customer data, the integration lowers the technical barrier to launch.

The second force is **purchase-based signals at the local level**. DoorDash's new brand platform, announced the same week, pipes order-level purchase data and retail audit signals to CPG marketers, according to trade coverage. A snack brand sees which SKUs move in specific ZIP codes after a sponsored listing, then adjusts assortment and ad creative by market. This mirrors the Horizon-Pacvue model: fast feedback loops between media spend and register data. Retailers sitting out retail media forfeit that revenue stream to platforms like DoorDash, which own the transaction and the ad impression.

For a **principal running a small physical-product brand**: you do not need a commerce media operating system. You need one retail partner with a self-serve ad platform and transparent attribution. Thrive Market, GTFO It's Vegan, and specialty grocers often provide simpler dashboards than the big chains. Run a **$500** sponsored product test, track which products customers add to cart in the same session, and double down on the winning SKU. Use the retailer's own reporting—do not pay for third-party attribution until you are spending four figures a month. If your grocer has no retail media program, ask the category buyer if they will co-fund a sampling program tracked by SKU velocity. You are building the same closed loop, manually.

For an **operator with budget**: adopt the Horizon-Pacvue playbook. Centralize retail media spend across Kroger, Albertsons, Target, and Amazon Fresh into one planning cycle. Use a commerce media platform (Pacvue, Skai, Quartile) that aggregates performance data and manages bids programmatically. Set a single ROAS target and let the platform shift budget to the network and placement delivering incremental sales. Pilot in-store retail media—digital screens at checkout, end-cap displays with QR codes—then measure store-level sales lift with the grocer's loyalty card data. The IAB study shows marketers want full-funnel measurement; build the stack that delivers it, and negotiate better rates with retailers who see you as a data-literate partner.

The broader pattern: retail media grows fastest when friction disappears. Consolidation—whether through platform partnerships or integrated measurement layers—removes the reconciliation tax that kept smaller brands out and left grocers undermonetized. The **50%** adoption gap will close as the tooling gets simpler and the proof compounds.

## The takeaway

Unified retail media platforms cut measurement fragmentation; brands capture incremental sales data across grocers in one dashboard.

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## Publisher

**Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339.
Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**.

- Author: https://www.huanggoodman.com/about
- LLM context: https://www.pops4.com/stash/llms.txt
- MCP endpoint, for AI agents: https://mcp.pops4.com/mcp
- Client dashboard: https://dashboard.pops4.com/
- Catalogue: 70,000+ products, 200+ brands