Sainsbury’s Store Entrance Is Its Busiest Homepage

In UK grocery, 80% of customers still shop in stores, so retail media can’t live only on a website. At Nectar360, the retail media business behind Sainsbury’s and Argos, we treat a store entrance and a homepage as the same moment for a brand.

Alice Anson, who built Nectar360’s digital retail media business from the ground up, joins Drew Cashmore (Vantage and Chair, MiR) on this episode of Media in Retail to discuss what it takes to connect stores, screens, and data into one retail media network.

INSIDE THE EPISODE:

Data underneath, channels on top

Retail media has two parts: channels the retailer owns, like stores and websites, and the first-party data beneath them. When that data connects every channel, brands can plan, buy, and measure a campaign in one place. Nectar360 built its own platform to do exactly that, and found that campaigns combining in-store and digital touchpoints deliver more than the same channels run separately.

Media budgets separate from trade

At Sainsbury’s, the buyers who negotiate stock, price, and shelf space don’t handle media. Nectar360 plans media with brands separately and starts every year with a zero-based budget, so media has to earn its investment. Because that spend isn’t tied to sales volume, brands can grow beyond their current market share.

Stores shape the UK market

UK shoppers often have several grocery chains within a short walk, each with a distinct identity. That mix of choice and store-first shopping helped retail media in the UK and Europe grow more varied than in the US, where most spend flows to Amazon and Walmart.

Listen above to hear what it takes to make retail media easier to buy, measure, and remember.