Category: Tactic and Channel Types

In 2026, several retailers offer programs designed to connect brands with influencers, enabling brands to develop influencer content that can ultimately be amplified using the retailer’s first-party audience data.

For example, Amazon maintains a large network of affiliate influencers that allows brands to generate multiple product reviews and creative deliverables simultaneously. Target partners with LTK, connecting brands with a curated network of vetted influencers. Sam’s Club collaborates with The Shelf to produce influencer content that meets the retailer’s brand-safety standards. Walmart has begun developing its own preferred influencer network, with beta testing starting in the fourth quarter of 2025. These are only a few examples of a growing category of retail media offerings.

These influencer network partnerships are designed to connect brands with retailers’ preferred social creators. Typically, brands and influencers collaborate through a shared creative brief that ensures compliance with retailer brand-safety guidelines while also enabling efficient paid amplification through the retailer’s media network.

Most RMN influencer programs emerged post 2022, when shopper marketing teams were eager to participate in the growing influencer marketing trend but often lacked the ability to secure brand-level creative assets tailored for retail environments. Retailer-facilitated influencer programs offered a turnkey solution for teams without direct access to content creators or influencer agencies.

However, the market has evolved quickly. While RMNs were developing these programs, many brands began shifting toward end-to-end influencer strategies, where commerce media plays an integrated role within broader social media campaigns. Today, brands increasingly develop influencer content with retail conversion in mind from the start.

In parallel, brands have begun negotiating broader content usage rights with influencers. These agreements allow shopper marketing teams to reuse influencer assets across retail media placements and product detail pages (PDPs). Historically, some influencers hesitated to represent specific retailers out of concern that it could limit future partnerships. Expanded rights agreements have helped resolve this challenge while also creating new revenue opportunities for influencers, who often charge usage fees per retailer.

Key Concerns from Media Decision Makers

Despite the growth of RMN influencer programs marketers often raise several concerns:

1. Influencer Quality and Relevance
   The available influencer pool may consist primarily of micro-influencers or creators without strong category relevance to the brand or the tentpole moments being supported.
2. Overlap with Existing Agency Partnerships
   Many brands already invest heavily in influencer agencies and established creator relationships. Media teams may be reluctant to allocate additional budget to retailer programs for capabilities their brand teams already manage effectively.
3. Direct-to-Creator Tools
   New influencer platforms and creator marketplaces have made it significantly easier for brands to work directly with influencers. This can reduce the need for intermediaries and eliminate additional fees associated with RMN-facilitated partnerships.

Where RMN Influencer Networks Add Value

Despite these concerns, RMN influencer programs still provide meaningful value—particularly for small and mid-sized brands that may not have direct access to influencer agencies or established creator relationships.

For these brands, RMN influencer networks offer:

• Quick access to a curated influencer pool
• Simplified briefing and creative approval processes
• Built-in compliance with retailer brand-safety standards
• Seamless integration with retailer media amplification

Recommended Approach for Marketers

For marketers evaluating RMN influencer programs, the recommended first step is to coordinate with the brand marketing team to determine whether existing influencer partnerships can be leveraged.

If brand-developed influencer assets are available, shopper marketing teams can often repurpose that content within retail media networks for paid amplification. This approach allows marketers to combine:

• Established influencer relationships
• Retailer-specific audience targeting
• Paid amplification within the RMN ecosystem

When executed effectively, this strategy enables brands to maximize the value of influencer content while ensuring strong alignment between brand marketing and commerce media initiatives.

Social media at retail has lower conversion and online sales attribution. Note that shifting out of onsite display or programmatic may impact the total sales returns.

Most RMNs only offer social against a delivery objective, meaning that they are optimizing to spend every dollar of your investment on impressions and not to deliver improved ROAS for your brand.

Consider prioritizing social paid amp with retailers that offer true end to end marketing opportunities where the full campaign initiative can have an impact. For example, a talent partnership. RMNs with strong offerings in CTV and other partnerships are Walmart, Kroger and Instacart.

Don’t include social just to check a box on company goals. Instead identify a core shopper behavior first and then determine which social channel (if any) most fits the campaign objective and customer need.

Consider what the national brand is running in social before partnering with retailers to reduce redundancies and potential overspend.  Speak with the brand to see if you can partner with their influencer agency to create custom retailer content for a small fee.

Incorporate User Generated Content and Social Creative assets into all aspects of the ad units and landing pages to create multiple touch points. The entire brand should feel relatable and social focused,  and not just running ads on social.

Remember most retailers only offer Meta and Pinterest right now and even fewer offer sales reporting on these channels. Without sales reporting, measuring the success of these programs may be challenging.

Tiktok has yet to permeate the RMN marketplace and retailers need to hear from brands on this since it is a fantastic tool to deliver digital reach.

Lastly, keep in mind that social tactics have a very small impact on total attributed sales results and primarily instore. More test and learning is needed to determine the best ways for retailers to partner with TikTok.

The most commonly used retail media tactics include onsite and offsite display which utilize retailer’s 1P data to reach qualified shoppers.   Large brands with agency partners prefer self-serve media which their agency can buy in real time because it enables quick decision making and costs efficiencies.  However, most RMNs continue to only offer managed services that they sell directly. This ideal for small brands or agencies without the bandwidth for hands on activation, though it does come with addition costs.

Other tactics include programmatic offsite video, paid social amplification, shoppable display, homepage takeovers programmatic CTV, digital instore display and audio, programmatic digital OOH, email, push notifications and streaming audio.

Social media is typically Meta and Pinterest, though accessing reporting can be a challenge depending on the retailer’s partnership with these parties.  Currently, very few RMNs offer TikTok with Walmart being the primary leader in this space as of Q1 2026.

Sponsored search display ads are also typically considered retail media in a marketing budget but depending on the agency or brand they may consider it as a separate part of the strategy depending on the objective.  It is imperative to have a search campaign live if display media is also running.

It depends on who you ask, but if the tactic can be billed externally to an agency partner it’s typically considered media.   If it bills directly or through Trade, it is likely not considered media by most brands.