A new report from Epsilon finds that most brands and retailers believe that retail media networks with multiple technology providers have a negative impact on shoppers.  

Multiple tech providers create inefficiencies for brands and bad experiences for shoppers, per the report, which is based on a survey (conducted with Phronesis Partners) of 689 large and mid-sized brands and retailers across 12 countries from January to March. 

Multiple tech vendors can also make it difficult to know which shoppers are in market and which ones have already been pitched, leading to wasted impressions and frustrated shoppers, the report stated. 

Survey respondents also identified inconsistent targeting and disparate reporting across channel/tactics as top inefficiency drivers of retail media. Other drivers include multiple contracts/sets of terms, disjointed creative, planning and executing across multiple networks, training on multiple platforms, fragmented planning around channel-specific KPIs and determining ideal media mix/budgets.  

“The consumer experience is too often overlooked in the retail media frenzy,” stated Joe Doran, Chief Product Officer at Epsilon. Solutions that focus on messaging to individual shoppers across channels deliver better performance, Doran added.  

The report also found that only 37% of retailers are using off-site ads to reach consumers, limiting potential sales. And 42% of brands identified audience targeting customization/accuracy as the top barrier to utilizing off-site retail media.  

76% of those surveyed believe the quality of advertiser experience is the most important aspect of retail media for their organizations while 75% believe the amount of inventory available is the most important aspect.  

70% said data collaboration is highly important to their advertising strategy while 80% indicated that retail media networks are important to improve collaboration between retailers and brands.  

More from the report can be found here.