• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 6, 2023

Logged-in channels, including email and social, will get a bigger spend by marketers in the retail media environment this year. But that may not mean much in total dollars, judging by The 2023 Retail Media Playbook: Unlocking Adoption, Mastering Best Practices, Overcoming Challenges & Driving Performance, a study by LiveIntent.  

Of the marketers surveyed, 74% plan to invest more in retailers’ logged-in channels over last year. Another 20% will remain the same and 6% expect a decrease. There is no breakdown by channel.

However, only 32% foresee a significant dollar increase, while 52% predict a slight one. Another 15% say dollars will remain the same, while 1% expect them to be reduced.

LiveIntent, an email based marketing and advertising firm, surveyed 200 marketers earlier this year and has been releasing the research in installments. This is the fourth installment. 

Earlier sections reported that most advertisers are interested in retail media, driven by factors such as the deprecation of third-party cookies. For instance, 43% have invested in retail media networks in the past and experienced success.

Of those who use retail media, 63% say it is more effective than other forms of digital advertising, and 54% saw a significant increase in customer sales or engagement. 

In addition, 73% expect to spend more in the next 12 months. They want to see more video (64%), connected TV/streaming (57%), off-site media (56%) and email-based newsletters, alerts and receipts (57%).

This portion of the study posits that channels like email and social media are highly measurable and will be crucial for brands facing the loss of cookies. 

Other benefits include the ability of advertisers to leverage first-party data for targeting in logged-in environments. This is critical, given mounting concerns over privacy.  

The findings show that marketers prefer logged-in media over the anonymous open web. Of those polled, 66% consider logged-in environments very important, while 33% say they are somewhat important.

“If you think advertisers are weary about advertising within retail media network's non-logged in inventory now, wait until chrome cookies are fully deprecated,” says Jason Kleinman, vice president of enterprise sales at LiveIntent.  

Kleinman adds: “Retailers who are able to lean into their existing logged-in media channels, or explore new ones, are sitting on the precipice of rocketship growth.”