Every retailer has an audience. But increasingly, that audience is becoming something more: a powerful media opportunity.
From the screen a shopper sees while browsing online to the message that catches their attention in-store, retailers have an extraordinary ability to connect brands with consumers at the moments that matter. Add first-party shopper data into the mix, and retail media becomes one of the most compelling opportunities in modern commerce.
The challenge for brands and retailers is turning that potential into a retail media network that actually works.
Making retail media simpler
GIG Retail, a Smollan company, specialises in building, running and growing retail media networks, helping retailers unlock greater value from their audiences, data and owned channels while giving brands more meaningful ways to reach shoppers.
And those opportunities stretch far beyond a sponsored product on a retailer website.
Retail media can connect with shoppers across the path to purchase: through point-of-sale, experiential activations, retail radio and digital screens in-store; across websites, social channels and email online; and through offsite touchpoints including paid social and even delivery vehicles.
What connects it all is retailer-owned first-party data – providing a deeper understanding of shopping behaviour and creating opportunities for more relevant targeting and messaging.
For brands, that means reaching consumers when they are already in ‘buy-mode’. For retailers, it means turning existing assets and customer relationships into a scalable new commercial opportunity.
From opportunity to operation
Building a successful retail media network takes more than media inventory.
GIG Retail brings together Strategy & Insight, Planning & Activation, and Measurement & Evaluation to support retailers throughout the retail media journey.
That begins with understanding the size of the opportunity and designing the right retail media strategy, before moving into technology and platform advisory, media sales, account management, media operations, content design and product marketing.
Once campaigns are live, measurement and analytics help close the loop – connecting media activity with performance and giving retailers and brands clearer insight into what is driving results.
It means GIG Retail can help take a retail media proposition from an idea on paper to a fully operational, measurable and continuously evolving media network.
Why brands are investing in retail media
The appeal is simple: retail media brings advertising closer to the moment of purchase.
Brands can reach relevant audiences throughout the shopper journey, from sofa to store, while retailer first-party data helps improve targeting and relevance.
Crucially, closed-loop measurement can also help connect media investment with actual product sales – giving brands greater visibility of performance and helping retailers demonstrate the value of their media ecosystem.
It is this combination of data, proximity to purchase and measurable outcomes that is making retail media an increasingly important part of the marketing mix.
Retail expertise, proven at scale
GIG Retail brings experience from some of the biggest names in global retail.
Its work spans Walmart, Amazon and Pick n Pay, alongside a growing portfolio of UK retailers including Co-op, MFG and Iceland Foods. That experience is reflected in its client feedback, with GIG Retail achieving an average likelihood-to-recommend score of 9.1/10 in its October 2025 client survey.
As part of Smollan, GIG’s specialist retail media expertise is strengthened by global scale, operational capability and a deep understanding of how retail works across markets.
Together, GIG Retail and Smollan bring the expertise, data and operational capability to help retailers and brands get more from retail media and drive measurable growth.
This specialist retail media capability forms part of Smollan’s wider connected retail offering, spanning retail execution, digital commerce, data and technology. By connecting these capabilities across the physical and digital retail experience, we help brands and retailers reach shoppers more effectively across the path to purchase. Explore Smollan’s Retail Solutions across Sales & Merchandising, Activation & Experience and Data & Technology in the United Kingdom, Europe and across the globe.
