Commerce Media's Day Two: The Agentic Shelf and the Measurement Reckoning

Retail media is now a $100 billion industry. Collin Colburn, VP of Commerce and Retail Media at the IAB, says we’ve entered commerce media's "day two" –  the era where operational integration, interoperable measurement, and the arrival of the agentic shelf matter more than launching another network. 

We unpack why brands started calling retail media a tax, why Collin says we should blow attribution up, and whether an ad-supported agent can stay trustworthy.

Welcome to Day Two

Key takeaways:

• Optimization and integration replace growth-at-all-costs expansion.
• Brands call retail media a “tax,” sensing the industry's referee is now incrementality.
• Agent-referred shoppers convert higher and return less. 
• In-store media's ceiling is customer experience, not inventory: frequency caps beat non-endemic dollars.
• [14:05] "Agentic commerce isn't changing what consumers buy or want to buy today. It's changing their pathway to purchase." — Collin Colburn
• [19:35] “The coming reckoning is in the measurement space.” –– Collin Colburn
• [20:45] "Attribution was built for: an ad is served, it's clicked on or seen, the customer goes to the website, and they purchase. That model does not work well in this new era." — Collin Colburn
• [25:15] "AI feels objective to me for the most part… it's like your omnipotent friend that you never had. And when ads get introduced, it begs the question of, am I still gonna trust that agent?" — Collin Colburn

In-Show Mentions:

• Commerce Media Has Hit “Day Two.” Now What? 
• EMarketer: IAB’s Collin Colburn on the Future of Commerce Media
• More about IAB

Associated Links:

• VISIONS Summit, Nov 3 at MoMA
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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