Retail media's $1b Australian land grab: Bunnings, Endeavour and CommBank pile in

Australian retail media has passed the point of being a supermarket duopoly story. With the local market estimated at $1 billion and expected by Coles to grow more than 20 per cent a year, a second wave of operators is building ad networks: Bunnings, Endeavour Group and Commonwealth Bank are scaling offers alongside early movers Cartology (Woolworths), Coles 360, Amazon and Chemist Warehouse, per AdNews' reporting on the sector.

The loyalty-data arms race is the engine. Cartology and Coles 360 are using loyalty-programme data to extend audience targeting beyond their own shelves and sites — selling supermarket-verified audiences into the open web and connected TV.

Amazon is applying competitive pressure at the sophistication end, extending Amazon Marketing Cloud audiences into search ads and rolling Prime Video ads into the local mix — a signal of where measurement expectations are heading for every network.

Why it matters for Australian brands: retail media is taking budget from trade spend and performance media simultaneously, and each network reports on itself. As the networks multiply — including a bank with no shelves at all — the industry's next fight is standardised measurement. Brands should be negotiating verification terms now, while networks are still competing for their budgets.

Sources: AdNews long read (adnews.com.au), onQ Digital (onqdigitalgroup.com.au), Retailbiz (retailbiz.com.au)