No, on-site retail media hasn't drawn its last breath in 2026
“The report of my death was an exaggeration.” - Mark Twain
The headlines might make you think otherwise.
Between the buzz around in-store retail media and the rise of AI-powered shopping through large language models (LLMs), you'd be forgiven for wondering whether on-site retail media is losing its edge.
Spoiler: It's not.
On-site retail media remains the powerhouse of digital monetization in 2026 — but only if you understand how to position it within an evolving ecosystem.
To do that, let's start by separating the hype from reality.
Why some think on-site retail media has peaked
The in-store hype machine
In 2025, in-store retail media dominated industry conversations.
Between smart carts, digital endcaps and in-aisle screens, suddenly, everyone was talking about digitizing a monetization channel that's existed for years.
And yes, in-store activations offer tangible value: high shopper attention, brand visibility at the point of purchase, and opportunities to influence basket size in real time.There’s no denying its potential.
But, in many corners of the retail media world that potential is being overhyped. And here's what that hype misses: In-store retail media is difficult to scale, expensive to execute, and harder to measure than its digital counterpart.
Consider the operational reality:
Every activation is a logistics project with longer lead times
Creative production costs more
Distribution is localized and fragmented
Real-time campaign optimization is nearly impossible
Measurement is strongest only when coupled with on-site retail media
Meanwhile, 62% of shoppers globally research products online before making in-store purchases. The customer journey overwhelmingly begins in the digital space — which means that's where your retail media strategy should start, too.
The bottom line is this: While in-store retail media is a valuable amplifier, it is not a foundation on which you can build a successful strategy. It can complement a strong on-site program; but will never replace it.
The LLM revolution: A genuine game-changer
Instead of in-store digital displays, the most significant shift facing retail media in 2026 and beyond comes in the form of LLMs and the agentic commerce era they’re ushering in.
LLMs and shopping agents have had a dramatic shift on consumer behaviors, particularly among younger generations.
A growing share of Gen Z and Millennials in the U.S. are turning to LLMs for purchase decisions. According to Riskified, 73% of customers are already using AI in their shopping journey.
That figure is only expected to accelerate as agentic commerce grows. Today, every major LLM platform has already integrated direct purchasing capabilities, or has announced they’ll soon be available — such as Perplexity in 2024, Chat GPT and Gemini in 2025. That said, only 13% of the customers claimed completed a purchase after being referred by an AI assistant, according to the previously mentioned Riskified study.
Even so, LLM platforms still have a major hurdle to climb for long-term viability: They need to become profitable. And, if past is prologue, that means they need to find a way to incorporate advertising. As a result, you can expect monetization solutions will soon emerge across every major platform.
So, is on-site retail media dead?
Not even close.
Why on-site retail media remains strategic in 2026
Consumer habits evolve, they don't vanish
Yes, digital disrupted physical retail, but it didn’t outright kill the brick and mortar. In fact, as we mentioned above, in-store retail media is now being re-imagined as new digitalized revenue streams.
LLMs will become an important channel — a transformative one, even. But they won't stop consumers from conducting their own research, scrolling through their favorite fashion or furniture retailers for inspiration, or comparing product specificities side by side.
People still want to browse. They still want to discover and be inspired. A lot of customers still want control over their shopping journey.
And that journey … It still starts on-site.
The winning 2026 strategy is multi-channel, not a single-bet
The smartest move you can make in 2026 is actually quite simple: don't put all your eggs in one basket.
This year, leading retailers are building multi-channel monetization strategies that meet shoppers wherever they are: in-store, on-site, and yes, soon, within LLM platforms.
Following a similar path won’t just help improve the success of your strategy in 2026, it will help you future-proof your retail media business. Here’s how:
1. Lead with on-site, amplify with in-store and LLMs
Keep on-site at the core of your retail media strategy. It's where scale, speed and performance live. Use in-store to reinforce messaging and drive in-the-moment conversions.
And LLMs? Think of them as another off-site channel in your ecosystem — like Instagram.
Shoppers can purchase directly through this channel, but here's what matters: these channels are also capable of driving considerable traffic. They introduce shoppers to your products, then can send them to your site — either directly or indirectly — where you control the experience, capture first-party data and monetize through retail media.
2. Invest in ultra-detailed, complete product data
The more detailed your product listings, the better they'll perform across every channel. That’s even more true in the age of agentic commerce.
Remember Rachel's iconic fuchsia blazer from Friends? If you want an LLM to surface that product when someone asks, "Where can I find the fuchsia jacket I saw on Friends?" — you need to say so, explicitly, in your product data.
This is the new frontier of search and discoverability.
And this is not only for organic. Just like search engine optimization (SEO) became generative engine optimization (GEO), paid search will evolve into generative engine advertising (GEA). That means, like any sponsored ads, success in GEA will depend on quality score — which starts with perfectly explicit, keyword-rich product information.
If you can’t check the following boxes, then your products are lacking detail:
Rich titles that include brand, category, color, material and style descriptors
Detailed descriptions that answer the questions shoppers (and LLMs) are asking
Complete attributes for filtering, comparing and matching
High-quality images that reinforce the product story
This, of course, can be a daunting task when your catalog represents thousands or tens of thousands of SKUs. While some will handle this through human resources, and the human error that comes along with it, others are opting for newer, AI-powered tech to enrich and optimize their catalogs in a fraction of the time.
Whichever route you take, the end result is the same. The more impeccable your product data, the more discoverable you are — whether someone's browsing your site or asking an AI agent for recommendations.
3. Build for flexibility, not rigidity
The retail media landscape will continue to evolve rapidly. New channels will emerge. Consumer behavior will shift.
Your tech stack needs to keep pace.
Choose a tech platform that allows you to scale campaigns across channels, adapt to new formats and plug into emerging ecosystems (yes, including LLMs). Avoid monolithic solutions that lock you into single channel strategy and cause fragmentation.
The verdict: On-site isn't going anywhere
On-site retail media hasn't drawn its last breath. Not by a long shot.
In-store retail media is valuable, but it's a complement, not a replacement.
LLMs will reshape shopping, but they're a new channel to embrace — not a threat to fear.
The retailers who win in 2026 and beyond will be those who recognize that on-site remains the strategic foundation: the scalable, measurable, high-performing engine that drives retail media profitability.
So, this year, focus on building a strong on-site program, layer in additional channels strategically and invest in the data and technology that lets you meet shoppers wherever they are.
The demise of on-site retail media has been greatly exaggerated. And in 2026, it won’t just continue to thrive, it will also get a whole lot more interesting.
