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With brands increasingly prioritizing commerce-driven media investments, retail media spending in Canada remains on a double-digit growth trajectory, with spending expected to reach roughly C$3.8 billion (US$2.7 billion) in 2026, according to EMARKETER.
As competition intensifies, retailers are providing more connected, self-service, and measurable solutions. Meanwhile, platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google are accelerating their AI-driven, conversational search experiences, requiring brands to rethink their approaches to product discovery, search, and even advertising.
Canada’s retail media marketplace continues to advance rapidly. Competition for advertiser dollars is increasing from both a growing number of retail media networks and an emerging set of “commerce media” ecosystems, including financial services, travel, and hospitality. Third-party agentic search platforms are now also capturing advertiser attention.
In response, leading Canadian retailers such as Loblaw Companies Ltd., Walmart, Sobeys, Metro Inc., Canadian Tire, and Amazon are accelerating their investments in data, measurement, and omnichannel activation capabilities to better help brand partners achieve specific business outcomes.
Rising advertiser expectations are driving this evolution. Brands are demanding more sophisticated audience targeting, stronger closed-loop attribution, clearer visibility into incremental business impact, and additional self-service control of planning, analyzing, and activation of their campaigns.
Physical Retail Remains Essential
Since most CPG sales still occur in physical stores, retailers retain their unique advantage to influence high-intent shoppers at the most important point of purchase in ways that non-retail media platforms cannot replicate.
Retail media networks increasingly are focused on bridging digital and physical commerce through in-store media, audience extensions, loyalty program integration, and enhanced measurement frameworks. Media opportunities are expanding across onsite, offsite, and in-store environments to facilitate full-funnel commerce strategies. The result is more integrated omnichannel ecosystems that connect media exposure directly to shopper behaviour.
Transparency Is a Differentiator
Brands are moving beyond traditional media KPIs such as impressions, clicks, and ROAS to measure broader business outcomes like incrementality, household penetration, basket growth, market share impact, and retailer relationship value. In turn, networks that provide transparent reporting, actionable insights, and stronger proof of business performance are better positioned to secure long-term advertiser investments.
Navigating Change with Confidence
Mars United has long been at the forefront of developing best-in-class retail media strategy, guiding clients through this dynamic landscape with clarity and precision. Our unique blend of local Canadian market expertise and global scale, strengthened through our integration with Publicis Groupe, enables us to deliver connected, data-driven solutions that unify media, commerce, and shopper marketing and drive impactful, measurable outcomes.
We partner closely with leading networks to ensure our clients are not only participating but thriving in these environments. Through this ongoing Retail Media Report Card, Mars United remains committed to advancing industry understanding, encouraging shared accountability, and helping shape a more transparent and effective retail media landscape.
Retail media in Canada is now a strategic imperative for brands looking to compete and grow. Success depends on having the right strategy, infrastructure, and partnerships. Mars United is proud to lead the way in helping brands realize its full potential.
New Features in This Edition
Each edition of the Retail Media Report Card is updated to keep pace with the ongoing enhancements made by these platforms, to evaluate additional platforms (when appropriate), and to modify our analysis as needed to continue reflecting best practices across the industry.
For our first report of 2026, we’ve aligned our Key Performance Area evaluations and Platform Profiles to match the formats used by our counterparts in the U.S. for the first time. (Note: At the network’s request, Amazon Ads does not have a profile.) This change reflects the speed with which the Canadian marketplace is maturing, in both size and sophistication, as networks strive to meet the needs (and sometimes demands) of their brand partners.
We hope you enjoy the sixth edition of Mars United’s Retail Media Report Card Canada.
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