John Lewis expands its retail media network through partnerships with The Trade Desk and LiveRamp, leveraging first-party data for programmatic CTV and cross-device targeting. This contrasts with Epsilon’s finding that only 42% of retailers offer offsite capabilities, highlighting a growing divide in retail media sophistication.
In a bold move that challenges Amazon’s dominance in retail media, John Lewis has partnered with The Trade Desk and LiveRamp to unlock its first-party loyalty data for offsite advertising. This strategic expansion into connected TV (CTV) and cross-device targeting comes as new IAB measurement standards reveal persistent gaps in retail media attribution – gaps that John Lewis’ closed-loop approach aims to address.
Breaking Down Retail Media’s Next Frontier
John Lewis made waves in the retail media space on July 3 by announcing its partnership with The Trade Desk to enable programmatic CTV buying using its coveted first-party loyalty data. As reported by Retail Week, this marks one of the first implementations where a retailer’s customer data directly fuels offsite streaming inventory purchases.
‘This changes the game for measurement,’ said Sarah Jones, VP of Retail Media at GroupM. ‘For the first time, we can see if someone who saw a John Lewis ad on Hulu actually purchased in-store three days later.’
The Offsite Adoption Gap
Epsilon’s June 2024 Retail Media Benchmark reveals how exceptional John Lewis’ move truly is: while 78% of advertisers demand offsite solutions for full-funnel campaigns, only 42% of retailers currently offer these capabilities. The July 5 integration with LiveRamp further extends John Lewis’ advantage by enabling cookie-less cross-device matching between its loyalty program members and CTV/display inventory.
According to Martech Alliance’s coverage of the announcement: ‘The synchronization allows for frequency capping across devices and true incrementality measurement – two holy grails of digital advertising that remain elusive for most retailers.’
Measurement Breakthroughs
The timing aligns perfectly with the IAB’s July 1 release of new Retail Media Measurement Guidelines which identified CTV-to-store attribution as one of the industry’s most pressing challenges. John Lewis’ approach creates what analysts are calling ‘the UK’s first closed-loop system spanning streaming video to physical checkout.’
As customer acquisition costs soar 30% year-over-year according to Bain & Company data from Q2 2024 such measurable solutions become critical differentiators.
Historical Context: From Walled Gardens to Open Ecosystems
The current evolution mirrors the early days of e-commerce advertising when Amazon first leveraged purchase data for targeting in late-2010s. However where Amazon created a walled garden John Lewis is pursuing an open ecosystem approach integrating multiple demand-side platforms.
This strategy builds on lessons from Walmart Connect which successfully expanded beyond onsite media but struggled initially with cross-channel measurement until implementing similar clean room technology last year according to Forrester Research reports from March.
