Agentic AI Is Reshaping Shopping...Is Your Retail Media Strategy Keeping Up?

The Point of Decision Is Moving

For most of retail media's history, the question has been where to put the ad? Store entrance or the shelf edge? On-site search or category pages? Facebook or Instagram? The surfaces changed, but the underlying assumption held: a shopper would arrive, look at something and decide.

AI shopping agents change that assumption quite fundamentally. When an assistant researches, compares and assembles the basket, the shopper no longer arrives at a choice, they arrive at an answer.

This raises a question retailers are now having to answer commercially rather than theoretically: when a machine does the shopping, who owns the customer relationship?

This Is Already Happening

In March 2026, Carrefour became the first major European retailer to put a large range of products inside ChatGPT. Shoppers describe what they need a week of meals, a dietary restriction, a budget, and the assistant handles recipe ideas, checks availability and builds the basket, with the order finalised on Carrefour.fr.

Walmart's experience is also instructive. In November last year it offered around 200,000 products through OpenAI's Instant Checkout. Its EVP of product and design, Daniel Danker, said those in-chat purchases converted at one-third the rate of click-through transactions, called the experience "unsatisfying", and confirmed Walmart was moving away from it. Walmart now embeds its own assistant, Sparky, inside ChatGPT, accepting the distribution while keeping the login, the cart, the checkout and the customer data.

Tesco is trialling an AI assistant in its own app following a three-year partnership with Mistral AI, and Kroger is rolling out Instacart's Cart Assistant in its.

The conclusion is not in doubt, agentic commerce is here.

What Online Retail Media Risks Losing

Some consequences follow quickly.

1. The sponsored result on a category page stops being where the decision happens. Product data becomes a media asset, because an agent weighs price, specification, availability and reviews rather than brand equity.

2. Attribution gets harder, because when discovery and consideration happen inside someone else's interface, the retailer's data can begin at add-to-cart with everything upstream invisible.

None of this is fatal, but it does mean the online environment becomes harder to influence at precisely the stage where influence matters most.

Why the Physical Store Gains Strategic Importance

Agentic commerce may make online shopping more convenient, but that convenience comes at a price. The agent narrows the range, compares the options and presents a manageable answer. That is useful for shoppers, but it also reduces the opportunities brands have to be seen outside the agent's chosen set.

The physical store works differently. A shopper may arrive with a list, but they still encounter products, displays, promotions and ideas they did not ask an algorithm to find. They can see scale, colour and packaging, handle a product, sample it and change their mind. That capacity for discovery is important.

As online discovery becomes more mediated, in-store retail media becomes more than a legacy advertising channel. It is one of the few remaining environments where retailers and brands can create new demand at the point of purchase.

Five implications follow:

The physical shelf becomes more strategically valuable. If an assistant narrows the options before the shopper ever sees them, the store remains a place where brands can interrupt, inspire and introduce something unexpected.

In-store media becomes part of an omnichannel response. It is no longer the analogue component of an ecommerce strategy. It becomes a deliberately different discovery environment, chosen for what it does that the alternative cannot.

Execution quality matters more. If in-store carries more responsibility for discovery, retailers need confidence that campaigns were installed correctly, in the right locations, for the agreed duration. The tolerance for "we think it went up" narrows considerably.

The store needs to become measurable media inventory. That means accurate records of formats, locations, availability, campaign activity and compliance, not spreadsheets and occasional photographs.

Online intent can inform in-store activation. Agent conversations reveal missions and needs; the store provides the physical experience. Retailers who connect those layers can build propositions no pure-play network can match.

The Standard That Comes With It

Greater strategic importance brings a higher standard of accountability. Retailers cannot present the store as premium media inventory while planning campaigns in disconnected spreadsheets, maintaining an incomplete view of available locations, or relying on anecdotal evidence that activity was installed. If in-store is to carry more of the discovery burden, it must be planned, executed and measured with the discipline expected of digital media.

That is the harder half of the opportunity, and it is where most retail media businesses are least prepared.

What Retailers Should Do Now

The practical steps are reasonably clear:

• Catalogue the available in-store media estate.

• Digitise formats, locations and availability.

• Connect campaigns to stores, aisles and products.

• Verify installation and compliance consistently.

• Measure exposure and outcomes.

• Connect planning, execution and reporting.

• Build propositions around shopper missions, not isolated formats.

None of this requires a view on how quickly agentic commerce arrives. It is worth doing regardless, which is exactly what makes it the right place to start.

Bottom line: The Store is not obsolete, it’s the opposite

Agentic commerce does not make the store irrelevant. It increases the value of the things only the store can provide, unmediated encounter, physical experience, and the chance to change a shopper's mind about something they never asked for.

The retailers who benefit will be those who treat that capability as media inventory worth planning, verifying and measuring properly.

If you are considering how your in-store media estate needs to evolve from inventory and planning through to execution, compliance and measurement we would be happy to share what we are seeing.

Beyond Grocers: The Next Frontier for Retail Media in Ireland

What Is the Next Frontier for Retail Media in Ireland?

Writing as a relatively recently anointed Irish citizen, I am allowed to say, with a little misty-eyed admiration and without irony, that Ireland is an incredible country.

This is, after all, the country that became the first in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote. The Netherlands got there first by Act of Parliament, but Ireland did something uniquely powerful: it asked the people, and the people said yes. Ireland was also the first country in the world to introduce a comprehensive workplace smoking ban, and the first EU country to introduce a plastic bag levy.

In so many ways, Ireland has been exceptionally progressive. Ahead of the curve. Willing to move first.

But, just as people can have what are sometimes called “spiky skills”… exceptionally strong in some areas, less strong in others… perhaps countries can too. And popular wisdom would suggest that, despite the concentration of global tech companies here, Ireland has not been at the very front of the curve when it comes to retail media, or the marketing technology that supports it.

That lead has largely been taken by bigger markets: the US, the UK, Germany, France and others, where larger populations, broader store estates, higher web traffic and deeper advertising budgets make it easier to build retail media networks at scale.

The same has been true of the expansion of retail media beyond grocery. In larger markets, the early momentum from FMCG has already pushed into pharmacies, department stores, electronics, furniture, fashion, DIY, pet, hospitality and travel. Anywhere there is customer attention, transaction data, and a meaningful brand ecosystem, the retail media opportunity is being explored.

So, Ireland Is Behind. Or Is It?

At ReAction, we often say that “we’ve been doing retail media since before retail media was a thing.” That’s true. And we were doing it here in Ireland.

In 2005, we launched our first in-store media format, with a nationwide trolley media network across the grocery channel; a format which still delivers strong results to this day. Ten years later we took our first steps outside the grocery sector, developing a digital screen network in the pharmacy channel, enabling brands to reach health-conscious shoppers in a trusted retail environment, close to professional recommendation.

So while the language of retail media may be relatively new, the underlying idea has been here for some time. Brands have always wanted to show up in the places where people are making decisions. Retailers have always had valuable media assets.

What has changed is the level of structure, technology, data and expectation now being applied to that opportunity... And that change is starting to happen in Ireland, beyond grocery.

Despite the obvious challenge of smaller store networks, lower footfall and lower web traffic than larger markets, more retailers operating outside the grocery sector are beginning to take retail media seriously. Brand promotion within owned retail assets is starting to move from a largely trade-led activity into something more formal, more measurable and more commercially ambitious.

That’s good for retailers and brands because well-run retail media is not just a new revenue stream, it can improve the performance of retail spaces, strengthen supplier relationships, fund better customer experiences, and create more useful, more relevant brand engagement across the shopper journey.

A Lesson From Larger Markets

But there is a caution here too.

As anyone who has attended a retail media conference in the last couple of years will have heard more than once, building a retail media network does not automatically make it successful. A logo, a rate card and the availability of a few ad formats are not enough.

Advertisers in larger markets are already wrestling with an increasingly fragmented retail media landscape. Too many platforms. Too many definitions. Too many reporting templates. Too many different ways of buying what can, from the advertiser’s point of view, feel like broadly similar media opportunities.

The result is predictable. Brands are beginning to narrow and deepen their retail media investment. Rather than spreading budget thinly across every available network, they are focusing on a smaller number of well-operated partners that offer scale, consistency, accountability and ease of use.

Ireland may not be at that frustration point yet. In fact, it is encouraging to see new entrants preparing, testing and launching retail media propositions across new sectors. That is healthy. It shows momentum. It shows that the opportunity is being understood.

But the frustration will come if we are not careful.

The Next Frontier

So, what is the next frontier for retail media in Ireland?

The obvious answer is expansion beyond grocery into other retail sectors. That is certainly part of it. But the more important answer may be what comes after that: not just more retail media networks, but better connected ones.

That could mean shared technologies. Common booking processes. Consistent reporting. Clearer inventory management. More joined-up planning across sectors. And, critically, an easier experience for advertisers and agencies trying to invest efficiently.

The benefits would be felt on all sides.

Advertisers would gain a simpler, more seamless way to plan, book, manage and evaluate campaigns. Retailers, including a longer tail of smaller and mid-sized operators, would gain access to retail media revenues that might otherwise be out of reach. And shoppers would, ideally, experience better, more relevant brand activity in the environments where they are already browsing, choosing and buying.

Ireland may not have the largest retail market. It may not always move first in marketing technology. But it has often shown that being small does not prevent it from being progressive.

In retail media, perhaps the opportunity is not to copy the complexity of larger markets, but to learn from it… and build something more connected from the start.

Small Steps Create Big Shifts

Confidence doesn’t always arrive with a bold entrance. Sometimes, it builds quietly, step by step, as we show up for ourselves day after day. It grows when we choose to try, even when we’re unsure of the outcome. Every time you take action despite self-doubt, you reinforce the belief that you’re capable. Confidence isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about trusting that you can figure it out along the way.

The key to making things happen isn’t waiting for the perfect moment; it’s starting with what you have, where you are. Big goals can feel overwhelming when viewed all at once, but momentum builds through small, consistent action. Whether you’re working toward a personal milestone or a professional dream, progress comes from showing up — not perfectly, but persistently. Action creates clarity, and over time, those steps forward add up to something real.

You don’t need to be fearless to reach your goals, you just need to be willing. Willing to try, willing to learn, and willing to believe that you’re capable of more than you know. The road may not always be smooth, but growth rarely is. What matters most is that you keep going, keep learning, and keep believing in the version of yourself you’re becoming.

Turn Intention Into Action

Confidence doesn’t always arrive with a bold entrance. Sometimes, it builds quietly, step by step, as we show up for ourselves day after day. It grows when we choose to try, even when we’re unsure of the outcome. Every time you take action despite self-doubt, you reinforce the belief that you’re capable. Confidence isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about trusting that you can figure it out along the way.

The key to making things happen isn’t waiting for the perfect moment; it’s starting with what you have, where you are. Big goals can feel overwhelming when viewed all at once, but momentum builds through small, consistent action. Whether you’re working toward a personal milestone or a professional dream, progress comes from showing up — not perfectly, but persistently. Action creates clarity, and over time, those steps forward add up to something real.

You don’t need to be fearless to reach your goals, you just need to be willing. Willing to try, willing to learn, and willing to believe that you’re capable of more than you know. The road may not always be smooth, but growth rarely is. What matters most is that you keep going, keep learning, and keep believing in the version of yourself you’re becoming.

Make Room for Growth

Confidence doesn’t always arrive with a bold entrance. Sometimes, it builds quietly, step by step, as we show up for ourselves day after day. It grows when we choose to try, even when we’re unsure of the outcome. Every time you take action despite self-doubt, you reinforce the belief that you’re capable. Confidence isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about trusting that you can figure it out along the way.

The key to making things happen isn’t waiting for the perfect moment; it’s starting with what you have, where you are. Big goals can feel overwhelming when viewed all at once, but momentum builds through small, consistent action. Whether you’re working toward a personal milestone or a professional dream, progress comes from showing up — not perfectly, but persistently. Action creates clarity, and over time, those steps forward add up to something real.

You don’t need to be fearless to reach your goals, you just need to be willing. Willing to try, willing to learn, and willing to believe that you’re capable of more than you know. The road may not always be smooth, but growth rarely is. What matters most is that you keep going, keep learning, and keep believing in the version of yourself you’re becoming.