Retail Media Isn't Just for Amazon: How Mid-Size Retailers Can Monetise Their Audience
Amazon generated $46.9 billion in ad revenue last year. Carrefour, Zalando and Tesco have built full retail media networks. But the underlying model — selling ad space on your own digital properties to brand partners — doesn't require Amazon's scale to work.
If you have an audience with purchase intent, you have something brands will pay for.
What Retail Media actually is
Retail Media is the practice of monetising your digital (and sometimes physical) surfaces by selling ad space to brand partners. Your homepage banner, newsletter header, in-app placement, in-store screen: these are media inventory that brands want because your audience is in a commercial mindset when they see them.
The difference from traditional advertising is intent. Someone browsing your running shoes category is worth more to a sportswear brand at that moment than someone scrolling an unrelated social feed. That intent premium is what makes Retail Media attractive to brands — and why they'll pay significantly more for your space than a generic impression elsewhere.
The opportunity at mid-market scale
A mid-size fashion retailer with 200,000 monthly visitors and a 40,000-subscriber newsletter can realistically generate €4,000–€10,000 per month in brand partnership revenue with 5–8 active deals.
You don't need a media sales team. You don't need a programmatic platform. What you need is a professional way to present your spaces, a structured process to manage brand requests, and visibility over what's booked and when.
Most mid-size retailers who haven't started Retail Media yet aren't missing audience or demand. They're missing the infrastructure to manage it professionally.
Three things you need to get started
A digital media kit
Brands won't respond seriously to an email with a PDF listing your spaces. You need an always-current digital media kit: a dedicated page showing audience data, available touchpoints, pricing formats and seasonal packages. Something a brand can review and request directly, without back-and-forth.
Structured commercial proposals
A proposal that specifies placements, periods, pricing and deliverables — and looks like it was produced by a media company, not a retailer doing a brand a favour. That's what gets signed quickly and at the right price.
A request and booking pipeline
The first two brand deals happen over email. The fifth starts getting lost. You need a system that tracks every inbound request, shows what's booked on which touchpoint and when, and connects brand revenue to your campaign calendar.
The most common objections
- "Our audience isn't big enough." Intent beats volume. A 25,000-subscriber newsletter in a specific vertical is worth more to the right brand than 250,000 generic impressions elsewhere.
- "We don't have a sales team." You don't need one to start. One person with the right workflow can manage 10–15 brand deals. The bottleneck is the process, not headcount.
- "Brands will ask for discounts." The opposite happens when you professionalise the offer. A well-produced media kit with clear audience data commands prices that reflect your audience's value.
Where to start
Pick your two highest-intent touchpoints: the placements where your audience is closest to a purchase decision. Build your first media kit around those. Contact five brands you already have a commercial relationship with.
Don't start with cold outreach. The first deals almost always happen with brand partners who already believe in your audience. What you're doing is giving them a professional channel to act on that conviction.
HubSlot's Retail Media module is built exactly for this workflow: media kit, proposals, inbound requests and booking visibility, all connected to your campaign calendar.
