E-retail media tightens grip on digital ads with 56% YoY growth: dentsu-e4m report

E-retail platform advertising has emerged as the fastest-growing segment within India’s digital advertising ecosystem, sharply accelerating its momentum in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to the latest dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report 2026.

Advertising spends on e-retail platforms surged 55.86% in 2025, more than doubling the 23.43% growth recorded in 2024. By the end of 2025, ad spends on e-retail platforms reached Rs 17,601 crore, accounting for 24.58% of total digital media spends, underscoring the channel’s expanding influence within the digital mix.

In contrast, the dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report 2025 had pegged e-retail platform advertising spends at Rs 11,293 crore by the end of 2024, contributing 22.93% to overall digital advertising. Growth at that stage stood at 23.43% over 2023, positioning retail media as a rapidly rising, but still evolving, disruptor within the digital advertising landscape.

The sharp acceleration in 2025 reflects a structural shift in how advertisers are using e-retail platforms. The dentsu-e4m 2026 report attributes the stronger growth to expanding marketplace inventories, increasingly sophisticated first-party data environments, and rising investments in performance-led commerce advertising across categories. While e-retail advertising in 2024 was largely driven by high-intent, lower-funnel objectives, 2025 marked a decisive move towards full-funnel strategies.

Retail platforms are now transitioning from being primarily transaction-led environments to becoming comprehensive advertising ecosystems. Unlike traditional digital channels such as video, search and social, which often operate in silos, e-retail media integrates storytelling, discovery, transaction and closed-loop measurement within a single environment. This allows advertisers to engage consumers across awareness, consideration and conversion stages, while measuring downstream impact with greater precision.

The 2026 report highlights that this full-funnel advantage is being powered by three key pillars. These include real-time first-party consumer signals derived from shopping and streaming behaviour, a comprehensive media suite spanning owned video and audio streaming inventory, social amplification, open-internet programmatic access and marketplace touchpoints, and holistic measurement frameworks that track brand health, mid-funnel performance and both online and offline conversions.

A year earlier, the 2025 report had already identified retail media as a major disruptor, noting its evolution from a performance-centric channel to a stronger branding medium. It highlighted the growing role of analytics, unified measurement and audience engagement, along with the rise of non-endemic advertising as brands tapped retailer data to reach niche audiences. FMCG and consumer durables, particularly electronics, dominated ad spends at that stage, with video-led Retail Media 2.0 beginning to expand upper and mid-funnel use cases.

The 2026 findings suggest that this evolution has now gathered pace. As commerce and media continue to converge over the next two years, e-retail platforms are expected to play an even larger role in digital advertising, moving beyond conversion-led campaigns to become end-to-end marketing ecosystems that connect brand building with measurable business outcomes.