Could multiple retail media networks thin out brand budgets?

Not too long ago, a brand’s retail media plan in India might have meant allocating budgets across Amazon and Flipkart, perhaps with a few experiments on niche marketplaces.

Today, the same media plan could involve Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Nykaa, Myntra, BigBasket, Tata Neu, Reliance and several category-specific platforms, each pitching its own retail media network, audience data and closed-loop measurement.

As more retailers turn into advertising platforms, marketers are increasingly asked to spread budgets across a growing number of networks, raising a new question for the industry: Is the retail media pie growing fast enough to support all of them?

Retail media is already one of the fastest growing segments of India’s advertising market. Industry estimates suggest retail media ad spend in India could reach around ₹30,000 crore in 2026, up from roughly ₹24,280 crore in 2025, reflecting growth of about 25% year on year.

In the same period, retail media is expected to account for nearly 15% of India’s total advertising revenue, while advertising on e-retail platforms already makes up close to a quarter of the country’s digital ad spends. The growth is being driven by the rise of e-commerce and quick commerce, increasing digital penetration across smaller towns, and the appeal of closed-loop measurement that allows brands to track advertising directly to sales.

For brands, retail media offers something traditional digital advertising often struggles to deliver: high-intent audiences close to the point of purchase and clearer attribution. Sponsored product ads, search placements within marketplaces and in-app display ads allow brands to reach consumers who are already browsing or shopping. This has made retail media particularly attractive for FMCG, beauty, electronics and D2C brands that are increasingly shifting performance budgets toward commerce platforms.

Rajiv Dubey, Head of Media and Digital Marketing at Dabur, believes the retail media pie is expanding rapidly but marketers are also facing rising discovery costs as they navigate a growing number of platforms. He says that in the long run, budgets will likely move toward platforms that deliver measurable outcomes.

“The retail media pie is expanding rapidly, driven by growth in users, expansion of dark stores, and increasing digital commerce penetration across tier 2 towns in India. At the same time, marketers’ discovery costs are also rising as they navigate a growing number of platforms,” Dubey says, adding that outcome-based marketing will ultimately determine budget allocation, with brands consolidating spends on platforms that deliver measurable business impact.

Agency leaders say the increasing number of retail media networks is making planning more complex and forcing brands to become more selective rather than trying to be present everywhere.

Shradha Agarwal, Co-founder and Global CEO of Grapes Worldwide, says the rapid expansion of retail media networks is adding complexity to how brands plan and distribute their budgets. “With more platforms entering the mix, there is a growing need to be far more selective and strategic about where to invest, rather than trying to be present everywhere,” she says.

Agarwal adds that while retail media continues to grow because it captures high-intent shoppers and delivers trackable outcomes, brands are now focusing more on platforms that can show clear results in terms of visibility, conversions or reaching the right audience.

Industry observers say that while the retail media pie is growing, the number of networks entering the market is growing even faster, which means brands are often slicing the same budget thinner across more platforms.

However, the rapid growth of retail media has also led to a proliferation of retail media networks, with nearly every major e-commerce, quick commerce and large retail platform now launching its own advertising ecosystem. This expansion is beginning to create a new kind of fragmentation in the market, where brands are forced to split budgets across multiple platforms while managing different dashboards, attribution models and reporting metrics.

Gopa Menon, Co-founder and COO at Theblurr, says both things are happening at once: the retail media pie is growing, but so is the pressure on marketers to make difficult decisions about where that money goes. He notes that a few years ago the conversation was largely about Amazon and a handful of others, but today quick commerce platforms, grocery chains and fashion marketplaces are all building their own networks, each with a compelling pitch and a captive audience.

“What we’re increasingly seeing is a two-speed reality. Larger brands with deep pockets can experiment across multiple networks, but mid-sized and smaller brands can’t be everywhere, and spreading thin means you lose the depth needed to actually perform on any single platform.”

The fragmentation is particularly visible for D2C brands and smaller marketing teams that have to manage campaigns across multiple marketplaces and quick commerce platforms simultaneously.

Tarun Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of Healthy Master, says fragmentation is very real from a brand perspective. “As a D2C brand, we’re now managing budgets across Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart – each with their own ad logic and metrics. For a lean team, that’s a genuine operational headache,” he says.

Agrawal adds that many marketers initially tried to be present on every platform but realised that diluted budgets and messy attribution made it difficult to understand what was actually working. As a result, many brands are now anchoring their spend on platforms where they already sell and where conversions are stronger, rather than trying to be present everywhere.

Globally, retail media is already a massive business, with estimates putting global retail media advertising at around $170–180 billion in 2025 and projected to grow to over $300 billion by the end of the decade. However, spending is heavily concentrated among a few large players.

In markets such as the United States, Amazon and Walmart capture a majority of incremental retail media spending, suggesting that while many retailers may launch media networks, budgets tend to concentrate on platforms with scale, data and strong commerce ecosystems. Industry observers believe India could eventually follow a similar trajectory, where multiple retail media networks exist but the bulk of advertising budgets concentrate among a few large platforms.

Sarah Fournier Gonzalez, Vice President of Sales at specialist sales promotion agency Opia, says retail media is no longer just an add-on but a necessity for brands, and managing multi-platform complexity has become a high-stakes balancing act as budgets are often shifting from traditional media rather than expanding dramatically.

She notes that in global markets, foundational platforms such as Amazon and Walmart are non-negotiable for many brands because of their scale and omnichannel connectivity, and similar dynamics could emerge in other markets as retail media ecosystems mature.

Taken together, industry voices suggest that retail media in India is entering a new phase. The growth story remains strong, but the rapid expansion of retail media networks is creating a more complex and fragmented environment for advertisers. Instead of trying to be present everywhere, brands are increasingly prioritising platforms based on audience fit, scale, data quality and measurable impact on sales.

As Menon points out, “The retail media pitch is built on first-party data and closed-loop attribution, but the quality of what different networks actually deliver varies enormously. Brands are starting to separate the ones that can genuinely show a path from ad spend to sale from those that are essentially selling eyeballs with a retail wrapper on top.”

Over time, this could lead to consolidation, where a few large retail media networks capture the majority of budgets while smaller networks struggle to attract consistent advertiser investment.

Retail media may still be one of the fastest growing segments of advertising, but if every retailer becomes an ad platform, the bigger challenge for brands may not be how much to spend, but where to spend it.