Retail media has become one of the most important growth areas in digital advertising, but its rapid expansion has created another problem: fragmentation. Hundreds of retail, commerce, financial and delivery platforms now offer advertisers proprietary audiences, data signals and measurement products, making annual media planning increasingly complex. Ascendant Network is attempting to address that problem with SHOWCASE, an invite-only retail and commerce media upfront bringing major media networks, agencies and brands together in New York on September 2, 2026.

Ascendant Network is assembling executives from some of the largest retail and commerce media businesses for what it describes as the first retail and commerce media upfront, positioning SHOWCASE as a centralized forum for agencies and brands planning their 2027 advertising investments.

The event, scheduled for September 2 at The Times Center in New York City, will bring together leaders from retail media networks, commerce platforms, holding-company agencies and brands. According to Ascendant Network, participating organizations collectively represent more than $1 trillion in annual retail sales.

That scale matters because retail media is moving beyond sponsored product placements and retailer websites. The category now spans closed-loop advertising, off-site media, connected commerce, first-party audience data, financial services, delivery platforms and increasingly sophisticated measurement infrastructure.

The challenge for advertisers is that these ecosystems do not operate uniformly.

Retailers build media businesses around shopper transaction data. Delivery companies can connect advertising exposure with ordering behavior. Financial platforms bring payment and purchase signals into the advertising equation. Commerce technology companies, meanwhile, are building infrastructure that allows retailers to operate their own media networks.

For agencies managing campaigns across all of them, the result can be a growing collection of walled gardens, proprietary measurement systems and different approaches to audience activation.

SHOWCASE is designed around that fragmentation problem. Susan MacDermid, CEO and co-founder of Ascendant Network, said the event is intended to bring agency executives, commerce networks and brand media leaders together to accelerate partnerships and simplify annual planning.

The speaker roster reflects how broadly retail media has expanded. Executives from Albertsons Media Collective, Chewy Ads, Dollar General Media Network, DICK’S Media, DoorDash Ads, H-E-B Retail Media, Instacart Ads, Macy’s Media Network, Orange Apron Media, PayPal Ads, RedVest Media, Sallie Mae’s Backpack Media and Walgreens Advertising Group are scheduled to participate.

The lineup also highlights a major shift in who is competing for advertising budgets.

Retailers such as Albertsons, H-E-B and Walgreens are competing for brand media spending using their direct relationships with shoppers. Instacart and DoorDash bring commerce and delivery behavior into advertising. PayPal represents another emerging category in which financial transaction ecosystems become media environments.

That expansion is changing the definition of a retail media network.

The strongest platforms increasingly need to provide more than audience reach. Advertisers want usable first-party signals, omnichannel activation, measurement, incrementality and clearer connections between advertising exposure and business outcomes. As third-party cookies continue to lose importance and privacy requirements constrain traditional tracking approaches, transaction and customer relationship data are becoming strategically valuable inputs for media buying.

SHOWCASE will reportedly give agency and brand buyers access to participating networks’ 2027 product roadmaps, data capabilities and campaign-efficiency tools. The real value, however, may be less about individual product launches and more about giving buyers a way to compare competing media propositions in the same environment.

That is an important distinction.

The retail media market increasingly resembles the broader programmatic ecosystem, where advertisers must navigate numerous platforms while attempting to prevent duplicated audiences, inconsistent measurement and unnecessary supply-chain complexity. Retail media has the additional advantage of proprietary commerce signals, but those signals can become difficult to compare when every network defines audiences and attribution differently.

Technology providers such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and Adobe are also shaping the broader advertising infrastructure around customer data, analytics, activation and AI. Meanwhile, NVIDIA’s role in accelerating AI infrastructure is helping enable increasingly automated advertising workflows, from audience analysis to creative optimization.

The competitive question for retail media networks is therefore shifting. It is no longer simply whether a platform has valuable shopper data. Advertisers increasingly need to know whether that data can be activated efficiently, measured consistently and integrated into a wider media strategy.

SHOWCASE’s format — combining upfront presentations, executive discussions and commercial networking — reflects that change. Rather than functioning solely as a conference, the event is positioned as a planning environment where buyers can evaluate upcoming capabilities and establish relationships before 2027 budgets are finalized.

For enterprise marketing teams, that could make the event particularly relevant. Retail media decisions increasingly touch media, commerce, analytics, customer data and procurement teams simultaneously. A platform may offer strong conversion data but limited off-site reach; another may provide broad activation but weaker measurement. Evaluating those trade-offs is becoming a central part of modern media planning.

The event will open with venture investor and technology commentator Jeremiah Owyang. SNY and New York Mets reporter Andy Martino will close the program with Todd Frazier, a former MLB third baseman and two-time All-Star, in a conversation connecting his path to professional baseball with the growth of retail and commerce media.

The broader message from SHOWCASE is straightforward: retail media is becoming too large and fragmented to treat as a collection of isolated retailer programs.

As brands shift more budgets toward commerce-linked advertising, the next phase of the market will depend on interoperability, better measurement and the ability to turn proprietary commerce signals into scalable advertising products. Whether events such as SHOWCASE can materially reduce the complexity is still an open question, but the need for a more coordinated buying conversation is becoming harder for advertisers to ignore.

Market Landscape

Retail media is entering a more mature phase in which scale alone is no longer enough. Advertisers increasingly need networks to demonstrate differentiated first-party data, measurable commerce outcomes and efficient activation across onsite and offsite environments.

The market is also expanding beyond traditional retailers. DoorDash Ads, Instacart Ads and PayPal Ads illustrate how delivery, commerce and payments companies can monetize proprietary customer signals through advertising. That broadens the competitive field for established retail media operators.

For agencies, the challenge is operational. Every additional network can mean another buying interface, audience taxonomy, measurement methodology and commercial relationship. Consolidated planning forums can help buyers compare opportunities, but the longer-term solution will likely require stronger interoperability and common measurement standards.

AI adds another layer. Retail media platforms are increasingly positioned to use machine learning for audience modeling, campaign optimization, forecasting and creative personalization. However, advertisers will need to distinguish genuinely useful automation from features that simply repackage existing optimization capabilities.

The most competitive networks are likely to be those that combine high-value first-party signals, strong commerce intent, measurable outcomes, scalable activation and transparent economics.

Top Insights

• Ascendant Network’s SHOWCASE brings major retail and commerce media networks together with agencies and brands to influence 2027 advertising planning.
• The event highlights how retail media is expanding beyond retailers into delivery, payments, commerce platforms and other first-party data ecosystems.
• First-party commerce signals are becoming strategically important as advertisers seek stronger targeting, measurement and attribution amid privacy-driven changes.
• Enterprise advertisers increasingly need interoperability, consistent measurement and efficient activation as the number of retail media networks continues growing.
• AI-powered optimization, audience intelligence and campaign automation are likely to become increasingly important differentiators among competing retail media platforms.

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