Retail media is increasingly moving beyond retailer websites and apps, with advertisers looking for ways to connect first-party shopper data to physical-world purchasing behavior. Alpha Modus is now adding another piece to that infrastructure after receiving a U.S. patent covering a system that can turn shopper activity inside a store into personalized, price-specific offers delivered to a shopper’s phone or another nearby device.
U.S. Patent No. 12,725,176, titled “Method for Personalized Marketing and Advertising of Retail Products,” was issued to Alpha Modus, Corp., a subsidiary of Alpha Modus Holdings, on September 1, 2026. The patent is the company’s 13th granted U.S. patent and traces its priority chain to a provisional application filed in July 2013.
The timing is significant. EMARKETER estimates U.S. advertisers will spend $71.09 billion on retail media in 2026, up from $60.32 billion in 2025. Retail media networks have largely built their businesses around first-party digital shopping data, but physical stores remain a more difficult environment for measuring intent and connecting that intent to advertising.
Bringing Retail Media Into the Store
The patented approach is designed around two connected systems.
The first analyzes what a shopper is doing around products in a physical retail environment. Depending on the implementation, that can involve tracking a shopper’s position near a shelf, analyzing eye movements, or capturing direct interaction with kiosks, displays, tablets, or phones.
That information can then be used to construct an analysis of the shopper’s activity, including demographic or sentiment-related information.
A second system determines the shopper’s location and uses the resulting information to deliver a personalized communication. The communication can include product pricing, placement information, advertising content, coupons, or limited-time price reductions.
The system can also present multiple store locations and corresponding prices before directing the purchase toward shipping or in-store pickup.
In practical terms, the technology attempts to close a gap that has long existed between in-store intent and digital activation.
A shopper examining a product on a physical shelf generates a behavioral signal. Instead of leaving that signal inside the store, the system is designed to transform it into an actionable offer that reaches the shopper while the purchase decision is still taking place.
That is particularly relevant to retail media operators trying to extend monetization beyond retailer websites and mobile applications.
Why In-Store Signals Matter
Retail media has traditionally benefited from the data generated when consumers search, browse, add products to carts, or complete transactions on retailer-owned digital properties.
Physical retail produces a different type of information.
A shopper can spend several minutes comparing products without buying anything. They can repeatedly return to a shelf, interact with packaging, examine competing products, or engage with a digital display. Those behaviors may indicate purchase intent even when no transaction occurs.
Capturing those signals could give retailers and brands another layer of first-party behavioral data.
The challenge, however, is not simply collecting more information. The commercial value comes from connecting the signal to an advertising or commerce action quickly enough to influence the purchase.
That is where Alpha Modus’ patent is positioned.
The company describes the system as a handoff between shopper behavior at the shelf and a personalized offer delivered to the shopper’s device. Its broader patent portfolio covers technologies involving real-time consumer behavior analysis, retail marketing, shelf and planogram intelligence, inventory management, and customer assistance. Alpha Modus currently lists 13 issued patents and one pending application.
Retail Media Is Moving Toward Physical-World Data
The patent also illustrates a broader direction for retail media: the boundary between commerce data and advertising data is becoming less defined.
Retailers increasingly operate advertising businesses using their first-party customer relationships. EMARKETER defines retail media networks as platforms through which brands can buy advertising across retailer digital properties, physical stores, and partner channels.
That creates an opportunity for technologies capable of connecting physical-store activity with digital identity, offers, measurement, and attribution.
For advertisers, the potential benefit is more granular understanding of what happens immediately before a purchase. For retailers, the attraction is the possibility of turning previously difficult-to-monetize physical interactions into measurable advertising inventory or commerce signals.
But the model also raises questions around privacy and consumer consent.
Technologies involving location, eye movement, demographic inference, sentiment analysis, and behavioral monitoring require retailers to establish clear rules around data collection and usage. The more granular the behavioral signal becomes, the more important transparency and governance become alongside its advertising value.
Patent Portfolio Adds to Alpha Modus’ Broader Strategy
The new patent arrives as Alpha Modus continues to build and enforce a broader intellectual-property portfolio around retail technology.
The company recently received another court-related development in its patent dispute with MNTN. In August, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas denied MNTN’s motion to dismiss Alpha Modus’ patent infringement action. The court deferred the patent-eligibility question until after claim construction and fact discovery, allowing the litigation to proceed.
That case involves different Alpha Modus patents and MNTN’s connected-TV technologies, so it should not be treated as a ruling on the validity or enforceability of the newly issued retail-media patent.
Still, the developments highlight the strategic value Alpha Modus places on intellectual property covering real-time consumer data and personalized advertising.
The bigger question for retail media is whether technologies like this can make the physical store as measurable and addressable as the digital storefront.
If they can, the next phase of retail media may involve less separation between the shelf, the screen, the shopper’s phone, and the advertising system behind them.
Market Landscape
Retail media is entering a more mature phase. With U.S. spending forecast at $71.09 billion in 2026, competition is increasingly shifting from simply owning shopper data to determining how effectively that data can be activated.
The next opportunity is increasingly physical. In-store screens, smart shelves, computer vision, mobile devices, loyalty systems, and location technologies can create behavioral signals that complement traditional online retail data.
For retailers and advertising platforms, the commercial challenge will be integrating those signals into existing retail media stacks without creating fragmented measurement or unacceptable privacy risks.
Alpha Modus’ latest patent represents one approach to that problem: capture shopper behavior at the point of consideration, interpret it, and connect it to a personalized commercial action before the shopper leaves the store.
Top Insights
- Alpha Modus’ new patent connects physical-store shopper behavior with personalized offers delivered through phones, kiosks, displays, or sales associates.
- The technology targets a major retail-media gap: converting offline purchase intent into actionable first-party advertising and commerce signals.
- U.S. retail media spending is forecast to reach $71.09 billion in 2026, increasing the value of differentiated shopper-data infrastructure.
- Location, eye-movement, demographic, and behavioral data introduce additional privacy and consent considerations for retailers deploying in-store intelligence.
- Alpha Modus now reports 13 issued U.S. patents and one pending application covering technologies across retail intelligence and personalized marketing.
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