What you need to know:

• The next stage of retail media advertising is in-store, per Eagle Eye's Jonathan Reeve. 
• Already, Amazon Go stores in the US have no cashiers, no tills, and only require signed-in users on their phones.
• Reeve suggests that when major retailers do the same for grocery and CPG shopping, it will change how brands think about personalised targeting.

Targeted advertising in retail stores will fundamentally change over the next five years, with shopping transforming to a “phone in hand” activity capable of instantaneous and hyper-personalised offers, according to Jonathan Reeve, General Manager APAC for global digital marketing firm, Eagle Eye.

Reeve reckons the marketing industry must fundamentally re-think the experience of going into a store to shop, because the phone will alter the offering retail media brings to market.

“At the moment, shopping is a ‘phone in pocket’ activity,” said Reeve. “Most retailers haven’t found ways to get customers to get their phones out of their pockets. In some way, what’s on the phone should be augmenting the shopping experience.” 

The impact on the rest of the market of retailers building their own data-driven media networks is not yet fully understood. One brand piling into retail media says it is about being in digital baskets as shoppers increasingly go online – and says retailers are sitting on a "goldmine" of growth-powering data. Meanwhile Woolworths' Cartology business is now buying and placing inventory across external assets. 

Respected US media ecologist  Jack Myers told Mi3s that retail media is already eating into publisher revenue – and is now the biggest threat facing traditional media – as well as the likes of Facebook and Google.

There's more to come, said Reeve, as personal tech meets retail. Aisle fins, or banners that sit alongside products in the aisle, haven’t changed in 100 years, he underlined there is

 now the opportunity to personalise offers and ads directly in the same way global tech giants do.   

“This is going to be transformative for store retail. If you can be marketing as [the customer] is shopping. We think that’s going to be as transformative as ‘near me’ searching for Google.  

“If you know you can reach a customer with their trolley in front of them, that’s going to be worth as much to you as you’re willing to pay.” 

The future of targeted FMCG advertising is mobile, reckons Reeve. Amazon has already promoted its Amazon Go stores, which require no cashiers or checkouts – just a signed-in user with the Amazon app. Customers can simply walk in, take what they like, and walk out. 

“It avoids the checkout, which most people don’t enjoy, but also the retailer can see in real time what the customer is doing,” Reeve said.  

“You can be browsing social media, get issued with a personalised offer, and take it for redemption in the supermarket. No more dead ends. What you can do with digital is make a direct connection, merge above and below the line marketing to become through the line.” 

Sainsbury’s in the UK has trialled till free stores – but reinstated manned tills and self-checkout desks after a customer backlash.

This is an edited excerpt from a detailed picture of Australia’s retail media market Mi3 will publish later in July.