Co-op is to install hundreds of front of store digital screens at its highest footfall locations to “turbo-charge” its retail media offering.
The Co-op Media Network (CMN) said new screens will appear at 300 of Co-op’s busiest, urban stores, at a rate of 24 stores a month until January next year.
The 300 new front-of-store “media touch points” will take the total number of digital screens across Co-op’s 2,400 stores to over 9,300 – which include kiosk and customer-facing screens at manned tills – providing “multiple opportunities” for brands launching in-store campaigns.
“We’re the experts in convenience, and given our unparalleled shopper footfall, we want brands that invest with us to realise that retail media spend in Co-op stores can yield significant results that can importantly be measured, with a consistent return on investment across the board,” said Matt Hood, managing director of Co-op Food.
The screens will be placed either at the entrance to the store, in the store foyer, or in an outward-facing window close to the entrance. The screens will be visible not only to store visitors but also to “the significant number of passers-by, offering added value and exposure for advertisers”.
Co-op launched its retail media network in January, claiming a UK first for the convenience sector. CMN brings together Co-op’s in-house team and long-term agency partner Threefold – an SMG agency which is the largest operator of retail media networks in the UK.
“With more than 90% of grocery purchases still happening in-store, we are seeing a huge wave of digitisation across retailer store estates. We’re proud to see Co-op are at the forefront of this movement in the convenience sector,” said Lee LeFeuvre, chief commercial officer at SMG. ”For brands, Co-op’s investment in digital screens is significant. It offers the opportunity to connect with Co-op customers throughout the shopper journey, as well as at the point of purchase through dynamic, personalised and creative content that is proven to drive action”.
The majority of the news screens will be at Greater London stores, but the rollout also includes sites in Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire. The rollout is being handled in collaboration with installation partners Commercial and software partner Grassfish.
The major grocers having been ramping up the retail media opportunities they can provide brands, capitalising on the fact that selling ads on the channels they own – covering both online and in store – offers “robust margins” of 70% to 90%, according to research by Boston Consulting Group. Much of the work has been expanding what Tesco calls “the creative canvas” of advertising opportunities in stores and online – such as digital screens. Tesco in October said it would more than treble the number of digital screens in its stores to 6,000 by the end of this year.
It has led to something of an arms race between supermarkets, which are seeking new ways to serve brand ads to customers. For example last week, The Grocer revealed that Tesco’s Scan as you Shop devices will soon serve up brand ads based on a shopper’s location in a store.
Spend globally on retail media is poised to grow a further 10% this year, after reaching $128.2bn in 2023, according to WARC Media’s latest Global Ad Trends report. In the UK, retail media’s value (excluding Amazon) totalled £283m in 2023, and is also growing, up 12% from the year before according to IAB UK/PwC.
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