Experts track retail media’s evolution: Full-funnel takeover from ads to everything

You are scrolling, comparing, adding to cart, and buying all at once without any pauses, clear stages, or funnel. Customers are now in a continuous loop of discovery and decision happening in real time.

Retail media has evolved to keep up with this behavior. 

At a panel discussion at the e4m RetailEX Conference 2026, industry leaders described a landscape where the old rules of marketing, awareness first, purchase later, have quietly collapsed. What was once a lower-funnel, conversion-focused channel is now an always-on ecosystem where brands must simultaneously educate, engage, and sell, often within the same moment.

Moderated by Ashish Dhir, Senior Director – Consumer & Retail, 1Lattice, the session featured Rupali Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds; Sunil Gadgil, General Manager India, The Duracell Company; Shweta Dalal, Marketing Director, Nivea; and Gaurav Dagaonkar, CEO & Co-founder, Hoopr.

Dhir opened by framing the scale of what was being discussed. The retail media industry is currently valued at around three billion dollars, growing at a 25% CAGR. "It is worth giving the right amount of focus and time to this part of the media landscape," he noted, before turning the conversation to how the industry had arrived at this point.

Gadgil, drawing on three decades in the industry, offered a view of how dramatically the retail landscape had shifted. Modern trade did not exist when he started. E-commerce was barely a concept. Quick commerce is entirely recent. And through each of these phases, from the dominance of large brands to the rise of D2C, the same underlying tension has played out. "The retail experience is all about enabling the shopper to buy what she really needs," he said. "Many times, she knows what she needs, but it may not be on her fingertips."

The job of retail media, in his view, has always been to reduce her effort, give her a relevant push at the right moment, and help her upgrade when the time is right. What changes is the degree of freedom each platform affords. "On digital media, you know much more about the shopper. In modern trade, you can still pick and choose. In general trade, you are essentially shooting in the dark." But the core objective, he argued, remains unchanged. "The biggest commodity you are really trying to maximise is the mental space of the shopper. Retail media exactly plays that role."

Dhir then turned to Shrivastava, whose category, lab-grown diamonds, sits at perhaps the furthest end of the involvement spectrum. Impulsive buying simply does not happen here. "One fine day, somebody does not just get up and decide to buy jewellery," Shrivastava said. “What does happen is an extended journey of discovery, validation, and research, across Instagram, brand websites, Google reviews, and eventually the store itself. We as a brand have to ensure our storytelling is consistent across every touchpoint. That is extremely critical."

The challenge is compounded by the fact that lab-grown diamonds remain a relatively new concept for most consumers, bringing with them both curiosity and hesitation. Shrivastava explained that answering those questions, not just at the point of sale, but at every stage of the journey, is what builds the trust that eventually converts. "When they come to the store, they see that the story has translated from every touchpoint, and then they can take a call." Education, she stressed, must precede everything else. "Our category needs education first, then the product, then the conversion."

On the question of how Limelight navigates its role as a category creator, Shrivastava described a credible influencer-led approach as central to building awareness. By the time a consumer walks into a store, she noted, 60 to 70 per cent of the decision has already been made. "Their research is done. Their assessment of brand credibility is done." The sales staff, therefore, comes last. "All media is critical for us. We cannot treat any channel in silos, whether it is digital, offline, or in-store. Your storytelling has to be consistent everywhere to build trust and top-of-mind recall."

Dalal drew a distinction between her skincare category and jewellery, noting that while personal care is less high-involvement, it is far from a reflexive purchase. "The consumer is now so discerning that they want to know if the product will work for them" Retail media, she argued, has had to evolve to meet that demand, moving well beyond its original role as a lower-funnel conversion tool. "It is a full-funnel, always-on system now. You discover, build credibility, and convert, all within the same ecosystem."

What makes this shift meaningful, she added, is measurability. "You can actually measure this medium, ROI, ROS, all of it is there. But at the same time, it also helps you build your brand. That is the fundamental shift." 

Marketers and brands, she said, are not treating retail media as a traditional advertising vehicle anymore but rather as a tool for driving both stronger business outcomes and stronger brand equity. "In skincare, as in diamonds, what matters most is equity. Consumers really care about what they are buying, and therefore, it is about always appearing, not just where you appear, but how."

She traced the journey from how retail media used to function to where it stands today.. For e.g. TV would build mental availability, the consumer would then walk into a kirana or a modern trade store, and then the purchase would happen "Now you are scrolling and buying at the same time. You are watching TV and on your phone, comparing two brands, adding one to your basket and the whole cycle is complete." The old model of using each channel in isolation for discovery, experience, and purchase has collapsed into one. "Retail media has become a channel where all three are amalgamated."

Looking ahead, Dalal saw offline retail itself following the same trajectory. "Even modern trade is becoming an experiential centre. A consumer walking into a Reliance or a Nykaa store today expects some kind of experience." The future, she argued, is integrated with a seamless continuum between the online and offline worlds.

Dhir shifted the conversation towards content and specifically, to the role of sound in retail media. Dagaonkar of Hoopr took up the thread, observing that the panellists had already touched on mental space, building trust, and producing a significant volume of content. "Content does play a huge role in influencing the customer. But what was also discussed was the word 'sensory'. What is it that you are making your customer feel is a lot more important."

He pointed out that while brands obsess over how they look, like Nivea's blue, Duracell's unmistakable visual identity, far fewer have thought seriously about how they sound. "We are seeing more and more brands today wanting to understand how they should sound, so that they complete the sensory experience." He described watching a Limelight influencer video set to Jasleen Royal's track Heer, noting that the engagement was visibly high. "The right music makes you feel something. And a lot of our purchase behaviour is emotion-led before it becomes habit-led."

The difference in retail touchpoints matters here too. In a physical store like Limelight's, a consumer might spend upwards of an hour. On quick commerce, they add to cart without a second thought because that habit has already taken hold. "It is very important that the customer feels the right thing when they think about brands. We engineer that with the choice of influencers and the right kind of music."

For brands without a sonic identity, Dagaonkar offered a practical philosophy he called "loan it, then own it." Start by borrowing from culture, popular songs that are relevant to the brand, before investing in creating something proprietary. He noted that even on quick commerce platforms, video content plays without sound by default. "I know what Nivea's nourishing milk looks like. I still do not know what it sounds like." Quick commerce and e-commerce platforms, he said, are increasingly moving to enable music within their apps, and the opportunity to define that sonic layer, brand by brand, is open right now.

The owned stage goes further. Just as a brand has visual attributes, it can design sonic attributes, and then create something original that embodies them. He cited Hoopr's work with Himalaya on their Strawberry Lip Balm, for which they created a track with Monali Thakur that drove meaningful sales at launch. 

For Bingo Tedhe Medhe, a brand whose attributes are rebellious and massy, the journey began with licensing songs from artists like Mika Singh, before the brand commissioned a track with Kesarilal Yadav for the UP and Bihar markets. "The brand did exceedingly well. Now when you go to that shop and see Bingo Tedhe Medhe, that tune comes to your mind, and your hand goes out for Bingo. That is the owning it part." Most brand managers and CMOs, he concluded, are now thinking about their soundtrack as seriously as they think about how their brand looks.

As the session moved towards its close, Dhir asked the panel to look ahead at personalisation, AI, and what brand managers should be preparing for.

Gadgil offered a counterintuitive observation. With the proliferation of choices available to shoppers today more options are not necessarily better. "The more choices, the more unhappiness." Every brand is fighting for attention on every platform, making it increasingly difficult for a shopper to find what she actually wants. The brands that will win, he said, are those that make shopping feel good and not just rational. "What the consumer wants, she will figure out. But how she feels while shopping is something you can influence."

An audience question raised the 95-5 principle, the idea that at any given moment, only 5% of potential customers are actively in the market to buy. Gadgil acknowledged its validity, framing it as a sequencing challenge. "You can see it as a funnel. A part of what you invest will deliver in the next two months, and the rest is building your pipeline for the next twelve." He warned that cutting marketing spend may feel painless in the short term, but the damage accumulates quietly. "You will be fine for the first two months, but you will suffer in the years that follow."

Dalal built on this, arguing that the 95-5 dynamic is precisely why contextual content has become so important. "Most of the content you put out today is contextual. It is no longer just advertising. It is relevant at the right moment." The old binaries of discovery versus purchase have dissolved. "Somebody is probably scrolling right now and deciding what to add to the basket for dinner." Two things, she said, will remain permanently relevant regardless of how the landscape shifts. They are mental and physical availability. "You will have to continue driving top of mind forever. And you have to be available when she wants to buy you."

Shrivastava illustrated how personalisation can bridge that 95-5 gap in practice. If a customer has purchased an engagement ring from Limelight, the brand already knows a wedding is likely within the year. "We keep targeting them. The right time and right place makes a significant difference."

Dagaonkar traced the shifts in consumer behaviour back to their structural causes like the move to mobile-first digital, the rise of e-commerce, and then quick commerce with its ten-minute delivery window. "Extreme advancement in technology has brought brands extremely close to the customer and compressed the purchase cycle dramatically." Looking ahead, he flagged live commerce as a space to watch. "Every content piece could become a storefront for brands. With AI, we are at the cusp of even more innovation and that is what marketers need to prepare for."

A final question from the floor highlighted how the marketing budget is typically the first line to be cut when funds are tight. How does one protect the balance between brand building and bottom-of-funnel performance?

Dalal said, "Do not do campaign-led initiatives. It cannot be a burst, then off, then another burst, then off again. It does not work anymore." The always-on approach is not just more effective but actually cheaper. "The ROI is always better. You need to evaluate your media plan in a way that enables you to sustain for longer without burning your wallet in one go." 

The sheer diversity of media vehicles available today means brands can reach the same number of consumers, or more, at a fraction of the traditional cost.

The second lever is data. "We are no longer personalising and targeting based only on demographics. You have intent-based purchase data. You can be much sharper in how you target, which means less money but more reach." 

She pointed to the way digitally native startups have quietly taught legacy brands a lesson in efficiency. "Connected TV is helping them reach a bullseye TG and convert. I look at them and think about how they afford it? But it is clearly working. We just need to be smarter."