For the first time, IAB MENA has joined IAB Europe’s research into Attitudes to Retail Media  revealing how Retail Media is becoming an established part of advertisers’ strategies, while highlighting persistent challenges around measurement, data availability and standardisation.

The findings reveal a market moving beyond initial experimentation towards longer-term partnerships, with 71% of European buyers having partnered with retailers for over a year, up from 51% in 2024. Yet only 12% consider their Retail Media strategies fully sophisticated, while 61% identify a lack of measurement and reporting as a leading barrier to further investment.

The latest study draws on insights from 150, buy-side and sell-side respondents, including advertisers, agencies, retailers and Retail Media Networks (RMNs). For the first time, the research also includes a sample of 37  from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), offering early insights into Retail Media development across the two regions.

Developed by IAB Europe’s Retail & Commerce Media Committee, the report features quantitative analysis by Caras Consulting, complemented by independent qualitative research conducted by Ascentinel, with LuckyCart and Mirakl Ads supporting the qualitative research as sponsors.

Key Findings from the 2026 Report

• Retail Media partnerships are deepening, but maturity still lags: 71% of European buyers have partnered with retailers for over a year, up from 51% in 2024. Yet only 12% of buyers consider their Retail Media strategies fully sophisticated.
• Measurement remains the biggest barrier to investment: 61% of European buyers cite a lack of measurement and reporting, while concerns around data availability have jumped from 31% to 58% in just one year.
• Buyers are looking beyond ROAS: ROAS was selected as a desired measurement metric by 49% of European buyers, down from 89% in 2025, with buyers now prioritising unified online and offline reporting (66%), new-to-brand/category measurement (63%) and incrementality (57%).
• The measurement gap between buyers and sellers persists: 58% of buyers want multi-touch attribution, but only 31% of sellers offer it. Encouragingly, 63% of sellers plan to enhance their measurement capabilities in the next 12 months.
• AI is becoming a major investment priority: 68% of sellers plan to develop AI-powered campaign management and optimisation capabilities in the next 12 months, while 50% plan to develop capabilities for agentic commerce and conversational AI discovery.

For comments or questions email [email protected].