Kritter Software Technology launched its commerce advertising (or retail media) solution in late 2019. The solution was targeted towards retailers, eCommerce players, and platforms that wanted to monetize their websites or in-app inventories.

At the time, most retailers were selling direct ad inventories to their sellers and brand partners with limited targeting and optimization levers. Most platform users were seeing similar ads for prolonged periods with little to no personalization.

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The solution, though focused on equipping retailers with an additional revenue stream by selling ads programmatically, empowered the other stakeholders in the ecosystem as well. For instance, it met the demands of advertisers (sellers & brands) to target customers based on parameters beyond demographic, geography, and product listing pages. Again, the old approach (direct-selling) allowed only brands with deeper pockets to purchase inventories for long periods of time, making it difficult for smaller brands to compete.

With the new solution, any advertisers (even new and upcoming brands) can place their bids on the retailers’ platform to target high intent segments.

The solution makes it a level playing field for brands to bid on their desired niche segments with no monthly or quarterly commitments, opening up avenues for new and smaller brands. The bidding is done programmatically to ensure this.

Again, with access to retailers’ first-party data (while the data stays with the retailer), advertisers can now reach customer segments that are most likely to respond to their messaging and offers. These segments are created based on the users’ geographic location, their demography, past purchases (online & offline), browsed product pages, in-market segments, product associations, and more.

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The campaigns are now optimized (with new creatives, higher bids, new targeting) on the fly based on the performance and engagement on the ads.

As far as the platform users (customers) are concerned, they see more personalized landing pages and app screens. Conversion rates improve multifold when the offers and products resonate well with the audience. With their data never leaving the system, the current privacy laws and regulations are honored as well.

Creating such a solution in-house from scratch can be a daunting task, and recovering the costs, time, and resources involved may take years. Kritter Ad Trading Stack can help retailers do that in months. As per Rohan Rai, co-founder of Kritter Software Technology Pvt Ltd, “2021 would be a crucial year for retailers to join the retail media bandwagon. All major eCommerce players are investing heavily in their advertising solutions. This supply is being created in response to the demand from advertisers (brands and agencies) for an alternative to traditional media buying. With the third-party cookies going away, retailers’ first-party data can be a great asset that brands can augment to their 1st party data to keep digital advertising relevant and effective.”

The (retail media) ecosystem will be big enough to accommodate multiple players. Rohan adds, “It would not be limited to Amazon, Walmart, Target, Flipkart, and others who have deep pockets. Mid-size and small players can join the club by effectively leveraging the technology already available to them. Kritter can be one such enabler.”