Regional grocers seek additional ad revenue with Mercatus
Weis Markets, Smart & Final, and Piggly Wiggly Midwest will be the first grocers to leverage the new Mercatus digital advertising solution.
The grocery e-commerce provider is introducing a new capability that combines its integrated digital commerce platform with a scalable, managed native advertising program provided in partnership with retail media platform CitrusAd. By partnering with CitrusAd, Mercatus can provide retailers on its platform immediate, turnkey access to all the national brand advertisers and media agencies on the CitrusAd network.
As a result, by using existing promotional assets and a standardized digital ad publishing workflow, national CPGs can now reach and incentivize the hundreds of thousands of shoppers that use the Mercatus platform with relevant, targeted native advertising. Mercatus will manage the operation of digital campaigns on behalf of its retailers.
Leveraging visibility into campaign performance metrics, Mercatus will work collaboratively with retail partners and brand advertisers to optimize campaign performance and maximize advertising revenue on grocers’ branded e-commerce sites.
Targeted product search, category results and native display ads will integrate seamlessly with the online shopping experience, which Mercatus intends to encourage shoppers to add contextual and relevant consumer brand offers directly to their digital carts instead of being redirected offsite. This will enable grocers to offer high-conversion, personalized ad placements to CPGs and compete against grocery retail giants like Instacart, Walmart, Target, Kroger and Amazon for a greater share of what is estimated as more than $11 billion available CPG online ad spend.
“As online grocery sales continue to grow and traditional media channels wane in their effectiveness and popularity, digital advertising on the Mercatus platform using the CitrusAd Network will help grocery retailers access a revenue stream previously monopolized by Tier-one competitors and delivery-provider marketplaces,” said Sylvain Perrier, president and CEO, Mercatus. “Consumer brands and their media agencies are searching for more direct, lower-funnel conversion at the point of purchase. And that’s exactly what Mercatus digital advertising offers.”
“Too often, grocers’ digital advertising is a disjointed experience, lacking the ability to monetize their digital presence at scale and offer the self-managed advertising capabilities and real-time reporting that brands get with larger players,” said Brad Moran, CEO, CitrusAd. “With CitrusAd powering Mercatus digital advertising, grocery retailers now have a clear-cut alternative to optimize their online ad programs, simplifying the advertising process both internally, and for brand advertisers and media agencies, as well as winning a bigger slice of media revenue.”
Additional Mercatus retailers will join the network in the coming months.