1、Growth,Marketing&Sales PracticeCommerce media at an inflection point:How to win with a full-stack approachCommerce media is maturing fast.In a buyer-led market,commerce media networks that deliver omnichannel activation,trusted measurement,and embedded AI will stand out.by Jack Trotter,Marc Brodhers
2、on,and Quentin George with Aparna SrinathMarch 2026If advertising has a superstar,its commerce media networks(CMNs).Over the past few years,CMNs have grown rapidly and will account for over one-fifth of US advertisers total budgets this year.1 Buyers value CMNs for their ability to link ad interacti
3、ons to purchases.Now the era of easy growth may be over.Retail leaders such as Amazon and Walmart have established CMN businesses that will continue to draw advertisers,but new networks have also proliferated,including those from travel,hospitality,and financial-services brands.As a result,less-scal
4、ed networks are facing growing competition and increasing pressure to perform,especially as AI reshapes media buying.Agentic commerce adds further complexity as bots begin completing end-to-end shopping journeys in place of humans.To stay competitive,CMNs will need to evolve into true full-stack par
5、tners as advertisers increasingly prioritize integrated end-to-end capabilities.These needs cannot be met at scale by fragmented or single-capability networks.Thats a core finding from a new McKinsey survey of 150 United Statesbased advertising decision-makers across seven industries.2 Building on o
6、ur earlier CMN research,we find that advertisers have raised their expectations:Media buyers no longer want CMNs to operate as a single performance channel;they want partners that deliver advertising placement opportunities across their customer journey(see sidebar“What is commerce media?”).What is