Solving retail media fragmentation with a commerce-focused SSP

Retail and commerce media have rapidly grown into one of digital advertising’s most dynamic sectors, with an increasing number of retail media networks (RMNs) and commerce media networks (CMNs) competing for advertiser dollars. 

Yet with growth has come a new challenge: fragmentation. Commerce media networks rushed to emulate Amazon and Walmart with proprietary self-serve platforms and walled gardens, resulting in a landscape filled with independent systems. CMNs have prioritized launching differentiated offerings, such as unique audiences and innovative ad formats, to stand out in the market and compete for ad budgets. For networks without Amazon-level traffic, inventory/audience differentiation is essential to drive ROI. While necessary for capturing budgets, actioning on differentiation may add complexity to the buying process, making it harder to drive incremental demand.

This post explores why fragmentation is holding commerce media back from growth—and how programmatic activation through a purpose-built commerce media SSP (Supply-Side Platform) offers a path forward. We’ll examine the pain points and benefits for advertisers and commerce media networks, compare leading SSP approaches, and highlight the way CMNs can enable on-site and in-store programmatic buying in a way that still promotes a differentiated offering in a competitive landscape.

The fragmentation problem in retail and commerce media

Commerce media fragmentation stems from the proliferation of individual CMNs—each with their own ad tech stack, data formats, and measurement rules. Today, there are over 250 RMNs globally. 

For advertisers, this results in a patchwork of walled gardens. A brand selling across a traditional retailer, a pet supply company, and a grocery store might face three unique platforms with separate interfaces, targeting rules, and metrics. Managing these siloed systems leads to:

• Increased operational overhead
• Inconsistent data access
• Redundant campaign setups
• Limited ability to compare performance across networks

But this isn’t just a problem for advertisers: commerce media networks also feel the strain. Today, leading and emerging CMNs alike struggle to compete for advertiser dollars, as seen through the declining growth in commerce media. Commerce media networks struggle with more than just low fill rates and inconsistent campaign insights: they’re unable to tap into incremental brand budgets that could transform commerce media growth.

Impact on advertisers: Siloed platforms, data chaos, and inefficiency

For advertisers, key challenges resulting from fragmentation include:

1. Complex campaign management: Each retailer platform has different workflows, metrics, and creative specs. A single campaign may require multiple dashboards, logins, and team members to execute.

2. Inconsistent measurement: Disparate commerce media networks may define even basic metrics differently. Advertisers receive fragmented reports, making it nearly impossible to gauge cross-network performance with confidence. To best understand how to allocate spend, advertisers want this information from each partner to be able to easily see where ads are performing best (one brand even performs week-over-week comparisons). Without clear measurement, brands distrust commerce media network performance. 

3. Limited scale: Brands aiming for broad reach must spread budget across several CMNs. But with each system isolated, there’s no way to optimize holistically or apply unified frequency caps, audiences, or learnings.

Impact on commerce media networks: Monetization gaps and missed demand

Commerce media networks are sitting on valuable assets: shopper data, purchase intent, and on-site ad real estate. But fragmentation holds back their full potential.

1. Under-monetized inventory: When demand is fragmented across dozens of networks, smaller or newer CMNs struggle to earn meaningful share-of-wallet from advertisers focused on just a few key partners. Advertisers are only willing to log into a limited number of platforms, with most limiting spend to 2-10 CMNs. 

2. Difficulty accessing national brand budgets: Today, retail and commerce media networks are often limited to traditional shopper marketing dollars. However, these budgets represent a fraction of the revenue potential CMNs could be earning. Most ad dollars are kept in national and brand budgets, which primarily flow through DSP spend. To put it bluntly, programmatic display accounts for $387B in ad spend in 2025, retail media ad spend is $61B. There’s more demand, but fragmentation keeps CMNs from accessing it. 

3. Inconsistent measurement for clients: Commerce companies promising closed-loop measurement face a challenge: each network’s reporting is siloed, making it difficult for advertisers to unify data from multiple CMNs to understand total return on spend. If ROI isn’t clear, advertisers won’t keep spending.

Programmatic activation: A scalable solution to fragmentation

Programmatic activation offers a way out of fragmentation.

Programmatic advertising automates ad buying through real-time auctions. In commerce media, it means connecting commerce inventory to demand-side platforms (DSPs) where advertisers already transact.

Advertisers get:

• Centralized access to multiple CMNs via DSPs
• Consistent measurement and impression-level data
• Greater scale with unified targeting
• Streamlined operations and faster optimizations

Retailers get:

• Reduced dependence on direct sales teams
• Incremental demand from a broader pool of advertisers and budgets
• Unified auction environments for higher yield
• Advanced controls for pricing, transparency, and relevance

How does a commerce media SSP solve these issues?

A commerce media SSP is a supply-side platform built specifically for commerce media. It enables retailers to expose their on-site and in-store ad inventory to programmatic demand while maintaining control over how, where, and to whom ads are served.

Key capabilities include:

• Integration with retailer product catalogs and first-party data
• Support for sponsored products, display, video, and in-store ad formats
• Closed-loop reporting capabilities
• Access to multiple DSPs for scalable demand
• Advanced pricing, auction, and targeting controls

Today, the Koddi SSP is the first and only true commerce media SSP, bridging the worlds of commerce media and programmatic advertising. With integrations with top DSPs, including DV360 and The Trade Desk, no other SSP provides both commerce media differentiation and programmatic scale. 

Benefits of the Koddi SSP: Unified, scalable, transparent while maintaining differentiation

1. Consolidated access and reach: Advertisers can scale campaigns across multiple retailers through one DSP, accessing diverse formats and audiences without extra manual effort. This doesn’t just make advertisers’ lives easier: it’s the unlock to more budgets. In fact, we found 80% of brands and agencies said it’s easier to shift budgets to commerce media if they can buy media programmatically.

2. Standardized data and measurement: Koddi SSP enforces consistent measurement frameworks, enabling advertisers to compare performance and optimize with confidence.

3. Incremental demand and higher CPMs: With more competition for impressions, SSP auctions often lead to better yield. Commerce companies can also attract new advertisers and larger budgets with the right targeting safeguards.

4. Greater transparency and control: Koddi SSP enables private marketplaces, floor pricing, brand safety, and detailed reporting—offering transparency without sacrificing control.

Conclusion: The path to commerce media maturity

Commerce media fragmentation threatens efficiency and scalability across the ecosystem. But with programmatic activation through a dedicated commerce media SSP, networks and advertisers alike can achieve scale, transparency, and performance.

A commerce SSP isn’t just a technology choice—it’s a growth strategy. As commerce media matures, SSPs will be the backbone of scalable monetization, unified measurement, and advertiser trust.

For commerce media leaders seeking to simplify complexity and capture new revenue, the time to adopt a commerce-focused SSP is now. Reach out to Koddi to learn more about our commerce media SSP, and how to grow incremental demand today.