Criteo Holding Its Ground as Rivals Try to Steal Its Share

As opponents go to market claiming superior tech, Komasinski insists Criteo’s worth prop is greater than fancy options.

“We’re not simply an advert server—we actually convey demand and actual income,” he mentioned. “When our purchasers are making the choice to face up a retail media community, it’s a holistic marketing strategy, and we’re the accomplice that may put income on the highest line, not only a value merchandise that does advert serving.”

These wide-ranging capabilities set Criteo’s platform aside, mentioned Melissa Burdick, co-founder and president of adtech agency Pacvue.

Most of the newer upstarts require retailers to piece collectively a tech stack by means of multiple partnership deals, one thing that may be daunting for small- or mid-sized retailers, she mentioned.

“Criteo is a beautiful accomplice for a lot of retailers due to how plug-and-play their resolution is,” Burdick defined. “For retailers seeking to rapidly arise a retail media community, Criteo’s turnkey infrastructure makes it straightforward to get began and scale.”

The method of switching out Criteo’s tech for a competitor will also be lengthy and laborious.

“Typically, the incumbent wins as a result of they’re incumbent,” one other supply mentioned.

At the same time as competitors in opposition to Criteo steps up, the expansion of retail media implies that for now, there’s loads of spend for a number of distributors.

“Standard enterprise technique would recommend that finally there’s consolidation, however the enterprise remains to be rising a lot that there isn’t any want for that presently,” one supply informed ADWEEK. “It’s aggressive, but it surely’s not brutally aggressive. Everybody’s successful [new business] and nonetheless being worthwhile.”

There are a number of RFPs from retailers that may wrap up within the coming months, a number of business sources mentioned. When that occurs, there shall be a clearer image of Criteo’s place inside the aggressive panorama.

And when retail media’s exponential progress inevitably slows, winners and losers throughout retail media shopping for and promoting will emerge.

“The market will finally must consolidate with a comparatively finite variety of RMNs as potential end-users of the expertise,” Lipsman mentioned.

Criteo is in opposition to extra than simply legacy advert tech at this level, mentioned Sarah Marzano, retail media analyst at Emarketer. A lot of its new rivals had been constructed particularly for retail media.

“As we transfer out of the ‘land-grab section’ for platforms like Criteo, successful will imply enabling actual differentiation, creatively fixing for fragmentation and advertiser fatigue, and looking out past on-site ways.”