Microsoft is expanding its retail media offerings with the introduction of two new products: Curate for Commerce and Sponsored Promotions by Brands (SPB). These offerings aim to strengthen Microsoft Advertising’s position in the commerce media space by providing valuable solutions for both retailers and brands.
Curate for Commerce is designed to help retailers monetize their valuable first-party data through non-endemic advertising partnerships. This platform facilitates relationships with advertisers and manages deal operations, requiring minimal technology investment from the retailers themselves. Major retailers like Kohl’s are already piloting this program.
Sponsored Promotions by Brands (SPB) empowers brands to reach shoppers across various platforms, including Microsoft Edge, Bing, and partner retail sites. This innovative solution operates on a cost-per-sale model, minimizing risk for advertisers. Notably, SPB enables a streamlined campaign setup across multiple retailers, eliminating the need for managing separate campaigns for each platform.
The significance of these offerings lies in their ability to provide advertisers with access to highly accurate first-party data, offering a more reliable alternative to traditional third-party data for targeted campaigns. Curate for Commerce grants exclusive access to this valuable data, while SPB introduces a low-risk, cost-per-sale model that simplifies campaign management across multiple retail platforms.
These new tools reflect a crucial shift within the retail media landscape, where the value of retailers’ first-party data is steadily increasing as the reliability of third-party data diminishes. By offering solutions that benefit both retailers and brands while simplifying the operational complexities of retail media programs, Microsoft is strategically positioning itself as a key player in this evolving market.
