Microsoft retail media not a threat!

The natural reaction to hearing that Microsoft is moving into your space is "how can I protect myself?” Such is the strength of the old "Microsoft as evil empire" image. In fact there is no need to run for cover. All Microsoft have done is brought out their own retail media: a retailer based browser that they can feed programmed content to on a targeted basis.

The way it appears to work is that your shopping cart, instead of your normal static retail media, will have a video display. This will then be linkable to your location in store to allow strong contextual targeting. The next step, which seems to be part of the package, is linking offers and content to your past behaviours through a loyalty card mechanism.

The idea behind this is not new; there have been intelligent cards and hand held devices for use in store available for some while. These have ranged from the cart just described all the way through to the "shopping buddy" that has been around in retail media for a while. The general format is that they present you with a device to scan as you go, and then serve you advertising, information or other store related services as part of the deal. The scan feature reduces time at checkout which is a plus for both the consumer and the retailer and the advertising gives us another retail media to play with.

So how is the Microsoft offering different? The real answer is that it isn't. It is a fairly standard looking device with fairly standard looking features. The thing that will make the difference is simply that it comes from Microsoft. It therefore has money and marketing expertise behind it. It can afford to be sold in as a loss leader, and representatives can make slick presentations at board level to major retailers. This means that there is likely to be more significant adoption and the consumer is likely to become acceptant of it that much faster and that much more thoroughly.

All in all if I were running the shopping buddy product I would be trying to see this as an opportunity to gain general acceptance and still quaking in my boots. From a retail media point of view I cannot help seeing it as an unequivocal opportunity with no visible downside.

Rufus Evison