UK health and beauty retailer Boots is leveraging its extensive first party data from its Advantage Card, along with its online and offline sales to make attribution of the path to conversion through its retail media ads more transparent.
The move has come about as Boots is the launch partner for a tie up between LiveRamp, a leading data collaboration platform, and global commerce media company, Criteo.
By leveraging Boots Advantage Card audience data and offline sales transaction data, Boots Media Group provides its brand clients with a cohesive, omnichannel view of consumer touchpoints using the Criteo and LiveRamp solution. This is a significant development for Boots’ retail media proposition, allowing for first-party audience-led targeting, closed-loop attribution, and offering its brand and agency partners omni-ROAS reporting.
Initial analysis from Criteo has shown a 22% uplift in ROAS when integrating Boots’ online and offline sales, compared to online only. Based on analysis of the top 50 brands investing in Boots from mid-September to mid-October 2024, these results provide an early indication of the positive impact of the capabilities. Measurement of Boots’ online and offline sales transactions is ongoing, with further campaigns and analysis reporting omni-ROAS throughout the Q4 peak expected.
Ollie Shayer, Omni-Media Director, Boots UK and Boots Media Group says: “I am proud Boots is at the forefront of this groundbreaking collaboration with two of our key retail media partners. As omnichannel behaviour among consumers accelerates, we now possess unparalleled insights into our customers’ shopping journeys. This powerful partnership empowers our brand partners to fully grasp the true omnichannel impact of their on-site activities on Boots.com, driving enhanced performance and deeper consumer understanding.”
Hugh Stevens, UK Managing Director, LiveRamp, adds: “Collaboration is key to the success of retail media, and we’re delighted that Boots will be the first retailer to benefit from LiveRamp’s partnership with Criteo in the UK. This partnership supports brands and retailers in the next stage of growth, enabling brands using Boots Media Group to understand the true value of on-site retail media activation for offline conversions and to accelerate ad revenue for our retailer partners.”
With retail continuing to shift to first-party data to mitigate signal uncertainty and changes to privacy regulations, brands are eager to unlock the marketing potential of retailers’ rich first-party data. This includes their extensive loyalty and customer behaviour datasets which, when harmonised, provide a deeper, omnichannel view of the path to conversion.
This offers a more comprehensive and accurate indication of return on ad spend (ROAS), with a clear understanding of the full customer journey and each touchpoint that influenced a purchase.
For example, a customer might research a product online before deciding to make a purchase in-store. By tying the datasets together, the retailer can connect the sale to the online exposure and capture ROAS more accurately.
Leveraging LiveRamp’s Data Collaboration Platform in combination with Criteo’s Commerce Yield monetisation solution, retailers like Boots can enhance their first-party targeting and attribution capabilities of their media networks. This includes providing seamless and timely access to high value audience segments built on both online and in-store purchase data and improved reporting of sales data across all channels, which in turn improves reporting of ad spend efficiency.
This should drive brands and retailers’ ability to generate revenue from retail media as well as strengthen their relations with their customers through more effective, personalised marketing experiences.
Jill Orr, Managing Director, Enterprise, EMEA at Criteo concludes:“As leaders in retail media activation and data collaboration respectively, Criteo is delighted to partner with LiveRamp to deliver more enhanced, unified data capabilities for Boots at a key moment in retail media’s evolution. By expanding the routes by which Boots can monetise its first-party data, measure omnichannel impact, and enhance targeting, we are unlocking new growth opportunities. And as these early results show, we anticipate its brand partners will also benefit from being placed in the direct purchase path – particularly as we head into the sales peak.”
