GUEST COMMENT Retail media and voice commerce – the power duo shaping retail growth

Dom Coleridge, Commercial Director, Scale Digital, takes a look how combining retail media advertising with voice commerce can deliver some surprising new ways to generate engagement and repeat sales

Professional marketers understand the power of good creative in fuelling a campaign’s performance, so they strive to deliver bold brand stories through compelling copy and striking visuals. But for today’s consumer, strong creative is no longer a differentiator; it’s a baseline expectation.

Now, what separates winning brands from the rest is how well they coordinate channels, timing and messaging to reach consumers at the right moment. 

The reality is that modern consumers don’t move neatly from awareness to consideration to purchase anymore. They jump between platforms, devices and environments, often compressing the entire journey into seconds. A product recommendation seen on social media might spark curiosity, a quick search on Amazon confirms price and availability, while a simple voice command completes the purchase. 

In this new world, brands that rely solely on the attention that their creative delivers will struggle, while those that capture real demand, will thrive.

Two channels stand out as critical to the task: Retail Media Networks and Voice Commerce. Individually, they address different moments of intent. Together, they offer brands a powerful, measurable way to influence decisions, drive conversion and maximise return on ad spend in 2026 and beyond.

Retail media: the moment of intent

More than six in ten shoppers now begin their product searches directly on Amazon, bypassing traditional search engines altogether, reshaping the rules of brand discovery. When consumers search on a retail platform, they are not browsing casually; they are signalling intent. They are closer to purchase, more receptive to relevance and more likely to convert.

Retail Media Networks allow brands to advertise within trusted retail environments, where friction is minimal and purchase is immediate. What’s more, unlike many upper-funnel channels, retail media is built around measurable outcomes. CPA-based measurement and closed-loop attribution, available via solutions such as impact.com’s Product Boost, marketers can rest assured that spend is driving sales, not just impressions.

Importantly, this opportunity now extends far beyond Amazon. Major retailers across grocery, fashion and other specialist categories are launching or scaling their own media networks. Each brings rich first-party data, unique shopper behaviours and the ability to test pricing, promotions and messaging in different retail contexts. For brands willing to look beyond a single platform, retail media becomes a sophisticated performance channel. 

The key to success is to treat retail media as part of a broader orchestration strategy. Messaging should align with availability, offers, and spend shifts, then be optimised in response to demand spikes with performance data feeding back into planning. In a world where intent can be converted in seconds, this coordination becomes vital.

Voice commerce: talk of the town

Now, let’s look at how voice commerce can level up retail media networks. Voice technology has become embedded in everyday life, from smart speakers and smartphones to in-car systems. Consumers are using their voice to reorder essentials, check availability and explore new products without screens, forms or browsing.

Once the realm of science fiction, voice commerce is no longer experimental or niche. In 2026, optimised voice experiences can support discovery, recommendation and conversion, particularly for replenishment, habitual purchases and local availability checks. By removing friction, voice enables consumers whenever intent arises.

For brands, voice offers a way to extend existing campaigns with an interactive, on-demand layer – something platforms like Say It Now are already enabling at scale. A consumer who hears a product mentioned in an ad can immediately ask their device to add it to a basket or find the nearest retailer. Awareness turns into action, without the drop-off that can sometimes occur between channels.

As adoption accelerates, brands that invest early will be better placed to scale. The goal is not complex, gimmicky builds, but simple, useful experiences that solve real consumer needs.

A power couple

Retail media and voice commerce serve different moments, but their real power lies in combination. Retail media captures consumers when they are actively searching and ready to buy. Voice supports convenience, repeat purchase and hands-free action. Together, they allow brands to engage across multiple high-value touchpoints, reinforcing messaging and driving measurable outcomes.

Crucially, alignment is everything. Offers promoted via retail media should be consistent with what voice assistants surface. Measurement frameworks should track performance across both channels, giving a holistic view of how intent is created, captured and converted.

Practical steps for 2026

For brands looking to act now, a few principles stand out:

• Identify where intent already exists in your customer journey and prioritise those moments. Not every channel deserves equal investment.
• Build retail media strategies that go beyond Amazon, reflecting your category and customer behaviour across different retailers.
• Start simple with voice commerce, focusing on useful, repeatable use cases rather than over-engineering.
• Ensure robust measurement frameworks are in place, so performance can be tracked, optimised and justified.

This year, marketing success will belong to brands that stop chasing attention and start capturing demand. Retail media and voice commerce are now essential tools for reaching consumers when it matters most.

Author

Dom Coleridge is Commercial Director, Scale Digital