Retail media is becoming increasingly critical to one of the nation’s largest grocery chains.Profit for the Kroger Precision Marketing advertising business grew 24% in the second quarter, according to Kroger’s latest financial earnings release. This marks the company’s best retail media profit growth since 2021, CEO Greg Foran told investors on a conference call Friday morning. Media monetization grew 88 basis points over the past year, Foran said. Meanwhile, e-commerce sales grew 20% and this marked the second consecutive quarter of profitable e-commerce growth, the company said.
Foran brought up e-commerce and retail media within the first few sentences of Friday’s earnings call, before any mention of traditional merchandising. The fact that retail media profits are coming up as a central point in a major retailer’s earnings conversation shows how important the sector has become in retailers’ overall strategies.
In a statement, a Kroger Precision Marketing spokesperson said the division has grown thanks to an increase in on-site customer traffic, as well as new opportunities for brands such as shopping assistant ads and collaborations across social media and programmatic advertising.
