Instacart, Ocado Ads and more take a ‘huge step forward’ to democratize retail data

If you thought the retail media boom was over, a new report suggests otherwise.

According to Nielsen’s 2025 Annual Marketing Report, 65% of global marketers expect retail media networks (RMNs) to play a growing role in their media planning this year; in North America, the number is even greater, at 74% of marketers.

That means retail media is ripe for innovation. And The Trade Desk is offering new capabilities, in partnership with some top retailers and marketplaces, that could transform how advertisers use retail media data.

On Tuesday, Instacart announced an expanded partnership with The Trade Desk — it’s become the first U.S. retailer media network to integrate its grocery selection directly into The Trade Desk platform to allow advertisers to work with product-level data without having to go through multiple hops.

Other U.S.-based retailers are planning to follow suit.

“Retail media is increasingly not just about advertising on e-commerce sites; it’s a capability that can be integrated into media and marketing strategies across the purchase funnel,” Ali Miller, VP of ads product at Instacart, tells The Current.

“By making it easier for brands and agencies to integrate purchase data into how they create and measure programmatic campaigns, we’re helping to connect the dots between media strategies and sales outcomes.”

Further, the U.K.’s Ocado — which first partnered with The Trade Desk in 2023 and had already integrated its product catalog — will now be allowing advertisers to access its product-level data too. 

“The message from advertisers is loud and clear: They want to activate premium retail data across the open internet and measure the real-world business impact,” says Jack Johnson, head of retail media and data at Ocado Ads. 

“This enhanced partnership with The Trade Desk is a huge step forward in our mission to democratize that data and champion powerful self-serve capabilities for brands.”

What are the benefits?

So, what’s new?

While Instacart has partnered with The Trade Desk since 2023, this latest integration will allow approved advertisers and their agencies to rapidly work with SKU-level data to create real-time audience groups and enable closed-loop measurement, all in a self-serve user interface.

“This integration improves ease of use for advertisers and agencies while tapping into incremental reach and results powered by Instacart purchase data,” Miller says. “Now, approved advertisers and agencies can build and activate Instacart audiences for their new and existing programmatic campaigns directly inside The Trade Desk’s platform.”

The integrations take advantage of The Trade Desk’s Kokai platform benefits — including frequency caps, brand safety controls and direct publisher pricing — the Instacart announcement said. 

With over 200 retail media networks operating today, advertisers could “face a logistical challenge,” AdLib Founder Mike Hauptman recently argued in an op-ed for The Current.

These new capabilities offered by The Trade Desk could ease potential challenges, as they provide advertisers with more rapid and direct access to retail data.

“The product catalog integration levels up how clients work with our data,” Ocado Ad’s Johnson says. “The key benefit is speed to market and flexibility to meet clients’ needs.” 

Go deeper 

Retail media is expected to remain a robust advertising channel, even amid economic volatility.

In the U.S., eMarketer projects retail media ad spend will rise by 8.5% even with heavy tariffs, nearly 13% with moderate tariffs and 18% if tariffs are limited.

In the U.K., an IAB U.K. report projects retail media ad spend (excluding Amazon) will surpass £1 billion this year and top £2 billion by 2027. 

“The forecast underscores the buoyant health of the market as advertisers look to leverage the vast wealth of first-party data retailers can offer,” the report said. 

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.