Breaking Boundaries: The Explosive Growth of Off-Site Retail Media
By Caroline Zerilli, Product Marketing Manager at Chicory
Retail media networks have surged in importance over the last few years, but that path to growth was always destined to hit a wall. Early efforts saw the proliferation of on-site tactics like sponsored product listings and brand pages, but now even retail media leaders like Amazon and Walmart are maxing out their on-site inventory. While 79.1% of retail media ad spending will still go to on-site ads in 2025 (eMarketer, “Retail Media Unfiltered,” March 2025), it’s clear that off-site is the next frontier.
Now, off-site retail media—including tactics like social media, connected TV, and display—is experiencing unprecedented momentum. According to eMarketer’s latest forecast, off-site retail media ad spend will grow at twice the rate of on-site through 2026, eventually representing $1 in every $4 spent on retail media by 2027. This shift creates an opportunity for brands to expand reach, capture new customers, and drive incremental sales beyond the limitations of retailer websites.
How Chicory Powers Off-Site Retail Media Growth
As brands look to take advantage of off-site retail media’s reach and retailers aim to expand their off-site offerings, Chicory’s contextual commerce media solutions deliver value to both.
According to Chicory’s consumer research, 63% of shoppers make purchase decisions before they reach the retailer, indicating the critical need to influence shoppers during the planning and inspiration phase of their shop. By connecting brands with consumers during active meal planning moments, Chicory transforms contextually relevant content into a powerful tool for driving discovery, consideration, and purchase.
Chicory’s contextual commerce media solutions deliver value for brands and retailers in three key ways:
Unlocking Brand-Safe, Contextual Inventory at Scale
As on-site inventory becomes increasingly limited, Chicory’s network of 5,200+ brand-safe, contextually relevant recipe sites offers turnkey inventory for brands to activate against. This scalability is crucial, as 51.2% of advertisers cite scalability as one of their top challenges with retail media (eMarketer, “Retail Media Unfiltered,” presented at ShopTalk, March 2025). Chicory partners directly with top-tier food publishers including Food Network, Taste of Home, and The Kitchn, making it easy for brands to deliver campaigns to consumers browsing for meal inspiration on their go-to recipe platforms.
Delivering Relevant Products in Moments that Matter
Consumer receptivity to advertising increases by 60% when they’re in the right mindset. In fact, 80% of consumers have been inspired by a recipe to purchase a new product. Chicory’s contextual advertising solutions reach consumers when they are ready to plan for, shop for, and cook their next meal—creating strong alignment between content and intent that minimizes wasted impressions and maximizes impact.
Reaching New & Lapsed Shoppers
Unlike traditional shopper-targeted methods that often reach existing customers, Chicory’s contextual approach drives 34-62% of purchase from new and lapsed shoppers. This capability helps brands not only drive incremental sales but also build new customer relationships that contribute to long-term growth.
Bridging Inspiration and Purchase to Drive Consideration
For retailers, Chicory’s approach to off-site retail media creates a powerful complement to existing on-site strategies. By extending retail media networks into contextually relevant environments where consumers are already engaged, retailers can reach new and lapsed shoppers and capture a larger share of the growing retail media market—forcasted to reach 61.2 billion in 2025.
For brands, this translates to more effective campaigns that reach consumers at optimal moments for influence. While access to retailers’ first-party data for targeting purposes has been a key selling point for RMNs since their inception, brands are beginning to recognize that there is a limit to the impact you can have on the same shopper pool. Off-site strategies like contextual commerce media help capture new and lapsed customers to drive overall growth.
As retail media networks expand their media suites for full-funnel impact, off-site tactics like contextual commerce media will be essential for connecting the gap between inspiration and purchase. With 80% of consumers using online recipes, meeting shoppers where they are in their discovery and decision journey can help transform inspiration into positive sales outcomes. Off-site may be the next frontier, but contextual relevance will be the next key to success.
Want to learn more about how Chicory can complement your brand’s retail media strategy?
Reach out to hello@chicory.co today.