The quiet rise of retail data in advertising

US ad tech firm Trade Desk moves in as retail media—ads on e-comm, q-comm and other online retail platforms—surges

- Soumya Gupta

For the longest time, India’s digital marketing industry has been dominated by two major rivals—Meta and Google.

Most brands, large and small, cannot escape these two gated ecosystems for access to customers, their third-party data, and most importantly—their attention.

With over ₹31,000 crore and ₹22,000 crore in annual advertisement revenue, respectively, Google and Meta cumulatively represent more than ₹50,000 crore of direct digital ad revenues; industry estimates place their dominance in this business at 70-90% of the total market share.

But slowly, the duopoly is breaking. Retail media—advertisements on e-commerce, quick commerce and other online retail platforms-are surging in India.

As e-commerce and quick commerce grew rapidly in India, particularly post pandemic, retail media has become an established arm of digital advertising outside of Meta and Google’s near-total dominance in India’s digital advertising business. Amazon's ads and allied services’ revenue already crossed ₹8,000 crore in FY25, while that of rival Flipkart jumped to over ₹6,000 crore in the same year. And then, there are the quick-commerce and food delivery companies, including Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto, although they do not disclose their income from advertising separately.

Estimates suggest that retail media business in India is already worth $1.5-2 billion this year, as brands find value in showing ads that directly lead to purchases within a platform, so that they can track the impact of every ad dollar spent credibly. In its annual report on India’s media & entertainment industry, consulting firm EY and industry body Ficci estimated retail media had grown to 18% of India’s total digital advertising business worth ₹70,000 crore in 2024, overtaking ad revenues in entertainment and sports.