Costco Has Everything - Even Ads

A few years ago, as retail media started heating up, I asked the question on Twitter - where's Costco?

As Walmart and Target were making headway in this space, Costco seemed like such an obvious contender. Not only does the company have a huge footprint, but it sells practically everything, making it viable for reams of different advertisers. Plus Costco is built around memberships, which would seemingly set them up well for smart, sophisticated use of first party data for advertising.

Well, after laying low and being very quiet over the years, here they come.

Marketing Brew reports that Costco is "building out an ad network built on its trove of loyalty membership data, using its 74.5 million household members’ shopping habits and past purchases to power targeted advertising on and off its website."

For a category that was already red hot, this is a Big Box, Big Boy power move. The question of course will be in the execution - Costco needs to get the ad product and ad tech right. Plus, I'm not sure how many Costco shoppers opt for the online experience vs. doing the real life shopping cart thing. Then again, Costco could also lean heavily into physical in-store ads.

Either way, this looks like a game changer.

Dig Deeper With These Links:

• Costco is building out an ad business using its shoppers’ data - Ryan Barwick [Marketing Brew]

• Ikea remodels remote work with paid positions for Roblox store - Sara Karlovitch [Retail Dive]

• Read the 23-page pitch deck that ShopMy used to raise $18.5 million to shake up affiliate and influencer marketing - Sydney Bradley [Business Insider]

• Ad Tech Watchdog Infuriates The Industry With Its Damning Programmatic Reports—inside The Battle - Garett Sloane [Ad Age]

• 'Almost a Slap in the Face': Publishers Vexed by The Trade Desk’s Narrow Premium List - Catherine Perloff [Adweek]