Retail Media Is Having a Moment: Big Moves From URW, Simon and Walmart
Through new partnerships, retail heavyweights Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Simon and Walmart are upping the sophistication of the advertising and marketing opportunities they sell to third parties.
“The acceleration we’re seeing from Westfield, Simon and Walmart reflects a broader shift: Retail media is no longer just incremental income; it’s becoming a core pillar of their commercial strategy,” NextRivet co-founder David Blumenfeld told C+CT. “Owners are rethinking how their physical assets generate value, tapping into alternative forms of [gross leasable area] that go beyond leases to unlock new, experience-aligned revenue streams.”
Retail media isn’t new, but real estate companies’ embrace of it is. “The big retailers and online marketplaces have been leaning in for years, and the bigger mall operators have finally taken notice,” Blumenfeld said.
Here's the latest:
URW
URW is rolling out its Westfield Rise media and experiential division in the U.S. In conjunction with the expansion, Westfield Rise’s Immersive Experiential Display, or IXD, Network will debut this year at 10 URW retail centers in the U.S. The IXD Network, powered by real-time audience measurement platform Quividi, will enable place brands’ digital marketing campaigns on nearly 300 8-foot LED screens.
Westfield Rise’s Immersive Experiential Display Network in action Photos above and at top courtesy of Westfield Rise
“Westfield Rise is central to the next chapter of our U.S. strategy,” URW U.S. COO Dominic Lowe said. As we transform our flagship centers into multidimensional destinations where people can live, work and play, Rise is how we connect the physical environment with the digital and experiential, turning our spaces into dynamic platforms for brand storytelling and consumer engagement.”
Simon
Simon Media & Experiences is teaming up with retail marketing platform Adentro. Adentro will use anonymized location-based data from Wi-Fi users at Simon properties to customize advertising, whether display, social media or connected TV, known colloquially as CTV.
“Our retailers and brands will be able to reach and engage with Simon shoppers both in the mall and online to create a cohesive and personalized shopping journey, increasing visibility and driving them to their physical stores and websites,” said Simon Media & Experiences executive vice president of Chip Harding.
Walmart
Walmart has signed a deal with SignValue, which specializes in out-of-home advertising, to place digital and static billboards at the retailer’s more than 5,000 stores in the U.S.
“This new agreement will allow us to bring innovative and effective out-of-home advertising solutions to one of the most recognized retail brands in the world,” SignValue CEO Paul Wright said. SignValue already is accepting applications for billboard leases at Walmart stores.
A digital billboard on a Walmart property Photo courtesy of SignValue
Retail media is a high-margin business, Blumenfeld and his NextRivet co-founder Kyle Spencer told C+CT. Over the past few years, it has accelerated as retailers leverage their data. Amazon generated $56 billion in advertising revenue last year, they said, and Walmart, newer to the game, brought in $4 billion. They said Walmart can go omnichannel with its retail media offering, integrating both in-store digital signage and online advertising.
Shopping centers, meanwhile, haven’t had the same access to online behavioral data, and thus their digital signage remained more traditional, the NextRivet co-founders said, though that’s changing.
“It’s not a coincidence this is all happening now,” Blumenfeld said. Shopping center “operators see what Amazon has done with its media business and realize they’re sitting on gold: foot traffic, first-party data and massive physical reach. The only thing they needed was the connective tissue, and that’s what’s just coming online.”
Simon, for example, now can connect data it collects from two big sources — its massive brick-and-mortar footprint and the online marketplace it has built — to offer a holistic platform to buyers of its retail media, Blumenfeld and Spencer said. They added that URW has been emphasizing spatial analytics and artificial intelligence-driven demographic insights to understand visitor behavior. “These efforts are making rich audience data more accessible to media buyers,” Blumenfeld said.
He added: “What we’re seeing now is the convergence of audience, access and analytics. Giants like Simon and URW already have the scale and foot traffic to support sophisticated media platforms [and] Walmart, of course, brings its own in-store and at-home reach, but for other property owners, capturing this opportunity requires intentional investment in both the digital infrastructure and the operational mindset to activate it.”
The Children’s Place Is Going on a ‘Spree’ of Store Openings
Photo credit: JHVEPhoto - stock.adobe.com
In a letter to shareholders, Turki AlRajhi — chair of The Children’s Place and chairman and CEO of the retailer’s majority shareholder, Mithaq Holding — said the 495 Children’s Place stores that were open at the end of the 2024 fiscal year had been neglected.
Now, the retailer plans to close unprofitable locations and open a “spree” of new stores, AlRajhi said in the shareholder letter. The retailer tentatively plans to open 15 new Children’s Place and Gymboree stores by the end of its 2025 fiscal year, which started on Feb. 2. An infusion of capital will aid those efforts: Yesterday, The Children’s Place announced a $90 million loan from Mithaq, which will help pay an existing loan, pay vendors and go toward “other general corporate purposes.”
Among the new stores, the company is exploring side-by-side Children’s Place and Gymboree stores. The first combo is expected to debut this year at Simon’s Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in Central Valley, New York. The retailer also is redesigning existing stores that will remain open. “The objective is to craft something that attracts, retains and delights customers of these two distinct brands, addressing the needs of two different sets of customers,” AlRajhi wrote. He emphasized that the company “will strive to find the right balance between stores and e-commerce, and we will seek not to neglect our physical locations.”
Mexican Drugstore Giant Breaks Into U.S. Market
A Farmacias Similares store in Guadalajara, Mexico Photo credit: JRomero04 / Shutterstock.com
Farmacias Similares, which Bloomberg said operates more than 9,700 drugstores in Mexico and about 500 across Chile and Colombia, just entered the U.S. Known for its low prices and lab-coat-wearing, mustachioed mascot Dr. Simi, the company recently opened its U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas, according to Mexico News Daily and Merca2.0. The U.S. brand, Dr. Simi, will sell over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements and souvenirs featuring its popular mascot on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and via a partnership with CVS, according to the media outlets reported. The Dr. Simi LinkedIn account also said the company will open a Similandia store in Los Angeles.
The retailer will start its U.S. expansion in California and Texas and also is looking at Arizona, Florida, Illinois and New York. “Our strategic plan is based on reaching cities where 70% of Latinos live,” Dr. Simi US operational director Ramón Soler said, according to Mexico News Daily. Some CVS stores already display Dr. Simi merchandise in U.S. cities with large Mexican populations, such as Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio, Bloomberg reported.
New Lids Format Emphasizes Personalization
Sports apparel retailer Lids is stepping up to the plate with a “reinvented” format for its retail stores. With a focus on personalization, the new concept features an updated store layout, a beefed-up Custom Zone and an expanded collection of locally oriented and exclusive products, particularly headwear. For the first time, customers will be able to create personalized headwear at a Build-A-Cap kiosk in the Custom Zone. Some stores even will feature hat-curving machines. “Customization has always been at the heart of our brand, and this new store design takes it to the next level,” Lids president Bob Durda said. The concept has already rolled out at 20 Lids stores.
How U.S. Retail and Food Services Sales Fared in March
U.S. retail and food services sales minus motor vehicles and gas rose 4.5% year over year in March, the highest jump since December 2023. Every category contributed positive growth year over year in March, whereas three had contracted year over year in February: sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and bookstores; electronics and appliance stores; and building materials and garden equipment and supplies dealers.
March Year-Over-Year Growth in U.S. Sales
Seasonally adjusted, advance data
| Furniture and home furnishings stores | 7.7% |
| Health and personal care stores | 7.2% |
| Nonstore | 4.82% |
| Food services and drinking places | 4.78% |
| Clothing and clothing accessories stores | 5.4% |
| Miscellaneous store retailers | 4.7% |
| General merchandise stores | 3.8% |
| Food-and-beverage stores | 3.6% |
| Sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and bookstores | 2.7% |
| Building materials and garden equipment and supplies dealers | 2.6% |
| Electronics and appliance stores | 1.8% |
—Additional reporting by C+CT editor-in-chief Amanda Metcalf
By John Egan
Contributor, Commerce + Communities Today