Dive Brief:
- Vroom Delivery, in partnership with retail media agency Digits, has created a retail media network, the companies announced on Tuesday.
- C-stores that use Vroom for their online ordering can opt in to the program, which allows CPG companies to pay retailers for “preferred digital slotting of products” in e-commerce channels, according to the announcement.
- This comes several weeks after Invenco by GVR, a retail and payment tech company, and GSTV, a forecourt media company, announced they would also partner on a retail media offering called Engage Media Full-Service. Both leverage their broad network of customers, and can especially help smaller retailers enter the retail media sphere.
Dive Insight:
Retail media networks have largely been the purview of larger convenience retailers like Wawa, Casey’s General Stores and 7-Eleven. However, programs like those from Vroom or GSTV allow smaller retailers to band together and get a piece of the pie.
Vroom’s program is initially focused on on-site media like in-store kiosks and first-party online ordering. However, it is expected to expand to off-site media with features like CPG-funded advertising on social media and other digital channels, according to the announcement.
“Now that we have significant scale, the addition of Retail Media to the platform allows retailers of any size to access advertising revenue that historically has only been available to the largest retailers in the country,” said John Nelson, CEO of Vroom Delivery, in the announcement.
Dozens of retailers are already signed up to participate, according to the announcement. While he couldn’t name specific c-store chains that will be participating, Nelson said in an email to C-Store Dive that Vroom expects about 90% adoption among current customers within the first two months.
“This is similar to what we saw when we launched our payment solution that lowered the cost of the platform for retailers,” Nelson said in the email.
Among companies using Vroom are Dandy, Huck’s, H&S Energy, Johnny’s Markets and Nittany Minit Mart.
The Vroom and Digits partnership is expected to result in “a significant reduction in cost for [participating] retailers’ e-commerce programs,” according to the announcement.
Retailers should begin seeing revenue from the program early in 2025, and those profits will be expected to increase in the second and third years, according to the announcement.
Before this partnership, Digits focused on retail media networks for CPGs and grocers.
Digits Founder and CEO David Glaza noted that the partnership may find significant traction among CPG brands because “the convenience shopper has historically been difficult for brands to reach.”
