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Kroger continues to expand its advertising business: the profit of Kroger Precision Marketing rose by 24 percent in the second quarter 2026. The US retailer confirmed this in its quarterly results from 11. September. At the same time, adjusted e-commerce sales grew by 20 percent.
For marketers, the individual figure is less interesting than the direction: at Kroger, retail media is evolving from additional ad inventory into an increasingly integrated business built on first-party data, commerce, social, CTV and programmatic.
Strongest retail media profit growth since 2021
According to CEO Greg Foran on the earnings call, the 24 percent increase was the strongest profit growth in the retail media business since 2021. Digiday also reports that media monetization rose by 88 basis points year over year.
That retail media features so prominently in the results presentation shows how much the business model of large retailers is changing. Advertising data and media inventory are no longer viewed merely as a by-product of retail, but as a separate revenue pillar.
Kroger links shopping data with YouTube
A key building block is connecting retail data with external platforms. Since March, advertisers have been able to activate Kroger audiences on YouTube and YouTube TV via Google's Display & Video 360. According to Kroger Precision Marketing, the partnership includes SKU-level retail conversion measurement for YouTube campaigns.
With this, Kroger is trying to bring brand reach and actually measured sales closer together. This very connection is one of the reasons why retail media is becoming more attractive for traditional media budgets.
TikTok is also becoming part of the retail media stack
In June, a self-service partnership with TikTok followed. Brands can use it to reach Kroger audiences within TikTok's advertising platform based on shopping data.
Kroger describes its audiences as derived from millions of daily in-store and online purchases. According to the company, Kroger Precision Marketing's larger data base includes purchase data from more than 62 million households.
Retail media is thus shifting well beyond classic sponsored products. Social, video, CTV and programmatic are being linked with transaction data and are then meant to be attributed back to real sales.
The retailer becomes an advertising platform
Kroger is not alone with this strategy. Walmart is also expanding Walmart Connect beyond classic retail media placements and, in parallel, is extending Scintilla with marketplace data and stronger AI features.
Comparable models are also emerging outside traditional online retail. The Simon Media Network combines shopping centers, location data and offsite advertising. And at Instacart, the new AI shopping assistant Clementine shows how closely commerce, media and AI-driven product discovery are coming together.
For brands, this creates an increasingly fragmented but measurable media mix: retailers provide purchase data, platforms provide reach, and retail media networks try to bring both together through attribution and closed-loop measurement.
What the 24 percent means for marketers
Kroger's growth is first and foremost a signal that retail media continues to break free of the onsite banner straitjacket. For advertisers, networks become interesting when they sell not just reach, but audiences, activation and purchase measurement across channels.
The decisive question is therefore less whether an ad runs on Kroger.com, TikTok or YouTube. What matters more is whether the retailer can cleanly activate its first-party data and whether the impact can then be traced all the way to the actual purchase.