CVS Health Enhances Retail Media Network Using First-Party Data to Personalize Customer Experiences – Friday, November 21, 2025

CVS Health is strategically leveraging its first-party data to enhance its retail media network (RMN) and personalize customer experiences. This initiative aims to refine targeting and measurement capabilities, delivering greater value to both customers and brand partners.

Who should care: VPs of retail, store operations leaders, eCommerce directors, customer experience teams, and retail technology decision-makers.

What happened?

CVS Health is intensifying its efforts to harness first-party data to strengthen its retail media network, marking a strategic pivot toward more personalized customer engagement and advertising effectiveness. By capitalizing on its vast repository of customer information, CVS aims to elevate the precision of its RMN’s targeting and measurement capabilities. This enhanced data utilization enables more relevant and impactful advertising and promotions, benefiting both CVS’s customers and its brand partners, especially those in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector. The company’s approach centers on delivering a tailored shopping experience designed to boost customer loyalty and deepen engagement. Beyond personalization, CVS is refining its data-driven methodologies to ensure that advertising within its network is consistently relevant and efficient, with the ultimate goal of increasing ad revenue. This move aligns with a broader industry trend where retailers are prioritizing the development of robust RMNs to better capture and leverage customer data, thereby driving more effective marketing strategies and stronger business outcomes.

Why now?

CVS’s timing coincides with a significant industry-wide shift emphasizing the value of first-party data in retail media. Over the past 6 to 18 months, the marketing landscape has evolved rapidly as privacy regulations tighten and consumer expectations around data use grow more stringent, diminishing the reliability of third-party data. In response, retailers like CVS are accelerating investments in their own RMNs to capitalize on proprietary customer data, enabling more personalized and privacy-compliant marketing efforts. This strategic pivot is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and fostering deeper, trust-based relationships with customers in an increasingly data-conscious environment.

So what?

CVS’s enhanced use of first-party data to advance its RMN capabilities carries important implications for the retail sector. By sharpening targeting and personalization, CVS stands to increase customer engagement and loyalty—key drivers of sustained competitive advantage. This approach not only supports CVS’s growth in advertising revenue but also offers brand partners more effective avenues for reaching their target audiences. As data privacy concerns continue to reshape the retail landscape, the ability to leverage first-party data effectively will become a critical differentiator for retailers seeking to optimize marketing ROI and customer experience.

What this means for you:

• For VPs of retail: Evaluate how first-party data can be strategically deployed to enhance personalization and deepen customer engagement.
• For eCommerce directors: Investigate opportunities to collaborate with RMNs to improve targeting precision and advertising outcomes.
• For customer experience teams: Prioritize the integration of data insights to deliver more personalized and meaningful customer interactions.

Quick Hits

• Impact / Risk: CVS’s emphasis on first-party data may establish a new benchmark in retail media, compelling competitors to elevate their data strategies.
• Operational Implication: Retailers will likely need to invest in advanced data infrastructure to support enhanced personalization and targeted advertising capabilities.
• Action This Week: Review current data strategies and assess opportunities to leverage first-party data; update executive teams on the critical role of RMN capabilities in today’s market.