Wolt Ads' Catalina Salazar Highlights Retail Media Fragmentation Challenge for Industry Leaders – Thursday, December 18, 2025

Catalina Salazar, an executive at Wolt Ads, has addressed the pressing issue of retail media fragmentation, likening the current challenges to the early days of banner advertising. This comparison underscores the urgent need for innovative solutions to unify and streamline retail media efforts across the industry.

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

What happened?

Catalina Salazar of Wolt Ads recently spotlighted a critical challenge confronting the retail sector: the fragmentation of retail media. She drew a compelling parallel between today’s fragmented retail media landscape and the early, chaotic days of banner advertising. This fragmentation presents a significant obstacle to the growth and effectiveness of retail media networks, complicating efforts to build cohesive advertising strategies. As a result, brands struggle to connect with consumers efficiently and consistently. Salazar pointed out that the retail media ecosystem is currently fragmented across numerous platforms and channels, each operating with its own metrics, standards, and reporting methods. This lack of standardization not only increases complexity but also limits advertisers’ ability to optimize campaigns and measure true performance. The proliferation of disparate systems creates silos that hinder seamless integration and coordination, ultimately diluting the impact of retail media investments. As retail media continues to expand rapidly, this fragmentation threatens to cap the potential return on investment for brands and disrupt the consumer journey. Salazar emphasized that addressing these challenges through unified, streamlined solutions could unlock significant growth opportunities. By consolidating media efforts and standardizing practices, the industry can enhance advertising effectiveness, improve consumer targeting, and reduce operational inefficiencies. This evolution is essential for retail media networks to realize their full potential as powerful drivers of sales and customer engagement.

Why now?

The urgency of this discussion stems from the retail industry’s accelerating adoption of retail media networks over the past 18 months. As digital advertising strategies have surged, retailers and brands have increasingly recognized the value of reaching consumers through these channels. However, this rapid growth has also exposed the fragmentation problem more starkly, prompting industry leaders to seek solutions that can simplify and unify media efforts. Salazar’s comparison to the early days of banner advertising serves as a timely reminder: just as the digital advertising ecosystem matured by overcoming fragmentation, retail media networks must evolve similarly to unlock their transformative potential. The current moment presents a critical opportunity to address these challenges before fragmentation becomes a more entrenched barrier to growth and innovation.

So what?

Resolving retail media fragmentation is crucial not only for operational efficiency but also for enhancing consumer engagement and satisfaction. A unified approach enables brands to deliver more targeted, relevant advertising, which improves the overall customer experience and drives higher conversion rates. Moreover, standardizing metrics and practices across platforms will simplify campaign management and reporting, benefiting both retailers and advertisers. By embracing integrated media solutions, the retail industry can create seamless customer journeys that connect diverse touchpoints, fostering stronger brand loyalty and increased sales. This shift will also empower decision-makers to allocate budgets more effectively, maximizing the impact of retail media investments.

What this means for you:

• For VPs of retail: Prioritize investments in technologies that integrate multiple media channels to streamline advertising operations and improve ROI.
• For eCommerce directors: Develop strategies that leverage unified media platforms to enhance consumer targeting, personalization, and engagement.
• For customer experience teams: Focus on creating seamless, integrated customer journeys by connecting various media touchpoints across channels.

Quick Hits

• Impact / Risk: Fragmentation in retail media could restrict growth and diminish the effectiveness of advertising strategies.
• Operational Implication: Retailers must adopt integrated media solutions to boost advertising efficiency and deepen consumer engagement.
• Action This Week: Assess current media strategies for fragmentation issues and convene a cross-functional team to explore unified media solutions.