Tesco, Waitrose, B&Q and John Lewis join dunnhumby retail media alliance
- Jul 20
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
Four of the UK's best-known retailers — Tesco, Waitrose, B&Q and John Lewis — are trialling a new dunnhumby “network alliance” designed to tackle one of retail media's most stubborn problems: fragmentation. The pilot, launching in summer 2026, spans grocery, health and beauty, and household and DIY categories.
The premise is simple but significant. Instead of building and measuring separate campaigns for each retailer, brands and agencies will be able to activate a single campaign across several retailers at once, with unified measurement across the group. dunnhumby chief executive Josh Bottomley summed up the challenge it aims to solve: brands are “demanding scale, consistency and transparency, but fragmentation has held the market back.”
A potential turning point for retail media
Retail media has been one of the fastest-growing corners of UK advertising, prized for its first-party data and proximity to the point of purchase. But disconnected platforms, inconsistent metrics and the sheer effort of managing multiple networks have slowed how quickly budgets can scale. An alliance that standardises buying and measurement could remove much of that friction at a stroke.
If the pilot succeeds, the implications are considerable. Retail media could shift from a fragmented, labour-intensive add-on to a core, easily bought part of the media plan — and, in the process, attract a far larger share of brand budgets that currently sit with the big digital platforms.
Why brands and retailers both stand to gain
For brands, the appeal is efficiency: one plan, one set of metrics, and the ability to compare performance across retailers on a like-for-like basis for the first time. That makes it far easier to justify investment and to optimise spend where it works hardest. For the retailers, a shared standard promises access to advertising budgets that might otherwise never arrive, because the complexity of buying simply was not worth it for many brands.
There are hurdles to clear. Retailers have historically guarded their shopper data jealously, and a genuine alliance requires a degree of cooperation between competitors that is rare in UK grocery and retail. Questions of data privacy, measurement methodology and commercial control will all need careful handling if the pilot is to scale beyond its initial partners.
Still, the direction of travel is clear. As commerce and media continue to converge, the retailers who make their networks simplest to buy — and easiest to measure — are the ones most likely to capture the budgets. This pilot could prove an important step towards the mature, joined-up retail media market that brands have been asking for.
Retail media has been held back by fragmentation for years, so an alliance like this could be a real turning point. For brands the appeal is obvious: one plan, one measurement framework, genuine scale. The retailers who make buying simple will be the ones who capture the budgets. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
For marketers, a unified retail media network removes the biggest barrier to entry — complexity. If the pilot delivers, retail media stops being a bolt-on and becomes a core, measurable part of the media plan.
Could a single, unified retail media network finally make the channel a core part of your media plan — or do you still see it as a bolt-on?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
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