New commerce media benchmark assesses maturity across key verticals, identifying key challenges and delivering a playbook for growth
FORT WORTH, Texas, Nov. 19, 2025, the leading commerce media platform for enterprises, today released its commissioned commerce media benchmark study, All Commerce Media Playbook, conducted by Forrester Consulting, assessing maturity across key verticals, including retail, travel and hospitality, financial services, transportation and logistics, real estate and home services, QSR and automotive. The findings reveal that while 42% of respondents describe their commerce media operations as operationalized or fully advanced, only 13% meet the criteria for "trailblazers" across strategy, technology, measurement and operations, signalling the industry is just beginning to realize its full potential.
Commerce media is poised for tremendous growth, projected to exceed 1.3 trillion dollars by 2030.As commerce media matures, networks are at different points on their paths to scale, ranging from early pilots to enterprise-grade programs. The study provides a playbook for the next stage, helping each industry apply best practices from one another, identify gaps to maturity and accelerate toward scalable and truly connected commerce media networks.
The study identifies three maturity segments: Nascent (49%), companies early in their journey, typically running pilots with limited first-party data; Emerging (38%), companies building structure with defined revenue goals, early platform partnerships and growing cross-team coordination; and Trailblazers (13%), companies where commerce media is a core growth strategy, supported by connected tech stacks, AI-driven targeting and full-funnel measurement tied to business outcomes.
Retail and Financial Services are Nearing Trailblazer Status
Retail is the most mature sector with 22% classified as trailblazers, but most retailers lag in unifying their media ecosystems. Financial services networks are advanced in data maturity but conservative in activation. With 26% stating they offer full-funnel commerce media, this strength reflects rigorous governance, more than full media readiness. Both sectors must improve data collaboration, automation and attribution to drive scalable growth.
Real Estate, QSR, Travel and Hospitality Show Strong Potential, But Many Still Lack Unified Systems
Real estate and home services have deep audience trust but need unified systems and automated workflows to monetize at scale. QSRs have world-class transaction and loyalty data but remain in early test-and-learn phases. Travel and hospitality excel in intent data but face fragmented systems and long conversion paths; only 8% currently qualify as trailblazers. These segments all have strong signals of intent and valuable data but are still early in their maturity.
Compared to nascent players, emerging segments have clearer revenue goals, early partnerships and increasing cross-functional collaboration, but, for many, operational complexity and measurement gaps need to be addressed to reach trailblazer status.
Automotive and Transportation Are Still in The Early Stages and Highly Fragmented, But Show Promise
Automotive networks are rich in data but limited by fragmented execution. Right now, only 3% qualify as trailblazers. Transportation and logistics companies have strong real-time data but require unified governance, automation and integration to scale. While both are considered nascent, they are primed for growth with key adjustments.
"The growth potential in commerce media is enormous, and unlocking it is a priority for businesses," said Nicholas Ward, president and co-founder of Koddi. "One of the most important insights in this study is how differently each vertical is maturing. Retail leads in media sophistication, while financial services lead in data. Both can offer insights that the rest of the industry can learn from. This benchmark gives businesses a clear map of where strengths exist and how to apply those learnings across sectors to accelerate growth."
Forrester surveyed 788 global decision-makers to benchmark maturity, identify operational barriers and map the road to scale. The full study, All Commerce Media Playbook, is available for download here.
About Koddi
Koddi is the leading retail and commerce media technology for enterprises. Leveraging AI and first-party data, Koddi builds retail and commerce media networks for the biggest companies in the world, including Kroger, Booking.com, Grubhub, Gopuff, Fanatics and Cars.com. With more than a decade of experience and powering billions of media spend, the company is leading the fast-growing rise of commerce and retail media. Koddi supplies technologies that empower retailers, marketplaces, online travel agencies and more to realize the $100 billion commerce media opportunity. For more information, please visit koddi.com.
Rachel Jermansky
SamsonPR for Koddi
koddi@samsonpr.com
