BJ’s, Instacart boost their retail media reach

The use of retail media to enhance shopper engagement and activity is ramping up and becoming more sophisticated. Warehouse club operator BJ’s Wholesale Club is launching a retail media program that it says will increase brand exposure to its more than 6.5 million shopper members.

The BJ’s Media Edge initiative offers brands a comprehensive advertising solution using the Microsoft Promote IQ platform that enables the companies to target specific shopper segments with product ad placements in real time. Advertising placements are available across the retailer’s homepage, product detail pages, and during the search and browse experience.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Microsoft and offer brand partners a highly effective, omnichannel approach in order to increase brand exposure to our members,” Rachael Vegas, BJ’s Wholesale Club executive vice president, chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. “This program will continue to provide a tremendous opportunity for brands to drive growth, accelerate new product launches and deliver on their business goals.”

Marlborough, Mass.-based BJ’s, which operates 234 clubs and 163 gas locations in 18 states, reports that it has experienced a more than 250% increase in digitally enabled sales over three years. The retailer noted that retail media is increasingly critical within the modern marketing mix, and it is “committed to a future where advertising and e-commerce thrive together to create the best shopping experience.”
“BJ’s Media Edge is a meaningful step forward for both our company and our brand partners,” Monica Schwartz, BJ’s executive vice president, chief digital officer, said in a statement.

“We designed this program to leverage the power of first-party data from our highly engaged 6.5 million members," she added. "This new program builds upon our existing digital marketing offerings with a customizable solution for brand partners to influence our members at every stage of their purchase journey, all while driving measurable returns.”

In addition, San Francisco-based shopping and delivery service operator Instacart is rolling out Instacart Promotions, a suite of advertising solutions that are intended to enhance and streamline how CPG brands can provide coupons and savings on its platform.

Instacart reported that it runs hundreds of thousands of deals and coupons across the marketplace each day and the initiative aligns with a key priority of making online grocery shopping more affordable and accessible by enabling consumers to discover more promotions across its app, which appear directly on product item cards and before checkout.

The program currently offers structures that enable shoppers to save specific amounts when purchasing a certain number of items, and to also save dollars when spending set amounts. New promotion offerings over the coming months will include such deal measures as free gifts and buy one, get one (BOGO).

"With the launch of our new Instacart Promotions, all of our brand partners now have the ability to set up coupons and promotions that can drive meaningful business results while also passing on more savings opportunities to consumers,” Ali Miller, Instacart vice president of ads product, said in a statement “We're proud to continue expanding our portfolio with additional self-service capabilities, ad formats that drive results, and measurement that brands need to understand the true impact of their campaigns on Instacart."