MiniMart 10/7: Are you overspending on Amazon?

Plus: Kroger's big bet on delivery, Ahold Dehaize's new RM platform, + more

Author

Jenna Movsowitz
October 09, 2025

Hi there!

Last week, I attended Groceryshop - and came back feeling SO energized and excited. Nothing beats meeting clients and industry connections IRL, hearing from industry leaders, and the validation of top-tier market researchers confirming the trends we’ve been seeing and acting on (even as a small agency!).

But two stats from Sarah Marzano at eMarketer completely reframed how I think about retail media spend:

92% of all food and beverage shopping still happens in physical stores.

Let that sink in for a second. We talk so much about ecomm growth, it's easy to forget the reality - only 8% of F&B shoppers are buying online. Which means that, when retailers ask brands to hit 20-25% of their sales through ecommerce, they're not just asking you to meet a benchmark. They're asking you to massively outperform where shoppers actually are.

I take this as retailers seeing a huge opportunity in online grocery to keep pushing. At Veriti, we're along for the ride as our clients have reported we're achieving 15-25% in online sales for them at key retailers like Target and Walmart

Amazon captures 40% of total ecommerce sales, but gets 75% of retail media spend.

That math doesn't add up, right? There are a lot of reasons why this could be happening. But my bet: brands aren't doing this because Amazon performs that much better - they're doing it because it’s a lot of work to add more retail media platforms and Amazon has been tried-and-true for so long. That, plus the fact that it was one of the first platforms to truly offer real performance marketing data so often and so clearly tied to sales.

Brands are over-investing in one channel (Amazon) within a space (ecommerce) that only represents 8% of where their shoppers actually are. Brands think "50% of our business is ecomm, we need to support that.” But there's a huge opportunity in retail waiting to be unlocked.

Retail media can quickly become a full-time job when you're balancing Instacart, Walmart, Target, Kroger, and whatever new platform launches next month. The path of least resistance makes sense when you're stretched thin.

But there's real opportunity in diversification. Not just for performance, but for reaching shoppers where they're actually buying. That's the work we love doing: making it easy for brands to show up across the platforms that matter, without the operational headache of managing it all.

Now, onto this week in retail media and shopper marketing →

The snacks + sips hitting our grocery carts this week 🛒 

Amy’s Lentil Vegetable Soup

We’ve officially entered soup season (even if the Texas weather disagrees with me), and it’s officially making my lunches 10x easier. Amy’s is a go-to for a quick and healthy lunch, and this lentil veg soup is so filling. Amy’s ingredients are always spot-on - just organic veggies and spices.

GoMacro Salted Caramel Bars

There are SO many bars out there these days, but I tend to be a bar loyalist. GoMacro’s bars are a great mid-day, between-meeting snack - they have the most satisfying chew, simple and organic ingredients, and the best flavors. The salted caramel is rich and sweet with a touch of salt, and the dark chocolate chips satisfy that afternoon sweet treat craving. 🙂 

Hippeas Chickpea Puffs

I love a nostalgic salty snack just as much as the next guy, but I try to keep my pantry filled with (mostly) better-for-you goods. Hippeas has been a long-time pantry pick-up, perfect for whenever my kids and I are craving Cheetos but looking for a cleaner option. Love that these are vegan, too, so they’re allergy-friendly and shareable.

Featured retailer marketing updates, deadlines, tips, and more!

🚚 Kroger x DoorDash: Delivery-First Strategy Gets Real

Last week, Kroger launched on DoorDash nationwide, bringing ~2,700 stores (including Mariano's, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, and Harris Teeter) to the platform with delivery in as little as an hour.

What I've been hearing: Kroger is going all-in on delivery. They've been investing in refrigerated delivery trucks and building delivery warehouses instead of grocery stores. This DoorDash (and DashMart) partnership is just an expansion of that, making Kroger available in more places, especially city centers where they don't have physical stores.

What this means for you:

  • New retail media opportunities: The companies will collaborate on joint innovation starting with retail media and insights for brand partners. Kroger's strategy is to drive more traffic, which increases the data it uses to power its retail media business. More shoppers on DoorDash = more targeting data for advertisers

  • Budget re-evaluation time: We're already re-evaluating DoorDash budgets for our brands for 2026. Kroger's e-commerce sales grew 16% last quarter - this should grow DoorDash volume significantly

My take: I love seeing this as a collective effort among retailers to make groceries available to more people. It feels so collaborative, and gets us all closer to the same goal of making better products more available to the masses. DoorDash in particular has been picking up more and more retailers lately, and I love to see it!

✅ Your to-do: If you're at Kroger, start thinking about your DoorDash strategy (and budget) for 2026 planning. There's a lot of opportunity here!!

🏪 Ahold Delhaize Launching Proprietary Ad Platform "Edge"

AD Retail Media, the retail arm of Ahold Delhaize USA (Stop & Shop, Giant, Food Lion, Hannaford), is officially launching its ad tech platform, Edge, in January 2026. Edge is intended to bring all your advertising across Ahold Delhaize banners into one platform: on-site display ads, sponsored search, and in-store digital screens.

Here’s how they position it:

  • One-stop shop: Manage and measure on-site and off-site advertising for each banner/channel in the same place

  • Integrated loyalty + ecomm: Edge integrates loyalty programs from each Ahold Delhaize banner with its proprietary ecomm platform

  • Grocery-specific data: Most ad platforms are built to work across all retail categories. Edge's algorithms were made specifically for grocery shopping behavior - like understanding purchase frequency and replenishment cycles - which should surface your products to the right shoppers at the right time

✅ Your to-do: Mark your calendars to ensure you get an account ASAP to start building relevancy in your categories (before the BigCos get their approvals in place)!

Thanks for reading!

— Eleanor