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Sarah Marzano, EMARKETER

Scale Built the Industry. Maturity Must Now Define It.

The conversation around Commerce Media Network (CMN) success is shifting.

For years, winners have been defined by scale: the size of their audience, the strength of their retail proposition for brands, the breadth of inventory, and the growth of spend. But advertiser expectations are evolving.

After more than a decade of rapid expansion, over 200 Commerce Media Networks now compete for advertiser investment. Global spend is projected to exceed $200 billion by 2027. Yet the rules for capturing that growth are changing.

Scale alone is no longer enough.

Advertisers are consolidating partners, with 56% of US advertisers expecting to focus spend on fewer networks. At the same time, expectations around measurement, interoperability, automation, and incrementality are rising. Tolerance for fragmentation is declining.

The defining question has shifted from:

“How big is your network?” to “How sophisticated is it?”

From Scale to Sophistication 

This shift marks a critical inflection point for the industry.

Early success in commerce media was driven by rapid expansion: launching networks, onboarding brands, and scaling inventory. Now, the focus is turning to operational maturity: the ability to deliver consistent, measurable, and comparable outcomes across environments.

In this new phase, competitive advantage will be determined not just by access to audiences, but by how effectively networks enable advertisers to plan, activate, measure, and optimize investment.

A Framework for What Comes Next

In this report, SMG offers a framework for understanding commerce media maturity and outlines the three structural capabilities that will define the next generation of leading CMNs.

Featuring fresh commentary throughout from Sarah Marzano, VP & Principal Analyst at EMARKETER, the report combines SMG’s 18 years of global experience with industry data, regional comparisons, and operational insight.

Voices from Across the Industry

The report also brings together perspectives from leading commerce media leaders, including:

Looking Ahead to 2030

The report concludes with a set of recommended actions for Commerce Media Networks, providing a clear framework for success today and a roadmap for how networks must evolve through 2030.

Download the Full Report

To explore the full maturity framework, industry benchmarks, and strategic recommendations, download the complete report.