Commerce Connections: How Instacart enables brilliant customer experiences through commerce media

At Commerce Connections at ADWEEK House Advertising HQ in New York City, presented by ADWEEK and SMG, the conversation turned to what might be retail media’s biggest challenge and opportunity: designing ad experiences that start and end with the consumer.

Moderated by Kendra Barnett, ADWEEK’s Senior Tech Reporter, this session featured Ali Miller, General Manager of Advertising at Instacart, who unpacked the company’s evolving role in the broader commerce media ecosystem — from powering off-platform activations to redefining what omnichannel really means.

Miller began by highlighting the week’s biggest headline: Instacart’s new partnership with TikTok. “We’re the first Retail Media Network to enable end-to-end activation within TikTok’s Ads Manager,” she said. “That means brands can use Instacart data to build audiences, optimize campaigns, and measure performance — all directly inside TikTok.”

The move, she explained, represents a broader shift in Instacart’s strategy: bringing retail media data and shoppable experiences into environments where consumers already are. “It’s about making it easy for a shopper to say, ‘That looks good, I want it,’ and have it delivered from their local grocer within an hour,” Miller said. “For brands and agencies, it’s connecting the funnel — turning awareness into conversion, even as consumers bounce across platforms.”

From there, the discussion widened to address retail media’s exponential growth. With the U.S. market forecasted to grow 20% this year, Miller said the surge of investment comes with complexity. “There are literally hundreds of Retail Media Networks now,” she noted. “So brands are asking: Which ones do I choose? How do I activate consistently? How do I measure success in one language?”

Instacart’s answer is its Carrot Ads technology, which allows retailers and e-commerce partners to use Instacart’s ad tech and data to build their own media offerings. “We want retailers of all sizes to succeed,” Miller said. “This isn’t about two or three players owning the space — it’s about creating a healthy, connected ecosystem.”

Throughout the conversation, Miller returned to a central theme: ads must enhance the shopping journey, not interrupt it. “If you’re not building something that engages consumers, you’re doing it wrong,” she said. “The incentives are beautifully aligned in commerce media — what’s good for the shopper is good for the brand and good for the retailer.”

She also emphasized that AI and machine learning are making those experiences more relevant and dynamic. “We can now personalize at scale, make recommendations in real time, and ensure that every ad experience is additive,” she said.

As the session closed, Miller distilled her vision for the future into one sentence: “Make omnichannel real with a single point of entry.”

For Instacart — and for the industry at large — that mission defines where commerce media is headed: toward a world where data, creativity, and convenience converge to create experiences that feel less like advertising and more like everyday discovery.