And for consumers who want to cut down on corporate monitoring, hitting “decline cookies” might not make much of a difference. Ulta Beauty’s Brent Rosso, vice president of the cosmetics seller’s ad business, called retail media networks “the hottest thing in the media world.”The Home Depot app encourages users to allow tracking. Home DepotNew ways to track and targetBefore the rise of retail media networks, retailers regularly sold ad space like sponsored products or banner ads on their own digital properties. But many retail media networks combine first-party data with existing third-party information, such as demographic data, to build more detailed profiles on consumers. About $40 billion will be spent this year across retail media networks alone, the analytics firm projects.

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