88% of Shoppers Buy Something Unplanned – Retail Media Captures That

01 /The Concept

Looma built a platform for in-store video advertising – screens placed inside physical retail locations.

These displays appear in several formats:

- Large screens on standalone units near store entrances, at checkout, and in open floor areas away from shelving.

- Small screens mounted on shelves next to the products being advertised – to draw attention and communicate product information.

- Small screens angled toward aisle walkways – helping shoppers orient themselves within a product category, and pointing their attention in directions that benefit advertisers.

The primary job of both stores and Looma is to attract brands to advertise on these screens. Brands benefit through increased sales; stores benefit from higher per-category revenue and from a direct share of brand marketing budgets – which Looma splits with the retailer.

Looma projects that within the next 5–7 years, a typical physical store will carry 100–200 advertising displays of various formats – adding 3–5% to store profitability.

More importantly, the screens are already delivering results. Stores using Looma see per-category sales lift of 1–3%. Brands running campaigns see 20–80% increases in product sales at those locations – with a 3–5x return on ad spend.

This kind of in-store advertising blurs the line between brand marketing and performance marketing: the screens build awareness and drive purchase intent simultaneously, at the exact moment of decision.

For brands, ROI compounds across four dimensions:

- increased brand awareness,

- immediate product discovery,

- conversion at shelf,

- repeat purchase behavior and loyalty.

Net of campaign costs, the expected total return averages 6.4x.

A critical driver of that return is creative quality. Effective video content needs to:

- feature real customers sharing genuine stories, not actors,

- deliver simple, repeatable messages about brand and product value,

- showcase the product so compellingly that the viewer wants to pick it up immediately.

To help brands produce content that meets this bar, Looma built an internal creator marketplace where brands can review examples of work and select the best match for their campaign. Looma almost certainly earns a commission on those transactions as well.

Looma now manages a network of 7,000 screens across 1,100 retail stores, reaching 27 million shoppers per month.

Looma was [covered previously](/review/novaja-tema-na-130-milliardov-dollarov) in autumn of last year. The company has since raised $13M in new funding – including $3M in debt – bringing total investment to $30M.

02 /Why It Matters

What Looma does is called "retail media" – advertising embedded directly into points of sale.

It's called media because the format goes well beyond direct product advertising. It can include informational or educational content, product sampling activations, and more.

Retail media also extends well beyond physical stores. It's already integrated into mobile apps, e-commerce sites, and online marketplaces.

The business model is what makes it compelling: retail media margins run at 70–90%, compared to 2–5% margins on merchandise sales.

Amazon is the revenue leader, generating over $60 billion from retail media in 2024. Walmart is widely believed to lead on profit – with some sources claiming retail media accounts for nearly a third of the company's net income.

Other strong performers include Target, Kroger, Instacart, and Home Depot. Instacart earned nearly $1 billion from retail media in 2024 and is expected to grow that by 16% in 2025.

The total retail media market is projected at $155 billion for 2025, growing to $190 billion by 2028.

Looma is far from the only startup pursuing this opportunity.

The Desire Company ([related review](/review/tri-sposoba-dlja-masshtabirovanija-na-jetom-novom-rynke)) creates in-store and online point-of-sale video content featuring credible experts talking about brands and products. It has raised over $22M, including $3.3M this past May.

Swish ([related review](/review/otlichnaja-fishka-v-interesnoj-nishe-na-rastushhem-rynke)) raised undisclosed funding in September for a platform that "places" advertised products into online shopping carts – using AI to select products with high odds of resonating with each shopper. Swish received a "best retail media implementation" award in early 2024.

Kevel ([related review](/review/novyj-rastushhij-istochnik-dohoda)) built a platform for e-commerce sites and online marketplaces to run their own retail media – as sponsored product listings, video ads, and other formats. Kevel has raised $45.2M to date.

03 /Opportunities

Most people who've walked into a supermarket with a shopping list have walked out with things that weren't on it – because something caught their eye. When the goal is as broad as "pick up something to eat or drink," whatever grabs attention tends to win.

This isn't accidental – it's a well-documented consumer behavior. In traditional supermarkets, unplanned purchases typically account for 60–70% of transactions; in online stores, the figure hovers around 70% as well, driven by recommendations, discounts, and promotions. Some studies place the number lower – around 20% – with the caveat that it varies significantly by demographic and purchase intent. Still, 88% of shoppers report making unplanned purchases from time to time.

Retail media's goal is to sustain and strengthen this habit – in ways that serve both retailers and brands. By placing advertising in the shopper's field of vision at the right moment, it drives purchase of a specific product, an alternative brand, or something the shopper wasn't planning to buy at all.

In that sense, retail media is advertising's "last mile" – it operates inside the shopping experience itself, and in some cases can override everything the shopper saw and heard before entering the store. It's a powerful and effective instrument – and the trend is that more retailers and more brands are leaning into it.

The natural direction: building retail media platforms, both offline and online, in a wide range of formats – all of which are becoming more in demand.

The most underserved channel right now is mid-market specialty retail – independents too small for Amazon's media network but large enough to benefit from category-targeted screens. The entry angle: build the screen-plus-software stack for one vertical (grocery, pharmacy, fitness), prove lift, then expand.