September 16, 2026
Chris Riedy
Last-mile commerce has fundamentally changed the way brands influence purchasing decisions.
Consumers increasingly build baskets within delivery apps designed around speed, convenience, and familiarity. Saved baskets, Buy Again buttons, personalized recommendations, and AI-powered merchandising enable shoppers to complete purchases faster than ever before, even as they reinforce existing buying habits.
To solve for this, retail media has become one of the most effective ways to reach shoppers close to purchase. Yet simply appearing in front of consumers during checkout doesn't necessarily create consideration if most purchase decisions have already been made. The opportunity is to give shoppers a meaningful reason to reconsider.
Habit has changed the competitive landscape
Historically, brands competed against neighboring products on a physical shelf. Today they're often competing against something that can be much harder to overcome: each shopper's existing routine.
Particularly in last-mile commerce, saved baskets, reorder buttons, personalized recommendations, and recurring purchases strengthen that routine. Brands therefore need to overcome inertia as well as earn awareness. Well-timed ads and offers can prompt reconsideration, lower the perceived risk of trying something new, encouraging shoppers to switch brands or purchase more without adding friction.
Retail media creates awareness. Promotions create action.
Retail media reaches consumers where purchase decisions happen. Sponsored placements, retailer search, display inventory, and other retail media formats help brands earn visibility while shoppers are actively building baskets. But proximity alone isn’t always enough.
Promotions give shoppers a reason to act on what they've seen. A cashback offer, personalized incentive, or limited-time discount changes the value equation. Instead of asking themselves what they usually buy, shoppers pause to consider whether another option deserves a place in the basket.
That pause is one of the most valuable moments in modern commerce.
Paired together, retail media and promotions can turn that moment of consideration into measurable behavior. Promotions can help challenger brands earn trial while encouraging established brands to drive trade-up, expand basket size, reinforce loyalty, or generate complementary purchases.
High-intent shopping creates bigger opportunities
Some occasions naturally create greater openness to discovery:
- Holidays
- The Big Game
- Back-to-school
- Summer cookouts
- Family celebrations
Such occasions require larger baskets, and purchases that expand outside weekly routines. Recent consumer research underscores the point:
Last-mile commerce doesn't happen in one place
Today's consumers move fluidly between connected TV, retailer websites, grocery delivery apps, social platforms, loyalty programs, and physical stores. Every interaction has potential either to reinforce an existing purchase decision or to reopen it.
A shopper may discover a recipe while streaming a show. Later that evening, they receive a personalized cashback offer from a grocery delivery app. At checkout, the offer alters the brand that enters the basket.
Connecting retail media and promotions across those touchpoints creates consistent reasons for consumers to reconsider their choices throughout the shopping journey.
Measure what changed
Retail media has dramatically improved marketers' ability to understand what happens after advertising. The more important questions remain behavioral:
- Did consumers switch brands?
- Did they buy more than usual?
- Did they purchase any earlier?
- Did they add products they wouldn't otherwise have considered?
Promotions make those questions easier to answer because they create measurable actions tied directly to purchase decisions.
When promotional engagement is connected to retail media exposure, marketers gain a clearer understanding of which investments actually changed consumer behavior.
The objective is to maximize incremental influence.
Last-mile commerce's next chapter
Last-mile commerce is creating new opportunities for brands to influence consumers closer to the point of purchase.
Winning in last-mile commerce requires connecting awareness with action by giving consumers meaningful reasons to pause, reconsider, and choose differently.
Retail media provides visibility. Promotions increase consideration and deliver motivation. Together, they transform routine shopping into measurable moments of influence.
In the Buy-It-Again Economy, success is defined not by getting closer to checkout, but by changing what ultimately gets checked out.