Stop Waxing Poetic: Sarah Marzano of eMarketer on In-Store Retail Media

In this episode of The Middlemen Podcast, Tom and Todd sit down with Sarah Marzano of eMarketer to cut through the hype and talk about what the data actually says about in-store retail media. With her background as a buyer at Macy’s and Lord & Taylor, Sarah brings a practitioner’s lens to the challenges of scaling in-store, the ongoing tension between merchandising and retail media teams, and what it will take for retailers to move beyond test stores and press releases. She also shares insights from her latest eMarketer research, including how generative AI is shaping creative production, what Adobe’s referral traffic data reveals about LLM-driven shopping, and why retailers need to reimagine loyalty programs to protect against disintermediation. 🔗 Resources Mentioned in This Episode • Sarah Marzano on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahzmarzano/ • eMarketer In-Store Retail Media Report https://www.emarketer.com/content/in-store-retail-media-2025 • eMarketer What the Rise of GenAI Assistants Means for Retail Media https://www.emarketer.com/content/what-rise-of-genai-assistants-mean-retail-media Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Greetings 00:24 Insights from Sarah Marzano 01:24 The Future of In-Store Retail Media 03:42 Challenges and Opportunities in Retail Media 05:24 Sarah Marzano's Background and Expertise 22:57 The Importance of Grocery Transactions 23:40 Challenges in In-Store Merchandising 25:57 Innovations in Retail Media 34:22 The Role of AI in Shopping 41:33 Future of Retail and Loyalty Programs