Myer launches its media network on loyalty data
On July 16, 2026, Australian department store chain Myer launched the Myer Media Network, an in-house retail media platform that lets brand partners buy advertising against the retailer's first-party customer data. The network draws its targeting from MYER one, the loyalty program Myer describes as one of the country's most engaged, and spans digital, physical, and customer relationship management channels. The launch formalizes an advertising business that most large retailers now treat as a distinct profit center, and it puts Myer alongside grocers and marketplaces racing to monetize the shopper signals they already hold. For any retailer sitting on loyalty data, the move is a template worth studying.
Amanda McVay, chief customer officer at Myer Group, tied the launch to assets the retailer already owns. "Myer has one of the country's most engaged loyalty communities, a rapidly growing digital business," she said, pointing to the customer base that makes the ad inventory valuable. Michael Sharlassian, general manager of retail media, framed the ambition in platform terms: "We are building a comprehensive omnichannel retail media offering that unlocks the full scale of our loyalty data." The language is deliberate, because the value of a media network scales with how much of a retailer's data and channels it can activate, from onsite placements to in-store screens to email.
Mirakl Ads supplies the onsite advertising engine
The technical backbone comes from Mirakl Ads, an AI-native retail media platform that Myer is using to introduce onsite digital advertising. The choice matters because Myer already runs a Mirakl-powered marketplace that added more than 25,000 products, and layering ads on top of that catalog turns the same infrastructure into two revenue lines: commission on third-party sales and media dollars from the brands selling through it. Tzipi Avioz, Mirakl's Asia Pacific and Japan chief executive, described the deal as combining "Myer's trusted brand, loyalty scale and digital momentum with Mirakl Ads' retail media advertising technology." The pairing of marketplace and ads is becoming the default retail commerce stack.
For technology leaders, the appeal of buying rather than building this layer is speed and integration. A marketplace and a media network share the same product catalog, seller relationships, and identity graph, so running both on one vendor avoids the reconciliation headaches of stitching separate systems together. The risk is the mirror image: concentrating marketplace and advertising on a single platform deepens dependence on that vendor's roadmap, pricing, and data model. Myer's decision to extend an existing Mirakl relationship into ads shows how these platforms expand their footprint once inside a retailer, which is exactly the dynamic buyers should price into their long-term vendor strategy.
Department stores are late to retail media and moving fast
Grocers and mass merchants built retail media networks first because their high purchase frequency generates constant, granular signal. Department stores like Myer arrive later, with lower visit frequency but richer basket value and stronger brand affinity in categories such as apparel, beauty, and home. Those categories command premium ad rates from brands that want to reach considered, higher-spend shoppers. By launching now, Myer is claiming a position while the format is still maturing in its market, and it is doing so with a loyalty program that gives it the deterministic identity data that advertisers increasingly demand as third-party cookies fade from the ecosystem.
The timing reflects a broader shift in how retailers think about their own economics. Retail media carries margins far above the core business of selling goods, which makes it one of the few levers a department store can pull to offset thin retail profit and rising costs. That is why boards are now treating media networks as strategic rather than experimental. For commerce leaders in any vertical, Myer's launch is a reminder that first-party data has become a monetizable asset in its own right, and that the retailers moving early are setting the standards and price points their peers will later have to match.
First-party data is the asset the network monetizes
The engine under any retail media network is identity, and Myer's is MYER one. A loyalty program that ties purchases, visits, and engagement to a known customer gives advertisers the deterministic targeting that has grown scarce as browsers and platforms restrict third-party tracking. That is why Sharlassian framed the goal as unlocking "the full scale of our loyalty data" rather than simply selling banner space. The more completely a retailer can connect a shopper across web, app, store, and email, the more precisely it can target and measure ad campaigns, and the more it can charge brands for closed-loop attribution back to real sales.
This is where governance enters the picture. Activating loyalty data for advertising means moving sensitive customer information into ad-targeting workflows, which raises consent, privacy, and regulatory obligations that vary by market. Retailers that rush the monetization without hardening data governance risk both regulatory exposure and the erosion of the customer trust that makes the loyalty program valuable in the first place. For technology and data leaders, the practical work behind a media network launch is unglamorous: clean identity resolution, auditable consent, and controls that keep advertising use inside the boundaries customers agreed to when they joined.
The margin is real, and so is the operating cost
The financial logic of retail media is straightforward and powerful. Selling advertising against inventory a retailer already generates carries incremental margins that dwarf the profit on the underlying goods, which is why analysts value mature networks as high-multiple businesses inside otherwise low-multiple retailers. Myer's network, built on existing loyalty and marketplace assets, aims to capture that spread without the capital intensity of opening stores or expanding fulfillment. The onsite ad placements Mirakl enables are among the highest-yielding formats because they sit closest to the point of purchase, where intent is strongest and conversion is easiest to prove to a brand.
The cost side is where many networks stumble. Running a media business demands ad operations, measurement, sales teams, and self-serve tooling that a traditional retailer does not staff by default, and brands now expect the reporting sophistication of digital platforms. Leaning on Mirakl covers part of that gap, but Myer still has to build commercial and analytical muscle to sell and service campaigns at scale. For executives modeling a similar move, the honest planning assumption is that a media network is a new operating capability with its own headcount and technology bill, and the margins only materialize once that machine runs reliably.
What Myer's launch means for commerce roadmaps
The strategic signal is that retail media has moved from a grocery and marketplace phenomenon into general merchandise, and department stores with strong loyalty programs are now credible entrants. Any retailer holding rich first-party data should be asking whether it is leaving high-margin revenue on the table by not activating it. The build-versus-buy question is largely settled toward buying the ad-serving layer from specialists like Mirakl, because the standards for targeting and attribution are set by the largest platforms and few retailers can match them alone. The real differentiator is the quality of the underlying data rather than the ad server itself.
The roadmap implication is to treat the media network as an extension of the loyalty and data strategy rather than a bolt-on advertising product. That means investing in identity resolution and consent infrastructure first, choosing a platform that integrates with existing marketplace and commerce systems, and staffing the commercial function that turns inventory into sold campaigns. Myer's approach, extending a Mirakl marketplace into a Mirakl-powered media network, shows how a coherent data and platform strategy compounds. Retailers that sequence these investments deliberately will build a durable profit center, while those that chase the margin without the foundations will struggle to sell against better-instrumented rivals.
