While retail media has potential to be a major growth opportunity for retailers, Gap's dissolution of GPS Media underscores the challenge of building and supporting a fledgling ad business, especially as other retailers court advertisers with competitive pitches.
Lipsman said that Gap also had a disadvantage in retail media because it only sold its own brands. So it wouldn't be able to sells ads from other apparel and fashion brands that would buy search ads on other platforms like Amazon,He said that it's also unclear if the non-endemic brands like film studios Gap hoped to attract would want to advertise on Gap's website.
"My question is: what's the reason that a brand would give you their attention over the alternatives?" he said. ljohnson@insider.comSubscribe to push notifications