LAS VEGAS — AD Retail Media, Ahold Delhaize’s stateside retail media arm, is readying to launch Edge, a proprietary advertising technology platform that will power on-site display, sponsored search and in-store digital screens, the grocery company announced Monday.
Edge, scheduled to launch on Jan. 5, 2026, brings core digital retail media channels into a single ecosystem, including audience insights, media planning, activation and optimization, according to Bobby Watts, Ahold Delhaize USA’s senior vice president of AD Retail Media, digital merchandising and marketing. In an interview, Watts added that Edge will have standardized metrics and measurements as well as the ability to provide CPG partners with incremental return on ad spend data across all channels.
Edge was “built just for grocery,” as it takes into account that, unlike other retail segments, grocery shoppers return to the store and make repeat purchases, Watts said.
“[W]e believe [Edge] has an opportunity to drive higher relevancy to our consumers, because no one knows grocery better than grocers, and so we’ve been able to leverage our insights and our technology on an in-house platform to reach those consumers,” Watts said during a panel session at Groceryshop.
The platform will enable CPGs to reach the over 26 million shoppers who interact with Ahold Delhaize USA brands every week, as well as offer the ability to monitor on- and off-site advertising, according to a press release.
“Think of it as a unified platform where [CPGs] would have access, as a media buyer, to on-site, display, sponsored product ads, off site media, in-store, digital screens, fuel media — just a true, omnichannel media buying platform where [they] don’t have to go to multiple systems and multiple platforms to then activate a campaign,” Watts said.
In creating Edge, Ahold Delhaize USA collaborated with its parent company’s European grocery business. This unified work began two years ago when the two sides discussed what a unified retail media network would look like, Watts said. From there, Ahold Delhaize focused on establishing a media platform that tapped both the U.S. and Europe’s retail media strengths.
“What we saw for sure was [that] digital screens were an emerging channel vehicle in the U.S., [but] very mature in Europe, and they already had the technology built to power it in a big way,” Watts said. “In the U.S., measurement … was a big hot topic. And so we knew that if we could develop that in the platform, that would give Europe an accelerant to the future.”
Though ad digital screens are part of the Edge platform, in-store retail media measurements will not be included in Edge’s launch, according to Watts.
“We’ll use third-party measurement for in-store, just because that’s, right now, the most trusted way,” he said. This decision also stems from wanting to remain in compliance with IAB’s digital out-of-home measurement standards, as Ahold Delhaize has a partnership with the organization.
Watts said Edge gives Ahold Delhaize a critical advantage at a time when digitally enabled shopping and retail media are rapidly evolving.
“[Edge] would allow us the ability to … have a bit more ease of access and knowledge into a kind of real, true omnichannel activation,” Watts said.
