Criteo’s Sherry Smith says commerce media could revive the open web

Sherry Smith, president of retail media at Criteo, believes commerce media is pulling the advertising ecosystem back together rather than fragmenting it, and could give the open web a second act.

Speaking at Possible 2026 in Miami, Smith, whose role sits between retailers, brands and publishers, described a market maturing quickly while relearning how to work.

“AI is everywhere,” she said. “Even if it’s not in the headline, it’s in the body of every conversation – what marketers, advertisers, brands, and creators are actually trying to figure out.”

What stood out was how the discussion had changed. “What I’ve seen here is more nuanced. It’s not just one lens – adtech or media. It’s everything coming together: content, creative, outcomes. That’s been really interesting.”

A maturing market

Smith believes retail media, which began as an offshoot of e-commerce, has reached a new level of organisational and strategic maturity. “I’ve been in this space since 2008,” she said. “What’s impressive is that it continues to grow – but more importantly, retailers are four or five years into building these networks. They’re more sophisticated now.”

Internal silos are starting to blur. “There has to be a trinity now – marketing, merchandising, and retail media,” she said. “We’re sitting right in the middle of those conversations.”

Even traditional retail functions are changing. “Merchandisers are having to understand the trade-off between what’s paid and what’s organic,” Smith said. “It can’t just be about deals anymore. It has to be about what actually makes sense from a discoverability and relevance standpoint.”

A moment of vulnerability

If 2020 was when retailers learned to operate digitally, Smith suggests 2026 may be when the ecosystem admits it is still working things out. “This time feels similar to 2020,” she said. “There’s a lot of learning, a lot of asking questions. There’s a vulnerability we haven’t seen in the last five years.”

That is creating new roles. “I was speaking with a brand today that’s hiring a head of agentic commerce,” she said. “They’re thinking about discoverability, the order of things, content, the right tech partners. There’s a whole new arm of opportunity opening up.”

Incrementality becomes operational

Smith thinks incrementality, long a buzzword, is finally being put into practice. “Incrementality is a massive topic of conversation. We’re seeing different partnerships – companies layering capabilities to look at total measurement across the ecosystem.”

That is already changing Criteo’s approach. “It impacts who we partner with and how we think about measurement,” she said. “That’s an exciting part of this journey.”

Agentic commerce as additive

Smith does not see agentic commerce as a threat to retail media. “We’re seeing it as another path to retail media. From a discoverability standpoint, there’s a lot of traffic heading to retailers from these environments. It’s not a takeaway – it’s additive.”

The opportunity lies in what happens after discovery. “Customers are often landing on a product detail page. So how do retailers think about relevance? About content? About discoverability within that environment?”

Retail remains the centre of gravity, she argues. “From a transaction perspective, retail is still at the center. There’s trust there. They understand their customer. That’s not going away.”

The full funnel in practice

Connecting the funnel from awareness to purchase has long been an aspiration. “It’s always been the holy grail. But we’re starting to see examples in practice,” Smith said, citing recent award-winning work as evidence that integrated approaches are gaining ground. “It can’t be looked at from one small lens anymore. It has to be end-to-end.”

The open web’s second act

Long overshadowed by walled gardens, the open internet may be able to make a comeback if it can tap into commerce signals. “I do think there’s an opportunity. We’re looking at how we overlay our shopper graph across retail media and the open web – how we think about everything holistically,” Smith said.

That does not mean abandoning the big platforms. Criteo continues to work with major partners including Meta and OpenAI as part of an ecosystem approach. “It’s not about building everything ourselves,” she said. “It’s about how we help the total ecosystem.” That includes direct partnerships with retailers such as Walmart and eBay, and others delivered through platforms and APIs.

Becoming the intelligence layer

These changes are reshaping Criteo itself. “It’s already changed us,” Smith said. “From how we’re evolving our platform, to data, to measurement, to the partners we work with.” The company’s aim is to move up the stack. “We see ourselves as the intelligence layer sitting on top.”

The obstacle is data silos. “Data is owned by four or five different departments within a retailer,” she said. “That has to come together for this to work.”

Her advice to brands is simple. “Be vulnerable enough to ask the question. Be willing to test and learn.” In her view, less certainty and more collaboration may be what commerce media needs to reach its next phase, as the walls between channels, teams and the open web start to fall.