The tie-up links Criteo’s demand-side platform to ads appearing in the Free and Go versions of ChatGPT, marking one of the clearest signals yet that generative AI is edging from novelty to monetised media channel.

“This integration with OpenAI represents an exciting step forward in advancing advertising in an emerging AI experience,” said Michael Komasinski, chief executive of Criteo. 

The pilot, he added, will test how brands can appear inside large language model platforms in ways that support discovery and consideration while maintaining user trust.

The move comes as ad dollars begin to track consumer behaviour inside AI interfaces. Now, conversational AI is vying for a slice of the $600bn-plus global digital advertising market, and platforms are under pressure to prove they can host ads without eroding trust.

Criteo activates more than $4 billion in annual media spend and works with 17,000 advertisers globally. The company says it has access to over $1 trillion in annual commerce sales data across brands, retailers, and publishers.

Plugging that engine into ChatGPT gives marketers a way to test whether chatbot queries—from product comparisons to gift ideas—can translate into measurable sales.

The integration will roll out in the coming weeks as part of OpenAI’s ongoing ad pilot.

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The commerce media platform said its indexed data from retailers across the region showed that consumers are starting their product discovery earlier and navigating longer consideration journeys. The trend is expected to intensify in 2026, when Ramadan and Chinese New Year fall in the same week, creating a more compressed festive retail window.

Earlier discovery, longer journeys

According to the data, purchases made in the final two weeks of Ramadan 2025 involved an average of 19 days between a shopper’s first product visit and completed purchase. Some journeys extended beyond 50 days, suggesting that consumers are researching and comparing options well before peak sales periods.

Despite earlier discovery, conversion activity remained concentrated closer to Eid. Indonesia recorded a 35% uplift in retail sales during the final two weeks of Ramadan, peaking at 57% on 16 March. Malaysia saw sales rise 26%, reaching a peak of 52% on 23 March. Singapore experienced more stable sales patterns, which Criteo attributed to a more diversified retail calendar and consumer base.

Shopping aligned with Ramadan rhythms

Criteo’s findings also indicated that shopping activity followed Ramadan’s daily cadence. While afternoon hours continued to generate the highest overall sales, the largest uplift compared to pre-Ramadan levels occurred during Suhoor.

The increase was strongest in Indonesia between 3:00am and 5:00am, while in Malaysia activity shifted later, between 4:00am and 7:00am. The company said this highlights the importance of aligning engagement strategies with culturally relevant moments.

Category growth led by religious and ceremonial products

In terms of category demand, religious and ceremonial products recorded the strongest growth during Ramadan 2025, rising 54% across Southeast Asia. Apparel and accessories followed with an 18% increase, reflecting preparations for Eid celebrations.

Growth was also observed in home and garden, furniture, and food and beverages, suggesting that consumer intent spanned multiple categories rather than being limited to specific festive purchases.

Implications for 2026

Criteo said the behaviours observed during Ramadan 2025 provide an indication of what brands may face in 2026, when Ramadan and Chinese New Year overlap in the same week, compressing discovery, consideration and conversion into a shorter timeframe.

“Ramadan 2025 underscored a fundamental shift in how consumers plan and purchase—discovery is happening earlier, and shopping journeys are becoming increasingly fluid across channels,” said Sukesh Singh, managing director, SEA at Criteo. 

“As festive moments begin to overlap, this behaviour will only accelerate. At Criteo, our AI-powered intelligence helps brands identify the right audiences at the right time and place, adding relevance across touchpoints and strengthening full-funnel, cross-channel outcomes. Brands that anticipate demand and stay relevant across the entire journey will be far better positioned to earn attention that drives higher conversion.”

Planning for a compressed festive calendar

The company advised brands to treat Ramadan as a multi-stage season rather than a short, promotion-led period. With shoppers beginning discovery weeks ahead of purchase while conversion activity concentrates closer to Eid, Criteo said marketers should build awareness and consideration early before shifting focus toward conversion nearer peak moments.

It also noted that overlapping festive events could compress demand, leading to shorter decision windows and heightened competition. Brands may need to ensure that budgets, inventory and activation plans can adjust quickly to capture high-intent moments.

Criteo further highlighted the importance of aligning campaign timing and messaging with Ramadan’s cultural and daily rhythms, designing strategies for non-linear purchase journeys, and relying on data-led optimisation and automation to adapt to shifting demand in real time.

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As large language models evolve into AI shopping assistants and retailers deploy their own conversational tools, the way consumers discover and purchase products online is rapidly changing. 

Criteo’s new service addresses the need for recommendation infrastructure that goes beyond publicly available product descriptions by drawing on real shopping behaviour to deliver trusted and personalised results.

Built on Criteo’s commerce intelligence, the service demonstrated up to a 60% improvement in recommendation relevancy compared with third-party approaches based solely on product descriptions, according to internal testing conducted in January 2026. 

The performance is supported by Criteo’s scale, which includes 720 million daily shoppers, $1 trillion in annual transactions, and 4.5 billion product SKUs.

Available through Criteo’s Model Context Protocol, the service connects AI-powered shopping assistants directly with merchant inventory, translating consumer queries into curated, transaction-ready product recommendations. 

By applying real-world shopping and purchase signals, it enables AI assistants to surface products that best match individual intent, availability, and popularity, returning a shortlist of relevant options rather than raw catalogue data.

“The real competitive advantage in agentic commerce will come from access to high-quality commerce data at scale,” said Michael Komasinski, chief executive officer of Criteo. 

He explained, “This service brings that intelligence into AI-driven shopping experiences in a way that works for the entire ecosystem, delivering relevancy for consumers while respecting retailer data, brand integrity, and platform trust.”

Criteo is continuing testing with a major LLM platform that began in 2025 and is expanding trials with additional platforms, retailers, and brands.

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The Attribution Challenge

When asked what makes omnichannel attribution so challenging, Hayley Robinson, head of sales & GTM retail media at MixIn, Endeavour Group’s retail media arm, outlined some of the tension that retailers face.

“I think from a retailer perspective, we probably deal with the paradox of, first and foremost, and absolutely paramount, protecting our customer data,” she said. 

“On the flip side, there is also an expectation that we know as consumers that you are serving personalised ads and shopper journeys, making sure you know who they are, when they show up, and what they want to see.”

The scale of the data challenge is staggering. Robinson shared that across Dan Murphy’s and BWS, Endeavour Group generates 185 million shopping trips annually, operates over 1700 physical locations and processes two separate websites generating five million unique visits each week, with the group totalling $10 billion in transactions each year.

“So hopefully that starts to set the scene. We are very passionate about making sure [brands] and our customers have the right experience, the right information, but it is not an easy journey to stitch them all together and make sure that we are doing it in a legal and compliant way. That’s why we have reached out to partners, because we can’t answer all of that on our own,” she said.

Also on the panel was Meredith Lewis-Jones, head of digital & omnichannel connections at Vinarchy Wines, a partner of MixIn already experiencing the benefits of the solution. Lewis-Jones described the complexity that makes attribution sometimes feel impossible from a brand perspective.

“In Endeavour specifically, we’ve got 250-plus [SKUs]. You look at that level of fragmentation from a media buyer perspective, layered with 250 SKUs that are on different trade promotions, different price promotions, different [above-the-line] media being bought, different retail media being bought, different shopper activations,” she 

“When we try to take a step back from a brand POV and look at what lever is driving what, in terms of profit at the end of the day, that becomes a very complicated puzzle to start putting together without any closed-loop attribution.”

How the Solution Works

Solving the retail media attribution puzzle required bringing together multiple distinct capabilities, starting with Amperity’s data unification platform. Bel Lloyd, client lead at Amperity, detailed what makes this solution unprecedented in region.

“This is the first time that these partnerships have come together, and it’s the first in region closed-loop attribution in this area that Amperity has stood up, the first that Criteo has stood up, and first that MixIn has stood up,” she said. 

“Hayley gave you a great rundown of how many data points the Endeavour Group will come across. We then [use our] data unification and identity resolution platform [to] ingest data from all of those touch points from over 40 data sources in a compliance-safe way for them.

“[We then] do the identity resolution at scale to be able to provide the customer IDs and all of the transactional data that’s required for this closed-loop attribution onto Criteo and into Criteo to do the magic linking between what’s been happening in the online advertising world and what’s been happening in terms of transactions in store.”

Perhaps even more impressive than the technical achievement was the speed of delivery. Lloyd highlighted what she sees as a new benchmark for the industry.

“What is new is the agility that MixIn showed as a retail media network. We were able to, from when this project was greenlit, to actually implementing it and giving access to Vinarchy to the self-serve attribution picture, it all happened in just five weeks. So that, for me, has really set a new standard for retail media networks, in being agile and speed to enablement and speed to value.”

Jess Truesdale, client lead for Retail Media at Criteo, explained how this speed advantage extends into ongoing operations.

“We can now, with that great data, enable brands to be able to see activity … down to the SKU-level purchases that happened in store within a couple of days on a self-serve platform, and they can view that with different attribution windows,” she said. 

“They could have a one-day, a 30-day look back, and they can use that to see peak times throughout the week, or peak periods, or when they’ve also got promotions happening in store, and exactly how the online activity has influenced the in store sales, and vice versa.

“What this has enabled is that anybody can access information they need from a brand point of view at the right time, and they can [tailor it to their] specific business needs. 

“There’s no one size fits all. Every retailer is structured differently. All of the buying behaviour changes constantly. So it’s not about doing a bit of a look back after the campaign, it’s about using that information and being able to look at it in almost real-time and making optimisations and changes throughout the campaign, as well as looking at what they can do further ahead.”

Changing the Stakeholder Conversation

For Lewis-Jones at Vinarchy Wines, the impact has been transformational across multiple internal conversations.

“This advancement has been pretty big in our business. It’s really enabled me to have a number of different conversations with different stakeholders in our business. The one interesting one is we’ve got a large category team, and for them this has unlocked a whole new data set that gives them a different level of insight from that sort of digital touch point, to that bridge to in store, which they never had before,” she said. 

“The way we’re looking at our portfolio and looking at SKUs that we previously would say ‘that doesn’t work online, let’s uninvest there’, we are now able to look at and say, ‘you might not sell it online, but someone’s viewing it while they’re in store, purchasing while they’re in store’. We just could never track that before.”

“We then have a pretty happy commercial conversation going on. Part of that for us is our commercial leads aren’t particularly interested in [return on ad spend]. They are interested in profitability, but accessing that data to prove that out with other retail media channels and networks is really challenging.”

The impact on reported performance was dramatic.

“I’m super stoked because our team is being able to change the way that we’re optimising, not just for the 15% of our sales that happen online, but the 100% that’s happening online and in store. If you look at our [performance metrics] … overnight it doubled. [It’s a] ery fun conversation to have with our head of commercial that it’s even more effective than we originally had anticipated.”

The Last Drop

The MixIn, Criteo, and Amperity partnership demonstrates what’s possible when retail media networks prioritise measurement and move quickly. In just five weeks, the three companies delivered the region’s first closed-loop attribution solution at scale, connecting digital advertising to verified in-store sales across Endeavour Group’s retail network.

For launch partner Vinarchy Wines, the results validated the approach. Performance metrics doubled overnight as the solution revealed retail media’s true impact; not just on the 15% of sales happening online, but across the entire portfolio. 

The brand now has SKU-level visibility into how digital campaigns influence in-store purchases, transforming internal conversations with category teams, commercial leads, and finance stakeholders.

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In his new role, Dinichert will focus on driving growth and enhancing commercial excellence while maintaining a strong focus on client success. The appointment reflects Criteo’s continued emphasis on advancing client outcomes and strengthening performance-led innovation across its global operations.

“Criteo has spent two decades delivering measurable performance, and in doing so, has become a unifying force for advertising and commerce,” said Dinichert. “With its global reach and innovation in AI and data insights, the company is uniquely positioned to connect every part of the commerce journey. I’m thrilled to join the team and help drive Criteo’s next wave of growth with our clients and partners.”

Dinichert brings over 20 years of experience leading global revenue organisations that combine creativity, data, and performance. He most recently served as chief revenue officer at TripleLift, where he was among the three executives who led the Office of the CEO from July 2024 to January 2025. During his tenure, he helped scale the company’s creative supply-side platform across retail media, connected TV (CTV), and data-driven curation.

Before joining TripleLift, Dinichert spent more than a decade at Amazon, where he launched and led Amazon Advertising in France before building its global Ad Tech Sales & Services organisation. His work there encompassed Amazon DSP, Amazon Ad Server (formerly Sizmek), and Amazon Marketing Cloud adoption, contributing to privacy-focused solutions and API-driven innovation in partnership with agencies and AWS.

“As we continue to expand the reach and impact of performance media globally, Edouard’s leadership will be instrumental in accelerating customer growth,” said Komasinski. “His deep experience in scaling data-driven organisations and driving commercial excellence will help accelerate our momentum and deliver greater value for our clients and partners worldwide. As a dual French and Swiss national, Edouard also brings a truly cross-market, cross-cultural perspective that reflects Criteo’s European roots and global ambitions.”

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The new MixIn solution, powered by Amperity’s AI-driven customer data platform and Criteo’s commerce media technology, connects verified in-store sales with digital ad campaigns, offering marketers a more complete view of their performance across channels.

“This changes how retail media works in Australia,” said Hayley Robinson, head of sales & GTM retail media at MixIn by Endeavour Group. “For years, brands have been asking us for proof that digital campaigns drive in-store sales and now we can finally show it. It’s a real breakthrough for our partners.”

According to the companies, the new solution represents the first large-scale capability in Australia to link in-store sales with digital campaigns. Built and launched in five weeks, it leverages secure first-party data to ensure compliance while helping brands optimise their advertising spend and performance.

“We’re proud to be part of a solution that’s setting a new standard in speed to value and measurement for the entire retail media industry in Australia,” said Bel Lloyd, client lead at Amperity. “Amperity’s ability to unify complex customer data is the key to what unlocks this new opportunity for measurement. Together, we’re giving MixIn as part of the Endeavour Group a differentiated offering that delivers real business value for their brands.”

The launch follows research by Arktic Fox in 2025, which found that 96% of brands struggle to quantify the return on retail media investments. The partnership aims to address this gap while allowing MixIn to automate and scale first-party data activation for its beverage brand partners.

“Bringing in-store sales into the self-serve measurement suite Criteo provides has been a game-changing proof point for the team at MixIn,” said Guillaume Dupont, head of monetisation, retail media at Criteo ANZ. “We’re proud to make it a reality with Amperity. This solution makes data accessible, empowering brands to understand the impact of their advertising and enabling retailers to maximise its effectiveness.”

Vinarchy Wines, one of MixIn’s brand partners, has already adopted the solution.

“Closed-loop attribution finally means I can justify premium spend with my Marketing Director by showing deeper shopper insight,” said Meredith Lewis-Jones, head of digital & omnichannel connections at Vinarchy Wines. “With my sales lead, I can shift the conversation from the 15% of sales online to the 100% influenced by digital. And with finance, I can move past proxy metrics and prove results at the till. That changes the conversation across the board.”

The companies said the partnership marks the start of a longer-term initiative to enhance transparency and performance measurement in retail media, with plans to expand capabilities in the coming months.

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The integration, initially launching in beta for select customers in the Americas, will be available through Google Search Ads 360, with future plans to expand globally and into additional Google Marketing Platform tools.

As part of the partnership’s first phase, more than 200 retailers in Criteo’s global network can choose to receive demand from advertisers using Search Ads 360. This will enable brands across multiple categories to create, launch, and optimise campaigns within the platform. 

The companies said the partnership is designed to combine scale, efficiency, and transparency while providing unified measurement to help brands assess the incremental impact of their advertising.

“We’re focused on building a seamless commerce media ecosystem,” shared Bill Reardon, general manager for enterprise platform at Google. “With Criteo’s expansive network of retailer partners, we’re helping advertisers connect with customers at a critical moment in their shopping journey: onsite, through sponsored product ads.”

Bill added, “Coupled with our existing suite of offsite solutions in Performance Max and Shopping Ads, our goal is to empower advertisers and agencies with a more complete view of their advertising performance, enabling smarter decisions and more effective campaigns.”

Industry forecasts estimate that the retail media market could reach $204 billion by 2027, though spending is currently concentrated among a few dominant players. Criteo and Google said the new integration will allow a wider set of retailers to access advertising budgets and encourage more brands to invest across the ecosystem.

“We’re excited to welcome Google as one of our largest retail media partners, bringing scaled brand advertising to retailers on the Criteo platform,” said Sherry Smith, president of retail media at Criteo. “By connecting more brands to our global retail network and deepening investments from existing ones, we’re helping retailers grow their media programs and maximise the value of their ad inventory while enabling advertisers to reach high-intent shoppers.”

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The collaboration, which began last year, focuses on using Criteo’s Retail Media Offsite platform to help brands reach consumers beyond Zepto’s app and website, creating a full-funnel, connected commerce advertising experience” 

This is powered by leveraging Criteo’s AI to map the user journey and re-engage shoppers with personalised ads across the open internet. This strategy is designed to drive return visits and conversions.

The collaboration comes as the quick commerce sector in India is projected to grow at a rate of 75–100% year-on-year, a pace that outstrips traditional retail. This growth is positioning platforms like Zepto as key hubs for brands seeking to connect with a large, convenience-driven user base.

Devendra Meel, Zepto’s chief business officer, said, “Our partnership with Criteo represents a pivotal step in maximising value for both our users and sellers. The success driven by leveraging Criteo’s retail media solutions only cements the powerful ecosystem that we are creating that connects brands with users at the right moment in their shopping journey to drive higher engagement with a seamless experience.”

Medhavi Singh, Criteo India’s country head, added, “Zepto’s disruptive model, combined with Criteo’s offsite retail media capabilities, enables brands to reach high-intent consumers across the entire shopper journey — from discovery to conversion. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to shaping the future of retail media in India’s fast-evolving commerce ecosystem.”

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The partnership aims to equip dentsu’s clients with advanced buying tools, consultancy services, and measurement capabilities to improve commerce results. This also enables Criteo’s network of retailer and publisher partners to see increased ad spending from brands looking to connect with consumers on their platforms.

The collaboration will leverage both dentsu. Audiences, dentsu’s global data and identity solution, and Criteo’s Commerce Audiences, built from an extensive open commerce dataset. This combined approach will create a powerful offering for activation across Criteo’s demand platforms. 

Dentsu will strategically utilise Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform stack, including the Commerce Max Retail Media Demand-Side Platform, Commerce Growth Performance Buying Platform, Commerce Grid Supply-Side Platform, and the Commerce Yield Retailer Monetisation Platform.

Clive Record, president partnerships and solutions of dentsu, commented, “We want our clients to grow in the Algorithmic Era, and the integration of Criteo’s commerce SKU signals and product intelligence will help power our range of Next Gen media solutions. This is a transformational partnership which will provide new levels of intelligence and allow us to design for differentiation. We’re excited to harness Criteo’s advanced commerce solutions, audiences, AI and expertise.”

Brian Gleason, chief revenue officer and president of retail media at Criteo, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with dentsu and provide a holistic set of solutions that will propel commerce media momentum for its clients. An industry leading toolset, coupled with a comprehensive strategy, are crucial to maximise success in today’s environment, and our partnership with dentsu is a testament to the value that holistic commerce-driven technology platforms provide.”

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The Paris-based firm, known for its AI-powered advertising solutions, has introduced a new tagline—“For the love of commerce”—as part of its broader push to inspire richer, more connected shopping experiences. The rebranding marks a shift from its previous slogan, “The Future is Wide Open,” signaling an evolution in its mission and ambitions.

Brendan McCarthy, chief marketing officer at Criteo, emphasised the growing influence of AI in shaping how consumers interact with commerce. “Over the past 20 years, Criteo has played a central role in building the commerce ecosystem,” McCarthy said. “We recognise that we have a tremendous responsibility to shape and improve the AI-driven commerce experience for the future.”

The rebrand comes at a time when many shoppers are feeling underwhelmed by online shopping. According to a recent Criteo study, 76% of consumers describe the digital retail experience as uninspiring or purely functional. The company aims to change that by enhancing its data-driven advertising offerings and deepening its integrations across the commerce ecosystem.

Criteo, which connects brands, retailers, and media owners with consumers, believes the future of commerce lies in creating more emotionally engaging experiences. With its global reach and access to valuable commerce data, the company is positioning itself as a pioneer in the next phase of AI-enhanced retail.

As part of the brand launch, Criteo is rolling out a global campaign beginning at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Highlights include a heart-shaped orange hot air balloon emblazoned with the phrase “Putting heart back in the cart”, as well as surprise giveaways in local shops and cafés. The campaign will extend through 2025 with activations in key cities like London, New York, and Tokyo.

In tandem with these efforts, Criteo is launching a multi-phase influencer campaign featuring both internal and external voices to drive conversation around the evolving nature of commerce.

The rebranding initiative was developed in collaboration with The Marketing Practice and reflects Criteo’s core values of being open, collaborative, and impactful. As McCarthy explained, “This new identity captures the passion that drives us to connect the ecosystem, innovate, and support our partners’ growth.”

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