Albertsons has launched a new in-store incrementality measurement system across its US supermarket network, aiming to show the real sales impact of in-store advertising.
The update comes as US supermarkets face growing pressure from brands to prove that retail media spend delivers incremental sales, not just attributed purchases.
Announced on January 6 from Boise, Idaho, the new capability sits within Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media arm of Albertsons Companies. The system is designed to isolate the causal impact of in-store digital screens by comparing test stores running ads with matched control stores that have no media exposure.
Unlike traditional attribution models, which can over-credit media for sales that may have happened anyway, the matched-market approach estimates what sales would have looked like without advertising. The difference is measured as true lift.
Albertsons said the measurement operates at store level and uses nearly 60 variables to match test and control locations, reducing noise and bias. It can be applied across existing and new in-store screens, including placements in deli and pharmacy areas, and is scalable across different store formats.
In-store media has historically been one of the hardest retail channels to measure accurately, operating without the identity signals common in online environments. Albertsons said the new framework is intended to close that gap by attributing unit, order, and sales lift only where media exposure is the clear driver.
The company highlighted a recent campaign with Mondelēz International as an example. The activation combined in-store digital screens with onsite and offsite media to promote Sargento Cheese Bakes. According to Albertsons, adding in-store screens delivered a measurable incremental sales lift and supported household penetration and category growth.
Albertsons Media Collective positions the in-store channel as a critical part of full-funnel retail media, especially at moments closest to purchase. The company said stronger measurement gives advertisers more confidence to scale spend inside physical stores.
Following early results from its in-store digital display network, Albertsons is now preparing to expand further. During 2026, the in-store media fleet is expected to roll out to around 800 additional stores, extending coverage across 10 divisions.
Albertsons operates more than 2,200 stores across 35 US states and Washington, D.C., making the expansion one of the larger in-store media scale-ups currently underway in the US grocery market.
Editor’s note: This article is based on company disclosures from Albertsons Companies and its retail media division.
