Retail Media and Creators Are Now the High-Intent Channels

The channel that worked three years ago is not necessarily the channel that works now, and the current reordering is worth understanding before renewing a media plan.

What has moved

Influencer marketing and retail media are overtaking social commerce as high-intent channels. The distinction is intent: retail media reaches someone already in a shopping context, and creator content reaches someone who actively chose to listen to a person they trust.

Social commerce interrupts. The other two arrive where attention was already pointed.

Reach asks how many people saw it. Intent asks what they were doing when they did.
– The Antimony position

Retail media is a brand surface, not a listing

Marketplace and delivery-platform placement now sits close to the point of purchase, and in Australia the surface is nearly as common as your own site: marketplace apps at 69% against retailer websites at 78%.

Most operators treat that surface as a directory entry. Welly Deli treated it as design work – deliberate Uber Eats channel design, packaging and photography direction as part of one system – and order volume rose 48% with ratings averaging 4.6 out of 5. Revenue rose 28% overall.

We covered the full argument in Hospitality, Retail and DTC Are One Channel Now.

Creators work on belief, not audience size

The failure mode is buying reach – an account with a large following paid to mention you, producing content the audience discounts immediately.

What works is people who already use the product. SADA MEN built a 286-strong ambassador program from customers, and it became the selling engine for a brand that had to earn permission before revenue in a category men were not yet convinced was for them.

Isadora Nim connected creator-adjacent activity – trunk shows, activations, events – back to bookings, with 27% of Meta leads converting to booked consultations and content engagement up 78% year on year.

Where paid still belongs

As an amplifier on something already working. Solace returned 3.7× on paid media with qualified inbound up 210%, reaching four states – on the back of a rebuilt brand and pipeline, not instead of one.

Blanc Bridal ran a 7.1% click-through rate with 22% of Meta leads converting to consultations, because the journey behind the ad had been joined up first.

In practice: the ordering that decides the outcome

Every one of those numbers came after the brand and the journey were fixed, not before. Blanc's leads had been leaking between Meta, web forms and Klaviyo; spending more on the ad would have sent more people into the same gap.

The general rule: a channel decision made before the destination works is a decision to buy traffic to a leak. Audit what happens after the click before reallocating budget between channels – the channel is rarely the constraint.

By the numbers

• 69% versus 78% – marketplace apps against retailer websites in Australia.
• +48% order volume, 4.6/5 ratings from designing the delivery surface – Welly Deli.
• 3.7× paid return, +210% qualified inbound – Solace.
• 27% of Meta leads to booked consultations – Isadora Nim.

Key takeaways

• Retail media and creators are overtaking social commerce because they carry intent.
• Marketplace and delivery listings are brand surfaces, not directory entries.
• Creator value comes from genuine use, not follower count.
• Paid works as an amplifier on a functioning journey.
• Fix the destination before reallocating between channels.

Appendix & sources

Definitions. Retail media: advertising placed within retail and marketplace environments. Social commerce: buying within a social platform.

1. Channel shift and DTC trends: On Tap and tyb.xyz.
2. Australian marketplace data: Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026.
3. Client results: Welly Deli, SADA MEN, Isadora Nim, Solace and Blanc Bridal case studies.