After constructing his résumé with stints at CBS and Spotify, Parbinder Dhariwal noticed the expansion alternative in retail media earlier than it was projected to gobble up $140 billion this 12 months, in accordance with Emarketer.
He headed up magnificence for Walmart Join earlier than turning into vp and normal supervisor of CVS’ retail media arm, CVS Media Alternate (or CMX) in 2022. ADWEEK sat down with Dhariwal to debate how the pharmacy chain is constructing a retail media enterprise right into a 61-year-old retailer.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
ADWEEK: How is the retail media community driving progress for CVS?
Parbinder Dhariwal: We don’t get away the income for CMX. That’s to not say that we gained’t sooner or later. CMX drives client engagement and that drives progress—it drives footfall and incremental progress for merchandise and types.
A retail media community, carried out in the correct means, ought to be a mechanism to interact shoppers and allow them to find merchandise that they wouldn’t have found in any other case. We continuously see that inside the CVS setting. Individuals go, “Oh, I didn’t know you carried that brand at CVS.” You uncover that if you’re within the bodily shops. We’re making an attempt to convey that degree of discoverability to shoppers within the digital setting as effectively.
We’re constructed on a loyalty program [ExtraCare] that understands the buyer as they transfer from bodily to digital to bodily, wherever they begin and finish their journey. There are 74 million ExtraCare shoppers that we’re working with on a day-to-day foundation. What we’re taking a look at is knowing client habits and the way they’re interacting with our model and buying merchandise. After which, how can we drive progress for that model? And the way can we drive model switching for that model based mostly on the attributes and understanding that we now have of that client throughout the classes inside which we function, that are magnificence, private care, well being, wellness and normal merchandise?
We’ve heard lots in regards to the inside challenges that retailers face when constructing out a retail media enterprise as a result of the targets of the RMN can typically battle with—and overlap with—the merchandising and gross sales groups. How is CVS navigating these organizational challenges?
I don’t consider any retailer has absolutely figured it out. We’re nonetheless working laborious to verify there’s consistency, collaboration, and a cohesive strategy to maintain the buyer on the heart of all the things that we do. It’s not simple organising a retail media community. You must have a strong information set, and we now have that with ExtraCare. We additionally want sturdy alignment throughout the management crew, which I’ve each inside my management crew and inside the service provider group.
