Connecting Physical and Digital Retail
with a Single Source of Truth in Salesforce
The Need for a Unified Approach
In an era where consumers toggle effortlessly between digital and physical shopping channels, omnichannel retail media is no longer a buzzword—it’s a foundational strategy. At NRF 2025, you’ll find sessions showcasing how leading retailers are merging on-site ads, mobile app promotions, and in-store digital signage into cohesive campaigns that drive deeper engagement and higher sales.
Pulling off this feat requires robust data synchronization, cross-team collaboration, and innovative tech solutions like Salesforce Data Cloud and Agentforce. By uniting these capabilities, you can ensure that a consumer who encounters a display ad on your e-commerce site sees a consistent (but context-optimized) message on an in-store screen and receives relevant follow-up offers via email.
The Case for Omnichannel Retail Media
When online and offline channels remain siloed, consumers receive inconsistent brand messages. Worse yet, retailers lose the ability to measure how exposure in one channel might drive conversions in another. Omnichannel retail media addresses these gaps by orchestrating campaigns across all customer touchpoints. The result? A seamless brand experience that fosters loyalty and maximizes conversions.
Recent trends—like in-store expansion, incrementality measurement, and the push for better inventory aggregation—all benefit from an omnichannel framework. If you can track a shopper’s journey from an in-store kiosk to your website, you can more accurately attribute conversions and prove the ROI of in-store ad placements.
Leveraging Salesforce Data Cloud for Cross-Channel Orchestration
To create a unified media strategy, you need a central hub for all shopper data. Salesforce Data Cloud performs this role by aggregating behavioral data (web visits, app interactions), transactional data (POS, e-commerce purchases), and even contextual signals (geolocation, inventory levels). With this consolidated view, you can build cohesive customer profiles that power your omnichannel campaigns.
Here’s how Data Cloud can strengthen omnichannel efforts:
- Real-Time Audience Sync: If a customer makes an in-store purchase, that data instantly updates their CRM profile—enabling personalized follow-up offers online.
- Dynamic Creative Optimization: Serve ads tailored to a shopper’s most recent activities. If they browsed electronics in-store, they might see a targeted banner online for extended warranties or accessories.
- Location-Based Targeting: Combine geofencing and real-time inventory data to push relevant offers for nearby stores.
Agentforce: The AI Layer for Seamless Experiences
Where does Agentforce fit in? Think of it as your AI “brain,” constantly analyzing how customers move between channels and recommending the best next action. For instance, Agentforce might detect that a certain micro-segment responds well to discount codes after browsing in-store but rarely redeems them when offered online. Armed with that insight, you can tweak your in-store creative or follow-up messaging to maximize conversions.
Agentforce also drives incrementality testing across channels. By segmenting shoppers into test and control groups, it can measure the true impact of an omnichannel campaign. Maybe the synergy of an in-store sign plus an email offer yields double the lift compared to email alone—a powerful insight that justifies continued investment in both channels.
Curious about incrementality measurement and other cutting-edge KPIs? Checkout our post “Next-Generation Measurement and Attribution in Retail Media.”
Bringing In-Store Media into the Fold
In-store screens, electronic shelf labels, and interactive kiosks open a new frontier for retailers seeking to engage customers at the moment of purchase. Thanks to Data Cloud, you can synchronize these physical touchpoints with your digital campaigns. Picture a scenario where a shopper logs into your loyalty app before heading into a store. The system recognizes them as a high-value segment; in-store displays then adapt accordingly, showcasing relevant promotions or highlighting products frequently purchased by that segment.
One emerging trend is the bundling of in-store placements with onsite or offsite digital inventory. Advertisers enjoy a more holistic media buy (covering multiple channels at once), and you gain deeper insights into which channel combinations produce the greatest incremental lift. Salesforce handles the data orchestration, while your ad ops team focuses on creativity and campaign execution.
Overcoming Operational Hurdles
Achieving true omnichannel alignment involves shifting how teams collaborate. Marketing and operations need a common platform—Salesforce—where they can share real-time metrics. Meanwhile, IT must ensure POS systems feed data reliably into Data Cloud, and your merchandising team has to coordinate promotional timing so that in-store signage reflects the same offers as your website.
That’s where a partner like V2 becomes invaluable. We provide not only the technical implementation—ensuring that all your Salesforce clouds (Data, Marketing, Commerce) talk to each other seamlessly—but also strategic guidance on building cross-departmental workflows that drive omnichannel success.
The Bigger Picture: Integrating Other Trends
While omnichannel lies at the heart of retail media’s future, it’s worth noting how this intersects with other hot topics:
- Inventory Aggregation: An aggregated view of ad inventory across online and in-store channels helps you sell premium “omnichannel” packages to brands.
- AI and Predictive: Advanced forecasting (see our “From Personalization to Predictive” post) tells you which store locations need more inventory to fulfill expected demand from omnichannel campaigns.
- Privacy-First Approaches: Data clean rooms can help securely match brand data with your in-store and online shopper insights—fueling stronger targeting without risking privacy violations.
Take Advantage of Our Agentforce Assessment Workshop
Ready to explore Agentforce’s potential for your business? V2 offers a half-day Agentforce Assessment Workshop using our D(3)P framework. This free workshop is designed to help you identify opportunities for AI-driven automation and create a roadmap for success. It includes:
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- A tailored evaluation of your current processes and opportunities for automation.
- Insights into how Agentforce and Data Cloud can be integrated to drive measurable outcomes.
- A collaborative session to develop use cases, identify quick wins, and build a strategy for implementation.
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Contact us today to take the first step in your Agentforce journey and discover how we can help you drive efficiency, productivity, and transformation across your organization.
Building Trust Starts With A Conversation.
Let’s Connect and Talk Omnichannel at NRF 2025
Omnichannel retail media isn’t just about extending your network into physical stores; it’s about weaving every channel—online, mobile, and in-store—into a cohesive whole. By employing Salesforce Data Cloud for seamless data orchestration and Agentforce for AI-driven personalization, you can deliver a unified experience that resonates with today’s channel-agnostic shopper.
If you’re curious about how to operationalize this vision—or want to see live demos of these capabilities—be sure to book a meeting with us at the NRF 2025 Show (kicking off January 11) or connect in advance for a personal consultation. At V2, we specialize in helping retailers build omnichannel retail media strategies that drive revenue and delight customers.
