Retail Media vs. ROAS Reality: Are Your Outdoor Sales Being Credited Twice?

Retail media isn't just gaining momentum in the sports and outdoor apparel sector—it's reshaping entire marketing budgets. Retail giants like Amazon, REI, and Dick’s Sporting Goods have ramped up their own advertising platforms, turning the very spaces where customers shop into prime advertising real estate. The promise is appealing: ads served directly at the moment of purchase decision. But hidden beneath the impressive platform-specific Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) figures is a troubling question: Are these platforms overstating your actual marketing effectiveness?

For senior marketers at athleisure and performance brands, such as Title Nine, this isn't merely an abstract concern—it's a strategic imperative. Misattribution isn't just a measurement hiccup; it's a fundamental threat to effective budget allocation and sustained business growth.

Why Retail Media Matters—And Why It’s Complicated

The retail media boom is no surprise. With consumers increasingly researching, comparing, and purchasing athletic and outdoor apparel across multiple retail touchpoints, placing ads at the point of purchase feels both logical and lucrative. Retail media promises precise targeting and direct attribution, allowing marketers to track sales with seemingly pinpoint accuracy.

Yet, herein lies the complexity. Each platform—be it Amazon Ads, Dick’s Sporting Goods’ DSG Media Network, or REI’s expanding advertising offerings—operates within a closed loop. This closed ecosystem incentivizes platforms to claim maximum credit for each conversion, especially problematic when shoppers encounter multiple platforms before purchasing.

The Measurement Blind Spot

Picture this common scenario: a consumer researching women's performance leggings browses on REI, checks pricing on Dick’s, and finally completes a purchase on Amazon. Each retailer’s advertising platform may independently attribute this sale solely to their own ads, resulting in the same sale being credited multiple times. While individual platforms proudly report inflated ROAS figures, the reality is your true incremental performance might be far less clear—and possibly overstated.

For brands keenly focused on growth and efficient marketing spend, such distorted metrics can lead to strategic missteps. Overinvestment in lower-funnel retail media could inadvertently undermine upper-funnel branding efforts, essential for maintaining long-term growth and market share.

Why Existing Tools Aren't Solving This

Marketers often rely heavily on platform-native analytics and last-click attribution models provided by retailer platforms. But these tools aren't designed to capture cross-platform customer journeys accurately. Platform-native tools inherently favour their own ad inventory, ignoring the broader picture of multi-channel consumer behaviour.

As consumer journeys grow increasingly fragmented across multiple retail and media touchpoints, traditional attribution methodologies prove inadequate, creating a misleading picture of which marketing dollars are genuinely driving incremental growth.

The Case for Smarter, Independent Measurement

Leading brands in the sports and outdoor apparel market are quickly recognizing the need for a more sophisticated approach to attribution. Independent measurement methods like Media Mix Modeling (MMM), incrementality testing, and unified attribution frameworks provide clearer insights. These methodologies offer an unbiased look at cross-channel effectiveness, measuring how various platforms contribute incrementally to total revenue.

Not only are these approaches more accurate, but they're also future-proof. With tightening data privacy regulations and shifts away from traditional tracking methods, privacy-safe measurement solutions that respect consumer privacy without sacrificing insight are becoming the industry standard.

How Innovative Brands Are Responding

Forward-thinking marketers in athleisure and sports apparel are already adopting third-party, platform-neutral measurement solutions. Without explicitly naming providers, it's clear these brands are redefining how they understand marketing effectiveness. Rather than relying solely on retailer-reported figures, they're adopting methodologies that clarify the true incremental value of their marketing efforts.

The Path Forward: What Marketers Should Do Next

As the retail media landscape expands, marketers must challenge traditional assumptions about measurement and attribution. For performance-oriented brands, the ability to discern genuine incremental lift versus overstated platform-reported success is critical for sustainable growth.

Before you allocate your next round of budgets, consider re-evaluating your measurement strategies. Ensure your marketing investments align with real, incremental performance rather than inflated platform metrics. Brands that act now won't just survive—they'll thrive in the increasingly complex retail-media ecosystem.