Retailers Push Into Retail Media, Fintech and Data to Widen Margins Beyond Product Sales

Speaking at the Retail Asia Summit 2026 in Singapore, Sanjay Singh, senior vice president for the Investor Transformation group at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific, said retail media can serve as a profit engine for brick-and-mortar stores and an added revenue stream for offline retailers.

Singh argued that retail should be viewed less as the last mile of commerce and more as a "feedback mechanism" that connects demand, inventory, payments and fulfilment.

Data gathered through stores feeds an artificial intelligence feedback loop, he said, describing AI as the "connective tissue" running across that ecosystem.

"I talked about deployment of in-store retail media, which provides a lot of data for companies to leverage on, build the trust factor, and convert existing footfall into sales," Singh said.

Beyond advertising, retailers are also turning to fintech services, data monetisation and commissions as competition intensifies, treating these as additional margin pools alongside traditional product sales.