GroupM has introduced ‘Fusion’, a new retail media planning tool. The new tool has been benchmarked at more than $125 billion in ad spending, while projecting that it will surpass television by 2028.

According to GroupM, the new retail media planning tool was intentionally created for special clients of all GroupM global media networks, including EssenceMedia.com, Mindshare and Wavemaker. The unique product originated and developed GroupM’s Nexus unit.

This was disclosed by MediaPost who added that Nexus is also developing a second phase enabling agencies and client to apply it to buying, activating and posting the results of retail media buys, though she did not disclose a timeframe for that.

MediaPost shared that after its briefing with JiYoung Kim, Nexus North America President, who likened the new retail media planning tool as part of an ongoing evolution of data, technology and planning intelligence that is redefining not just retail media explicitly, but all forms of commerce and performance related media.

It explained that its essence is to ensure a total redefinition of the ecosystem, which is being transformed by ongoing technological innovation and disruption.

“I think we are past Wave One, which is shifting the dollars that were intended for in- store environments or on-site environments into digitized on-site environments,” the report explained, adding, “We’re heading into Wave Two, which is now taking those capabilities and growing through off-site dollars, which is bumping up directly against performance dollars or even brand dollars.”

The world’s leading media investment company revealed that Fusion is a refinement of a sophisticated taxonomy Fusion developed benchmarking the performance of various retail media suppliers which includes inventory formats, digital, analog and in-store media. The platform said this is presently accessible for planners, buyers and clients to use when planning retail media buys.

Fusion’s core is a robust data lake comprising hundreds of commerce data sources and APIs, enriched with the collective intelligence of thousands of global commerce practitioners, Nexus said in a statement explaining its evolution. In tandem with the formalized commerce capabilities under GroupM Nexus Commerce, clients can utilize the offering for better overall investment and retail media allocations.