Retail media platform Zitcha is partnering with home improvement and gardening retailer, Leroy Merlin, to launch a full digital retail media network across South Africa. The move marks Zitcha’s entry into the emerging South African retail media market.
Australian-founded Zitcha has been engaged by Leroy Merlin to manage its digital retail media ecosystem, including on-site, off-site and in-store media, using its automated platform to drive additional new revenues from brand advertisers and enhanced customer experiences through personalisation.
The announcement of Zitcha’s move into South Africa follows the recent launch of operations in Europe with a dedicated London office and sales team and its entry into the US with Axonet to leverage first-party convenience store data and retail media touchpoints across tens of thousands of North American convenience stores. Zitcha also works with The Warehouse Group in New Zealand and Coles Group in Australia.
Leroy Merlin, the French-headquartered DIY chain with outlets in Europe, Asia, and South America, selected Zitcha following a competitive review. Leroy Merlin is part of ADEO, the leader in Europe and third largest player worldwide in the home improvement and DIY market. In 2022, the company had a turnover of A$61.7 billion (€37.8 billion) and more than 130,000 employees.
Zitcha will enable Leroy Merlin’s brand advertisers to connect with consumers along the path to purchase across an end-to-end digital retail media network that includes on-site sponsored products, sponsored ads and banners, off-site media channels including Meta and Google and in-store retail media.
With a large online e-commerce marketplace, Leroy Merlin’s evolution into retail media represents a complementary innovation for the business, allowing brand advertisers to leverage first-party data and Zitcha platform’s self-service functionality to efficiently connect with consumers along their purchase journey.
Nick Hinsley, chief commercial officer at Zitcha, said: “Leroy Merlin is a global home improvement powerhouse and part of a retail group that also includes supermarket giant Auchan and Decathlon. We are delighted to partner with them to launch their real media network in South Africa, driving incremental new revenue for the business and giving brand advertisers the opportunity to reach consumers on-site, off-site and in-store using our self-serve platform”.
“They are Zitcha’s first retailer in South Africa and the latest home improvement chain to realise the full suite of capabilities the platform offers in building and running a robust and effective retail media channel”.
In August last year, Zitcha made its first entry into the fast-growing Canadian market after being selected to launch a full digital retail media network for Canada’s leading hardware and agricultural specialist chain, Peavey Mart, which has 90 stores in the country.
Dmitriy Anderson, Leroy Merlin’s CIO and head of eCommerce and Marketplace Strategy, said: “As we scale our retail media network, we require a platform capable of meeting the needs of our advertising partners across our digital and physical store ecosystem. We have ambitious targets to grow the offering, and Zitcha’s platform enables us to realise those objectives.”
