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 enhance customer experiences through personalisation.
Leroy Merlin, the French headquartered DIY chain that has outlets in Europe, Asia and South America, selected Zitcha following a competitive review. Leroy Merlin is part of ADEO, a global player in the home improvement and DIY market with a turnover of A$61.7bn (€37.8bn) in 2022 and more than 130,000 employees.
The move marks Zitcha’s entry into the emerging South African retail media market.
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.
“It's 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 North American 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.
CIO and head of e-commerce and marketplace strategy at Leroy Merlin, Dmitriy Anderson, 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 ecosystems. We have ambitious targets to grow the offering and Zitcha’s platform enables us to realise those objectives.”
