As discovery, validation, and purchase increasingly happen in the same moment on the same screen, global consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands are confronting fundamental questions about organizational structure, measurement, and retail readiness.

The shift from traditional commerce to shoppable media, where content and commerce have collapsed into a single experience, requires more than platform strategy or content creation. It demands a complete rethinking of how brands operate.

"We have to change the way we work and change the way we think about this sub channel," Andrew Lederman, VP of global digital commerce for Mondelez International, said at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Connected Commerce event. "We are one commercial organization."

Three key challenges emerged from the panel discussion featuring executives from Mondelez, Colgate-Palmolive, and Uber Advertising.

Breaking down organizational silos

Experts say the biggest barrier to shoppable media success is organizational. Legacy structures that separate sales and marketing teams create friction in environments where those functions must work as one.

Mondelez has consolidated its approach under a single chief sales and marketing officer, eliminating traditional budget debates between departments. "The question of sales versus marketing, who's responsible? Is this the sales channel? Is this the marketing channel? Forget it," Lederman said.

This structural change extends to how brands evaluate performance. Rather than optimizing for channel-specific metrics, successful organizations are taking a portfolio view of all commerce channels and establishing clear KPIs around profitability.

Brands that maintain siloed sales and marketing organizations will struggle to execute shoppable media strategies effectively. The channel requires unified decision-making and shared accountability for both awareness and conversion outcomes.

Beyond legacy metrics

Traditional metrics like return on ad spend (ROAS) fail to capture the true value of shoppable media, industry leaders say, particularly around incrementality and customer acquisition.

Edwin Wong, who leads measurement science at Uber Advertising, noted that platforms are seeing what he calls "curious loyalty," half of orders come from loyal customers, but two-thirds of consumers will try something new on any given order.

"There's really an interesting opportunity as you talk about LTV, it's fabricated and it's two sided," Wong said. "Who are your new brand users? How do you think about LTV in a more significant way?"

Research from Uber shows that combining offers with ads is eight times more effective at acquiring new users than either tactic alone, while ads without offers are four times more likely to drive repeat purchases.

Brands need standardized definitions and measurement frameworks across platforms to make informed decisions. Without clarity on incrementality and customer lifetime value, shoppable media investments risk cannibalizing more profitable channels.

Redefining retail readiness

Retail readiness has evolved beyond inventory availability and basic product images. In 2026, it encompasses content relevance, dynamic serving capabilities, and the ability to match the energy of the environment where discovery happens.

"When you have an audience coming from social media, and that environment is very energetic, very lively, what you want to do is drop them into something very similar to your product detail pages," said Keith Lehman, global director of digital commerce marketing and retail media at Colgate-Palmolive. "You want to probably have some social-first assets, 15-second mobile optimized videos that are going to match that energy, because if not, you're probably going to lose out on that conversion."

This creates new operational challenges. Brands must govern content creation at scale while maintaining consistency across fragmented data systems. The rise of AI-powered content creation is "starting to expose our vulnerabilities and seams in the armor of where our product data is just in different form and different fragmented data silos," Lehman noted.

Mondelez approaches this challenge by letting "the cream rise to the top" among its 45,000 influencer relationships, according to Lederman. The brand uses AI software to monitor thousands of creators simultaneously, identifying high-performing content through a combination of reach metrics and conversion data, then doubling down on what works.

Content has become as critical to the supply chain as physical inventory. Brands need systems to create, test, and optimize content at scale while maintaining the flexibility to match the tone and format of different discovery environments.

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