The news
On September 29, 2026, Teads (TEAD) and Koddi announced a global partnership that lets advertisers buy ads on retailers' own websites and apps through standard programmatic auctions. The Teads Koddi partnership uses OpenRTB, the common protocol for real-time ad bidding, for onsite retail media inventory.
Under the integration, advertisers can buy sponsored product ads, the paid listings that appear among a retailer's search results, along with display placements in Teads Ad Manager. The inventory comes from retail media networks built on Koddi's technology in the US and Europe. The companies named Gopuff UK, Hopper and Wolt Ads as examples of platforms included, but did not give a launch date, a full list of participating retailers or commercial terms.
Koddi builds retail and commerce media networks for large companies, and its announcement listed Booking.com, Kroger, Fanatics and Cars.com as clients. Teads, a Nasdaq-listed advertising platform based in New York, said it works directly with more than 10,000 publishers and 20,000 advertisers and has about 1,700 employees in more than 30 countries.
The companies framed the deal as a fix for a known buyer complaint. Citing IAB Europe's Attitudes to Retail Media report, they said fragmentation of retail media networks (51%) and a lack of standardization (53%) remain the main barriers for buy-side stakeholders. The Trade Desk made a similar case in 2025, describing access to onsite retail placements as limited and fragmented.
Justin Sparks, general manager of retail and commerce media at Teads, said retailers that adopt OpenRTB can reach significantly more demand by opening up to omnichannel demand-side platforms (DSPs), the software advertisers use to buy media across channels. Koddi president Nicholas Ward called the integration a milestone "in making retail media truly programmatic on a global scale."
Teads is not Koddi's only programmatic partner. On October 9, 2025, The Trade Desk (TTD) announced its own integration with Koddi to let advertisers buy sponsored product ads and other onsite placements programmatically, with Gopuff as the first retail partner. The Teads announcement described the company as an early mover in bringing real-time bidding to native retail listings, and PPC Land previously reported that Teads had partnered with Pentaleap on real-time bidding for sponsored products.
The numbers
- Buyers citing fragmentation as a barrier (IAB Europe, per the companies)
- 51%
- Buyers citing lack of standardization (IAB Europe, per the companies)
- 53%
- Teads direct publisher partners
- 10,000+
- Teads advertisers (company figure)
- 20,000
- Regions covered
- US and Europe
Why CEOs should care
For chief marketing officers and media leads, the practical change is that retail media can be planned in the same tool as video, display and connected TV rather than through a separate console for each retailer. That makes it easier to compare cost and results across channels and shift budget quickly. Before moving spend, ask Teads which retailers' inventory is live, what shopper data is available for targeting, and how sales results will be reported back, since the announcement did not describe measurement.
CFOs should focus on fees. Programmatic buying can add intermediaries, and the DSP, the retail media technology provider and the retailer may each take a share. Ask for a transparent breakdown of platform fees and retailer margins, and compare the effective cost per sale with buying directly from the retailer's own ad platform. Standard access is only cheaper if the added layers cost less than the operational time they save.
For retailers running their own media networks, OpenRTB widens the pool of potential buyers, which can raise demand and prices for ad slots. The trade-off is less direct control over who buys and how shopper data flows. Retail executives should confirm what pricing floors, advertiser approvals and data-sharing limits Koddi and Teads enforce before switching on programmatic demand.
The bigger picture
Retail media is moving from closed, retailer-by-retailer buying toward shared standards that let any major buying platform bid, a shift display advertising went through earlier. Koddi is positioning itself as the connector between retailers and those buyers, first with The Trade Desk in 2025 and now with Teads. Koddi describes the commerce media opportunity as worth $100 billion, a company estimate.
For Teads, the partnership adds retail inventory to a platform that already works directly with more than 10,000 publishers. Sparks framed the goal as putting shopper and national brand budgets through the same buying channels worldwide.
What’s next
Watch for a list of live retailers, measurement details and any pricing disclosures from Teads or Koddi. Whether more Koddi-powered networks opt in, and whether other DSPs sign similar deals, will show how quickly OpenRTB becomes the default for onsite retail media.
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