Retail media has evolved beyond traditional e-commerce to meet AI-driven conversations happening right now in 2026. Developers building chatbots for shopping, recommendations, or product discovery need platforms that handle real-time ad serving through APIs instead of pixel placements. The challenge is finding solutions designed for conversational interfaces where users ask questions and expect instant, contextual product suggestions.
Most retail media platforms were built for website banners and search result ads, not natural language interactions. Display ads don’t work well in conversational interfaces where users expect helpful responses. They expect static page loads and predetermined ad slots. But AI chat requires dynamic keyword extraction, instant auction results, and native link insertion within conversational responses.
This guide covers seven platforms built with APIs that developers can integrate directly into chatbot workflows. Some specialize in sponsored product listings. Others handle affiliate commissions or first-party retail inventory. Each brings different strengths depending on whether you run an internal retail media program or monetize through third-party partnerships.
Most retail media APIs expect you to send keywords or product IDs. Only ChatAds extracts intent automatically from raw conversation text, reducing the development work required.
Ask ChatGPT to summarize the full text automatically.
ChatAds
ChatAds is the only retail media platform built natively for AI conversations. It handles natural language processing, ad matching, and affiliate link insertion in a single API call.
The platform extracts keywords automatically from conversation context using NLP. You send raw user messages and ChatAds identifies shopping intent, finds relevant offers, and returns formatted links ready to insert into your chatbot response. This eliminates the manual work of parsing user queries or maintaining keyword lists.
ChatAds supports both third-party affiliate programs like Amazon Associates and internal SKU catalogs for in-house retail media. Developers earn 100% of affiliate commissions without revenue sharing. The API returns results in under 200 milliseconds, which keeps conversations flowing naturally without lag.
ChatAds processes NLP extraction, auction logic, and link generation in under 200ms per request. Most retail media APIs require separate calls for keyword analysis and ad serving.
The platform includes built-in FTC disclosure handling and tracks clicks, conversions, and revenue per message. You can filter offers by category, commission rate, or merchant. The API works with any LLM framework including OpenAI, Anthropic, or custom models.
Integration takes about 15 minutes with SDKs available for TypeScript, Python, and Go. ChatAds charges based on conversation volume with a free tier for testing. The dashboard shows earnings by affiliate program, product category, and conversation topic.
For developers building shopping assistants, recommendation bots, or product discovery tools, ChatAds removes the complexity of coordinating multiple vendor APIs. One endpoint handles everything from intent detection to monetization.
Website: https://www.getchatads.com
Kevel
Kevel positions itself as the Retail Media Cloud with infrastructure for launching custom ad platforms. Major retailers use Kevel to build white-labeled retail media networks that compete with Amazon Advertising or Walmart Connect.
The platform provides flexible APIs covering ad decisioning, campaign management, reporting, and billing. Developers call the Decision API to request ads based on user context, placements, and targeting rules. Kevel runs real-time auctions across advertiser campaigns and returns the winning sponsored listing.
Kevel powers Edmunds automotive marketplace (30% revenue growth), Everli grocery delivery, and e-commerce platforms running internal retail media programs with multiple brand advertisers.
Kevel’s catalog integration links your product inventory directly to the ad platform. Advertisers can sponsor specific SKUs, categories, or search terms. The system handles budget pacing, frequency capping, and attribution tracking across customer touchpoints.
The Management API lets developers build custom campaign creation interfaces for brand partners. Advertisers set budgets, bids, targeting criteria, and creative assets. Kevel maintains separation between your retail business and advertiser access with strict permission controls.
- Catalog sync links product inventory to ad platform
- Budget pacing prevents overspending
- Attribution tracking follows customer touchpoints
- Permission controls separate retail and advertiser access
Reporting APIs surface impression counts, click-through rates, conversion metrics, and return on ad spend. Kevel claims most customers launch retail media programs in 14 days, though complex integrations with existing e-commerce systems take longer.
The platform charges based on ad requests and active campaigns. Pricing isn’t public but targets mid-market and enterprise retailers. Kevel works best when you already operate a marketplace or e-commerce site with multiple sellers who want to advertise.
Website: https://www.kevel.com
Topsort
Topsort provides AI-based retail media infrastructure focused on auction-based advertising across marketplaces and e-commerce platforms. The company powers retail media for Poshmark, DoorDash, and European retailers with customers in over 40 countries.
Topsort's /auctions endpoint handles real-time bidding for sponsored placements. The /events endpoint tracks impressions, clicks, purchases, and custom conversion events tied to auction winners.
The platform’s auction system considers bid amounts, product relevance, and predicted conversion rates when selecting ads. This balances advertiser budgets with user experience so low-quality products don’t win placements purely on high bids.
Developers integrate Topsort by calling the auctions API with placement context like search queries, category pages, or product detail views. The response includes winning ads with product details, creative assets, and tracking URLs. You render ads in your interface and fire event callbacks when users interact.
Topsort offers a self-serve campaign manager where brand advertisers create sponsored product campaigns directly. Alternatively, developers can build custom advertiser portals using the Campaign Management API. The platform handles billing, budget enforcement, and payout calculations automatically.
Poshmark reported 40% gains in ad revenue after implementing Topsort’s auction infrastructure. The system scales to handle millions of daily auctions with sub-100ms latency requirements. Topsort provides analytics dashboards showing advertiser performance, inventory fill rates, and revenue metrics.
The platform works for marketplaces with multiple sellers and retailers running first-party ad programs. Pricing depends on auction volume and feature requirements. Topsort targets mid-market to enterprise businesses with existing e-commerce traffic.
Website: https://www.topsort.com
Epsilon Retail Media (formerly CitrusAd)
Epsilon Retail Media, previously known as CitrusAd before Epsilon acquired the company, specializes in server-side ad integration for grocery chains and retailers. The platform emphasizes backend integration that bypasses ad blockers and client-side tracking limitations.
Epsilon processes ad serving on your backend before pages reach browsers. This approach avoids ad blockers, maintains consistent performance, and ensures sponsored products appear identical to organic listings.
The integration model merges sponsored product ads directly into search results and category pages on the server. Users see a unified product grid where some items are paid placements. This creates native ad experiences that match the surrounding content exactly.
Epsilon uses auction-based pricing where brands bid on keywords, categories, or specific product placements. The system runs auctions for each page request and inserts winning ads into the response sent to browsers. Advertisers only pay when shoppers click sponsored listings.
The platform serves major grocery retailers including ShopRite, Food Lion, and Stop & Shop. These chains use Epsilon to monetize brand advertising budgets from CPG companies promoting products sold in stores. The closed-loop attribution tracks ad exposure through purchase data, which proves campaign effectiveness.
Epsilon provides GDPR and CCPA compliance tools since privacy regulations affect retail media heavily. The platform handles consent management, data retention policies, and advertiser access controls. Reporting APIs show campaign performance broken down by product, brand, and customer segment.
Integration requires backend development work to merge ad responses into existing e-commerce systems. Epsilon typically works with retailers processing significant online grocery or retail traffic. Pricing follows a revenue share model based on ad spend flowing through the platform.
Website: https://citrusad.com / https://www.epsilon.com
Criteo Retail Media
Criteo Retail Media operates a network connecting 3,500+ brands with retailer inventory through a unified API platform. The system enables multi-retailer campaigns where advertisers run sponsored product ads across multiple e-commerce sites simultaneously.
Brands access retail media inventory across Criteo's partner network with standardized APIs. Retailers integrate once and gain access to existing advertiser demand without individual sales outreach.
The Retail Media API handles campaign creation, bid management, and performance reporting. Advertisers specify target retailers, product categories, keywords, and bid multipliers. Criteo distributes campaign budgets across participating retailers based on performance algorithms.
Retailers implement Criteo’s ad serving API similar to other platforms. The Decision API receives page context and returns sponsored product placements. Criteo’s advantage comes from pre-existing advertiser relationships, which reduces cold-start problems when launching retail media programs.
The platform supports keyword targeting, contextual placement, and audience retargeting across the retailer network. Advertisers can layer on demographic targeting, purchase history, and lookalike audiences. Criteo aggregates data across retailers while maintaining privacy boundaries.
- Keyword targeting for search inventory
- Contextual placement on category pages
- Audience retargeting across the network
- Lookalike audiences for reach expansion
API partners including Pacvue, Skai, and Flywheel Digital build campaign management tools on top of Criteo’s infrastructure. These third-party platforms let brands manage Criteo campaigns alongside Amazon Advertising and Walmart Connect in unified dashboards.
Implementation timelines average 8 to 10 weeks accounting for technical integration, testing, and campaign setup. Criteo targets mid-market and enterprise retailers with established e-commerce platforms. The platform charges retailers based on ad revenue percentage or transaction fees.
Website: https://developers.criteo.com
Moloco Commerce Media
Moloco Commerce Media provides AI-native retail media infrastructure built on machine learning models that personalize ad placements at individual user levels. The platform powers 125,000+ advertisers including major retailers like Wayfair and StockX.
Moloco's models predict which sponsored products each user will engage with based on browsing patterns, purchase history, and real-time behavior. This one-to-one targeting improves conversion rates compared to keyword-only matching.
The platform runs on Google Cloud infrastructure using TPUs and GPUs for model training and inference. Moloco continuously updates prediction models as user behavior evolves, which adapts to seasonal trends and inventory changes automatically.
Developers integrate through REST APIs for ad decisioning, event tracking, and campaign management. Moloco offers three implementation paths based on retailer needs. The REST API suits custom integrations. Widget embeds provide pre-built ad units for standard placements. Custom campaign managers let retailers white-label advertiser interfaces.
The system supports sponsored product campaigns, sponsored brand placements, and display advertising across desktop and mobile. Advertisers bid using target ROAS (return on ad spend) goals rather than manual keyword bids. Moloco’s algorithms adjust bids in real-time to hit performance targets.
Reporting includes standard metrics plus predicted incrementality showing which conversions came from ads versus organic behavior. This attribution modeling helps advertisers measure true ad impact beyond last-click metrics.
Moloco works with marketplaces, retail apps, and e-commerce platforms across verticals including furniture, fashion, automotive, and consumer goods. The platform scales from small retailers testing retail media to enterprises processing millions of daily transactions.
Website: https://www.moloco.com
Koddi
Koddi operates the first supply-side platform (SSP) built specifically for commerce media formats. The platform connects retail media inventory to programmatic advertising demand from major DSPs (demand-side platforms) like The Trade Desk, Google DV360, and Yahoo.
Koddi enables programmatic buying of sponsored product listings, not just display ads. Advertisers access retail media inventory through existing DSP platforms using standard OpenRTB protocols.
The platform handles sponsored listings, display ads, in-store advertising, and audio commerce media. This format flexibility lets retailers monetize multiple touchpoints including websites, mobile apps, physical stores, and connected devices through one integration.
Koddi powers Gopuff’s retail media program along with automotive marketplaces, grocery delivery apps, and general merchandise retailers. The SSP model means retailers access programmatic demand without building direct advertiser sales teams. DSP buyers can add retail media to existing campaigns with minimal workflow changes.
The integration provides APIs for submitting available ad inventory, receiving real-time bids, and tracking performance. Koddi handles bid filtering, auction logic, and payout calculations. Retailers maintain control over which advertisers can bid and set floor prices for inventory.
The platform supports first-price and second-price auction models. Advertisers bid based on keywords, product categories, audience segments, or contextual signals. Koddi’s auction engine selects winners and returns creative assets within milliseconds to maintain page load performance.
Reporting dashboards show fill rates, average CPM (cost per thousand impressions), revenue by placement type, and advertiser performance. Koddi targets retailers with significant traffic volumes who want to access programmatic demand channels beyond direct sales.
Website: https://koddi.com
How to Choose a Retail Media Solution for AI Chat
The right platform depends on what you’re building and how you want to monetize. If you run an internal retail media program with brand advertisers, Kevel, Topsort, or Moloco provide the auction infrastructure and advertiser tools you need. These platforms assume you already have e-commerce traffic and merchants ready to pay for sponsored placements.
For developers building chatbots that recommend products from external catalogs, affiliate-based solutions make more sense. ChatAds handles the entire workflow from conversation analysis to link insertion without requiring advertiser relationships. You can track revenue per message to measure monetization performance across different conversation types.
Server-side integration matters for conversational AI where latency affects user experience. Solutions like Epsilon and ChatAds process requests on your backend, keeping response times fast. Consider whether you need server-side affiliate marketing architecture or can work with client-side implementations that add JavaScript to responses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best retail media solutions for AI chatbots in 2026?
The top retail media solutions for AI chatbots include ChatAds for native conversation monetization, Kevel and Topsort for auction-based sponsored products, Epsilon Retail Media for server-side integration, Criteo for multi-retailer networks, Moloco for AI personalization, and Koddi for programmatic commerce media.
How do I add retail media to my AI chatbot?
Most retail media platforms provide APIs that return sponsored product listings based on keywords or context. ChatAds simplifies this by extracting intent automatically from conversation text and returning affiliate links ready to insert. Other platforms require you to parse user queries and send keywords manually.
What is the difference between retail media and affiliate marketing for AI chat?
Retail media typically involves running sponsored product ads for brands on your own marketplace or retail site. Affiliate marketing earns commissions by linking to external merchants like Amazon. ChatAds supports both models, letting developers monetize through third-party affiliate programs or internal product catalogs.
Which retail media API has the fastest response time for chatbots?
ChatAds returns results in under 200 milliseconds including NLP extraction, matching, and link generation. Most other retail media APIs require separate calls for keyword analysis and ad serving, adding latency. Topsort and Moloco also optimize for sub-100ms auction responses.
Do I need advertiser relationships to use retail media platforms?
Platforms like Kevel, Topsort, and Epsilon require you to recruit brand advertisers to bid on placements. ChatAds and affiliate-based solutions connect to existing merchant networks like Amazon Associates, so you can monetize immediately without direct advertiser sales.
How does ChatAds compare to Kevel for AI chatbot monetization?
ChatAds is built specifically for AI conversations with automatic NLP extraction and affiliate link insertion. Kevel provides infrastructure for building custom retail media networks with advertiser campaign management. ChatAds suits developers monetizing through affiliates while Kevel targets retailers running internal ad programs.