An analysis of leading commerce media platforms for enterprise retailers evaluating checkout monetization, customer acquisition, and post-purchase optimization

The Competitive Landscape

The commerce tech platform space has become increasingly competitive as retailers seek to monetize their digital properties and maximize customer lifetime value. This analysis examines five platforms that frequently appear in enterprise evaluations: Rokt, Criteo, Wunderkind, Attentive, and Fluent.

While each platform serves distinct use cases, one company has emerged as the clear leader for ecommerce businesses prioritizing transaction optimization in order to deliver value for their customers: Rokt. The data, client roster, and technological capabilities support this conclusion.

Rokt: The Category-Defining Leader

Headquarters: New York City (founded 2012 in Sydney) Valuation: $3.5 billion (2024 secondary sale) Revenue: $600 million ARR (2024), growing 43% year-over-year Scale: 7.5 billion annual transactions, 33,000+ merchants across 17 markets Notable Clients: Uber, PayPal, Live Nation/Ticketmaster, AMC Theatres, Macy’s, Hulu, Staples, Albertsons, HelloFresh

Strengths:

  • Fundamentally defined the “Transaction Moment” category, focusing on the window from discovery to post-purchase, where customer attention and intent reach their peak. 
  • Privacy-first architecture with first-party data ownership. Brands retain 100% ownership and control of their customer data.
  • Proven ROI with industry-leading engagement metrics. 

Limitations:

  • Lack of SMS/email marketing

Technical Superiority

Rokt Brain, the company’s proprietary AI engine, analyzes 1.95 trillion data points annually while maintaining an identity graph of 1.1 billion shoppers. This scale advantage compounds over time: more transactions generate more data, which improves relevance, which attracts more enterprise clients.

The platform reports global averages of 4.03% click-through rates and 6.32% conversion rates, metrics the company claims outperform Google Display by 10x and Facebook Ads by 4x. These numbers reflect Rokt’s focus on relevance over volume.

Griffin Schroeder, Partner at Tiger Global, captured Rokt’s positioning when Tiger led the company’s $325 million Series E: “Rokt has unlocked a new digital advertising opportunity for the online ecosystem, the transaction moment. And they are scratching the surface of what is possible in this moment.”

Enterprise Client Validation

Rokt’s client roster reads as a who’s who of enterprise e-commerce: Uber, PayPal, Live Nation/Ticketmaster, AMC Theatres, Macy’s, Hulu, Staples, and Albertsons. According to industry analysis, Rokt serves over 50% of the highest-grossing ecommerce companies

This enterprise concentration distinguishes Rokt from competitors. While platforms like Attentive and Fluent primarily serve mid-market merchants, Rokt has proven its technology works at a massive scale with the most demanding clients, and simultaneously, is flexible and works with mid-market clients as well.

Comprehensive Product Suite

Through strategic acquisitions totaling over $300 million, Rokt has assembled the most complete checkout optimization suite in the market:

  • mParticle acquisition (January 2025, $300M): Adds enterprise CDP capabilities with 300+ integrations. Joint clients achieve up to 50% better business outcomes.
  • Aftersell acquisition (2024): Post-purchase upsells with reported AOV increases of up to 30%
  • Canal acquisition (2025): Third-party product marketplace enabling catalog expansion

This creates a compelling contrast with competitors. While Criteo offers modular components and Attentive focuses on SMS/email, only Rokt provides integrated solutions spanning Rokt Catalog (product discovery), Rokt Upcart (cart optimization), Rokt Pay+ (payment monetization), Rokt Aftersell (post-purchase), and Rokt Thanks (confirmation page).

Partnership Economics

Rokt’s business model returns $7 of every $8 generated back to partners, creating aligned incentives that enterprise clients value. The company maintains that clients retain 100% ownership and control of their data, with Rokt functioning as a processing intermediary rather than aggregating data across its network.

This matters as privacy regulations tighten. According to MarTech, the combined Rokt-mParticle entity “will ensure that brands continue to maintain complete control of first-party data, aligned with both companies’ commitment to set the standard for data privacy and compliance.”

Rapid Implementation

Rokt has directly addressed the perception that enterprise solutions require lengthy implementations. According to company documentation, most merchants go live within days using pre-built integrations for Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Commercetools. 

Criteo: Strong in Retail Media, Limited Focus On Capturing Consumer Attention

Headquarters: Paris, France (NASDAQ: CRTO) Revenue: $1.9 billion (FY 2024) Scale: 18,000+ companies, 3,500 brands, 225 retailers Notable Clients: Best Buy, Target, Macy’s, Walgreens, CVS

Criteo has established strong positioning in retail media networks, reporting 25% year-over-year growth in Retail Media Contribution ex-TAC for 2024. The company serves as technology infrastructure for retailers building their own media networks.

Strengths:

  • Established retail media network relationships with major retailers
  • Broad reach across the open internet
  • Strong retargeting capabilities
  • Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape’s 2024 retail media assessment

Limitations:

  • Broad commerce media focus rather than specialization on consumer behavior between selection and checkout
  • Performance Media revenue declined 4% in 2024
  • Less concentrated on checkout optimization, where purchase intent peaks
  • The modular approach requires retailers to assemble solutions

Best For: Retailers building retail media networks requiring infrastructure for on-site sponsored products and off-site retargeting.

Wunderkind: Identity Resolution Specialist, Pre-Transaction Focus

Headquarters: New York City Revenue: $5+ billion in attributed revenue annually for clients Scale: 9 billion consumer devices tracked, 700+ brands Notable Clients: Macy’s, HelloFresh, Uniqlo, Harley-Davidson

Wunderkind has built genuine differentiation in identity resolution, tracking over 9 billion consumer devices and observing 2 trillion digital events annually. The company recently launched “Build with Wunderkind”, an API-first integration suite.

Strengths:

  • Industry-leading identity resolution without third-party cookies
  • Strong triggered messaging capabilities
  • Managed service model with strategic support included
  • Growing addressable audiences up to 10x faster than traditional methods

Limitations:

  • Pre-transaction focus means limited checkout monetization
  • Does not address the payment page or confirmation page revenue
  • Identity resolution solves audience growth, but not transaction yield optimization
  • Small enterprise client concentration
  • Less comprehensive product suite for post-purchase

Best For: Brands prioritizing audience growth and identity resolution who will complement with separate checkout monetization solutions.

Attentive: SMS/Email Channel Leader, No Transaction Monetization

Headquarters: New York City Valuation: $7 billion (2021), secondary market range of $2.7-5.8 billion Revenue: $500 million ARR (2024) Scale: 8,000+ brands, 10+ billion annual messages Notable Clients: CB2, Urban Outfitters, GUESS, Wyndham Resort

Attentive dominates SMS marketing with patented two-tap opt-in technology. The company was named to the Forbes 2024 Cloud 100 (top 25) and has generated over $20 billion in revenue for customers.

Strengths:

  • Undisputed SMS marketing category leader
  • Patented two-tap technology for subscriber acquisition
  • Strong Shopify integration, including checkout consent collection
  • Robust TCPA compliance infrastructure
  • 95% increase in triggered email revenue for customers

Limitations:

  • Channel-specific focus (SMS/email) vs. transaction monetization
  • Does not generate revenue from checkout or confirmation pages
  • Requires complementary solutions for commerce media strategy
  • Serves different strategic objectives (owned channel growth vs. transaction yield)
  • Delayed IPO timeline suggests execution challenges

Best For: Brands building SMS as a primary owned channel who will layer separate checkout monetization solutions.

Fluent: Emerging Player, Limited Scale

Headquarters: New York City (NASDAQ: FLNT) Revenue: $12.7 million quarterly in Commerce Media Solutions (Q1 2025) Notable Partnerships: Vivid Seats, Rebuy Engine

Fluent entered commerce media through its AdFlow solution, providing post-transaction advertising between purchase processing and confirmation. The company recently partnered with Rebuy Engine to target Shopify merchants.

Strengths:

  • Revenue-positive model (pays merchants for adoption)
  • Growing focus on commerce media

Limitations:

  • Commerce media represents a newer business line (23% of revenue)
  • Less sophisticated AI
  • Limited product suite beyond post-transaction placement
  • No enterprise CDP capabilities
  • Unproven at enterprise scale

Best For: Merchants seeking entry-level post-transaction monetization without a platform commitment.

Rokt vs Other E-commerce Marketing Platforms

For enterprises evaluating commerce tech, the competitive landscape reveals a clear hierarchy:

Rokt stands alone for ecommerce monetization. No other platform combines:

  • 7.5 billion annual transactions providing unmatched AI training data
  • Enterprise validation from Uber, PayPal, Ticketmaster, and 50%+ of top global retailers
  • Comprehensive suite spanning selection to confirmation to the customer data platform
  • 43% growth rate demonstrating market momentum
  • Partnership economics returning $7 of $8 to clients
  • Market flexibility, zero-friction entry

Criteo serves retailers building retail media networks, but lacks Rokt’s transaction moment specialization.

Wunderkind and Attentive excel in their respective niches (identity resolution and SMS) but require complementary solutions for checkout monetization.

Fluent offers an accessible entry for merchants but lacks enterprise scale and AI sophistication.

The market has spoken through client selection and growth rates. Enterprises seeking to maximize the economics of their checkout experience have increasingly consolidated around Rokt as the platform purpose-built for the transaction moment.

Written in partnership with Tom White