The Next Frontier in Commerce
At Bernstein-Rein, we believe retail intelligence comes from consumer insights, a true brand purpose, and half a century of unrivaled experience. We put these beliefs together to accelerate growth. This approach is called Retailigent™ – it's what drives our work every day.
Cross-merchant purchase data is quickly becoming the most powerful asset in commerce—and it’s no longer the exclusive domain of retail media networks. For years, this data has been siloed, trapped in walled gardens, and tightly controlled by a few platforms. Now, payments companies like PayPal and BNPL (buy now, pay later) providers—who sit in the checkout flow and finance purchases in real time—are quietly building the only truly horizontal view of how people discover, consider, finance, and buy across merchants.
This shift isn’t just a new data source; it’s a redefinition of performance marketing, attribution, and retail media itself.
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Most marketers still operate in channel silos. A brand sees performance inside a retail media network (RMN), plus its site analytics and social/search reporting. But what happens across merchants? That behavior remains invisible.
RMNs promise closed-loop attribution—but their loop closes only within their own universe. Each retailer knows your shopper in isolation, but once that shopper moves across merchants or financing options, the signal disappears.
Here’s a real-world example: I’m planning a move from a small suburban apartment to a larger space with an outdoor area, several months out. My shopping is spread across categories and merchants: furniture at Living Spaces, kitchenware on Amazon (via Klarna), a balcony fire pit at Nebraska Furniture Mart (Afterpay), decor at At Home, plants at local nurseries, and home electronics at Best Buy (PayPal).
Each retailer sees one purchase. But payments platforms see the full story: multiple categories, multiple merchants, all pointing to the same intent—“nesting mode” for a move. They can predict my move months in advance, long before any single retailer could. That’s the unique advantage of cross-merchant data: a horizontal, end-to-end view of the awareness-to-decision journey.
Payment platforms aren’t just processing transactions—they’re building the commerce OS that your attribution models must integrate. Agencies like Bernstein-Rein can help brands translate this emerging layer into action:
• Cross-platform pilots: Test PayPal, Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay alongside RMNs.
• New measurement frameworks: Blend cross-merchant signals with your existing analytics stack.
• Audience evolution: Identify “nesting mode” or multi-category shoppers across the full funnel.
• AI-driven creative: Dynamic offers, intent-based messaging, and financing-aware campaigns.
• Budget reallocation models: Shift spend from siloed RMNs to payments-graph performance.
Ignore this shift, and you risk losing visibility—and influence—over your own customers.
When mapped to intent signals, cross-merchant visibility becomes exponentially powerful. Payment platforms understand purchase timing, abandonment patterns, offer sensitivity, and financing preferences. They move beyond passive checkout tools to active demand routers: personalizing offers, guiding traffic, and influencing product discovery. While RMNs optimize for retail traffic, payments platforms leverage the entire commerce graph.
Layer AI onto this data, and the transformation accelerates. AI thrives on breadth: behavior across merchants, categories, and time. Payment platforms can predict not just “propensity to buy,” but “propensity to buy what, when, and how it’s financed.” Recommendations cross merchants, dynamic offers adjust to risk profiles, and conversions optimize for both margin and volume. Single-retailer datasets simply can’t compete.
• Risk: Closed-loop gravity is shifting from RMNs toward payment ecosystems. Brands risk renting access to their own customers through intermediaries.
• Opportunity: Recognize this emerging commerce layer early. Treat payments and BNPL platforms as strategic partners, not just checkout tools. Ask yourself: How can campaigns leverage cross-merchant attribution? How should audience strategies evolve when a single platform influences intent, discovery, and financing? How do we test these capabilities before they become table stakes?
The most valuable signals live in commerce’s connective tissue. Brands that win are those partnering with agencies that can translate this shift into action: pilots with PayPal, Affirm, Klarna, or Afterpay; cross-merchant measurement frameworks; AI-driven commerce creative. The next “retail media network” won’t look like a retailer—and readiness is your advantage.
Brands that act now gain control over their customer signals and can turn cross-merchant visibility into predictive, revenue-driving insights.
Benchmark your cross-merchant visibility. It’s time to act.
