Best Buy Canada Monetizes Store Foot Traffic with Perion-Powered Programmatic Screens

For brick-and-mortar retailers, the store floor is increasingly being reimagined as a media property. Best Buy Canada’s move to a programmatic DOOH model represents a strategic play to capitalize on every shopper impression with the same kind of yield optimization that e-commerce platforms have been doing for years. In a retail environment where margin pressure is relentless, turning passive in-store screens into real-time biddable inventory could materially shift the economics of the physical store.

Best Buy Canada’s decision to select Perion as its full-stack technology partner for in-store digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising signals a significant acceleration in the convergence of programmatic ad buying with physical retail environments. Announced on June 16, 2026, the partnership will see Perion’s Ad Server, Supply-Side Platform (SSP), and Header Bidding technologies deployed across Best Buy Canada’s network of in-store digital screens, creating what the companies claim is one of the largest SSP-enabled DOOH media networks in the Canadian market. This moves Best Buy Canada away from traditional loop-based signage—where ads rotate on fixed, predetermined schedules—toward an impression-level, real-time decisioning engine that dynamically allocates ad slots based on moment-to-moment shopper traffic and campaign parameters.

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retail media spend projected to exceed $80 billion by 2027 according to industry forecasts.

The development comes as retail media has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising, with U.S. retail media spend projected to exceed $80 billion by 2027 according to industry forecasts. While the bulk of that investment has flowed into on-site digital placements such as sponsored search and display on retailer websites and apps, physical store environments represent a largely untapped frontier. Best Buy Canada’s move reflects a broader industry push to “programmatize” brick-and-mortar advertising, bringing the same automation, targeting, and attribution that define online campaigns into the aisles of physical stores.

For Perion, a publicly traded ad-tech company on the Nasdaq and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under ticker PERI, the deal validates its strategic pivot toward full-stack platform adoption. By displacing legacy signage systems and integrating multiple technology layers—ad serving, supply-side auction infrastructure, and header bidding—Perion deepens its relationship with a marquee retail client and positions itself to capture a larger share of the burgeoning retail media market. This “land and expand” approach matters in an industry where point solutions risk being replaced by integrated platforms that reduce operational complexity for retailers while offering advertisers a single point of entry to premium inventory.

The operational implications are substantial. Traditional loop signage offers little flexibility and almost no downstream performance data for brands—an advertiser might know how many times their ad was scheduled to play, but not how many people actually saw it or what action they took. By shifting to Perion’s impression-level decisioning, Best Buy Canada gains the ability to sell ad placements programmatically through real-time auctions, optimize yield based on foot traffic and demographics, and offer advertisers metrics like viewability, completion rate, and attributable footfall lift. This transforms the retailer’s in-store screens from a cost-center marketing channel into a measurable, high-margin revenue stream.

The timing is opportune. Canadian retail media trails the U.S. in programmatic maturity but is catching up quickly, fueled by major retailers seeking to diversify revenue beyond product sales and by advertisers demanding omnichannel campaigns that bridge digital and physical touchpoints. Best Buy Canada’s adoption of a full-stack solution could become a blueprint for other large Canadian retailers—from grocery chains to department stores—that have extensive store networks but outdated in-store media infrastructure.