Best Buy Turns TV Screens Into a New Retail Media Channel

Best Buy is expanding far beyond its traditional role as an electronics retailer. Its latest moves with Amazon, connected TV advertising and TikTok Shop point to a broader strategy: turning the company’s customer relationships, retail data and even the televisions it sells into a growing media ecosystem.

On September 23, Best Buy announced an expanded multiyear partnership with Amazon around Fire TV. The agreement keeps Fire TV as the exclusive television software experience for Best Buy’s Insignia TV lineup, but the more significant development for marketers is advertising. Beginning in February 2027, Best Buy Ads will use Amazon Ads’ programmatic technology, including AI-powered tools designed to help brands plan, activate, optimize and measure campaigns.

The deal also opens advertising inventory across new and existing Insignia Fire TV devices to Best Buy Ads.

That changes the role of the television itself.

Best Buy has spent decades selling screens. Now those screens can become part of the company’s advertising infrastructure.

From Retail Media to Connected TV

Retail media has traditionally been closely connected to the point of purchase.

A shopper searches for headphones on a retailer’s website. A brand pays for a sponsored position. Someone browses a product category and receives a targeted display advertisement. Retailers monetize traffic while advertisers try to reach consumers who are already relatively close to making a purchase.

Connected TV gives Best Buy an opportunity to move much earlier into that journey.

At its latest advertising showcase, the company introduced what it calls Best Buy CTV, an offering that combines Best Buy’s first-party shopper audiences, device ownership information and purchase-intent signals with connected-TV advertising inventory from partners including Amazon, LG and Roku.

Instead of limiting retail media to a Best Buy webpage or app, the company can potentially help brands reach consumers while they are watching streaming content — and then use its retail data and measurement infrastructure to better understand what happens afterward.

This represents an important shift in how retailers can position their data.

Knowing that someone watched an advertisement is valuable.

Knowing something about what that consumer subsequently browsed, considered or purchased can be considerably more useful to an advertiser.

Amazon Adds the Technology Layer

Amazon's role makes the strategy particularly interesting.

The Best Buy and Amazon relationship around Fire TV dates back to 2018 and has resulted in more than 100 television models, according to Best Buy. The companies say Fire TV-equipped televisions from their partnership have reached tens of millions of homes.

The next phase adds Amazon's advertising infrastructure.

Starting in February 2027, Best Buy Ads will gain access to Amazon Ads technology for programmatic campaign execution and measurement, including AI-powered advertising tools. Brands will also be able to access Fire TV advertising inventory across Insignia televisions.

For Best Buy, this means it does not need to build every component of a large CTV advertising platform independently.

It brings the retail relationship and customer signals.

Amazon brings a massive advertising and streaming technology stack.

The television connects the two.

Best Buy Is Also Moving Into TikTok Shop

The CTV expansion is happening alongside another significant change in Best Buy’s commerce strategy.

On September 22, the company announced that it plans to launch on TikTok Shop in late October with nearly 10,000 products, including products from brands such as Bose, Dyson, Microsoft and Oura. Customers will be able to discover products through shoppable videos, creator content, TikTok's Shop interface and in-app product pages without leaving TikTok to complete the purchase.

Best Buy is also connecting the initiative with its creator program.

Creators will be able to promote products through shoppable content, while brands working with Best Buy Ads can use creator-generated content in campaigns and connect performance back to Best Buy’s first-party data and measurement capabilities.

The combination of these initiatives reveals the larger strategy.

On one side is connected TV: a high-reach, entertainment-driven advertising environment.

On the other is TikTok: creator-driven discovery and social commerce.

Best Buy’s retail operation and customer data sit between them.

Retailers Are Becoming Media Companies

Best Buy is part of a much larger transformation in commerce.

Large retailers have something advertising platforms want: direct relationships with consumers and large volumes of purchase data.

That makes their websites valuable advertising properties, but it also gives them an opportunity to build media businesses extending well beyond their own digital storefronts.

Best Buy's strategy demonstrates how far that model can potentially go.

The retailer can sell a television.

The television can contain a streaming platform.

The streaming platform can carry advertising sold through Best Buy Ads.

The advertiser can use retail audience signals to reach consumers.

And the retailer can potentially help measure how those consumers interact with products afterward.

That is a very different business model from simply earning a margin when someone buys a TV.

What This Means for Marketers

The boundaries between retail media, streaming advertising, influencer marketing and ecommerce are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

For marketers, that could mean campaigns built around the entire customer journey rather than individual advertising channels.

A consumer might first encounter a brand through a connected-TV campaign, see the product again through creator content on TikTok, research it online and finally purchase it from a retailer.

The platforms capable of connecting those interactions — particularly those with strong first-party transaction data — are becoming strategically important.

Best Buy's latest moves suggest it wants to become one of those platforms.

The company is still a retailer, but the assets surrounding the retail transaction are becoming almost as important as the transaction itself: customer data, advertising inventory, creator relationships, measurement systems and the screens sitting inside consumers' homes.

Retail media began by placing ads next to products.

Its next phase may be about connecting advertising, entertainment and commerce wherever the customer happens to be.

And in Best Buy's case, one of those places is now the television screen itself.

Sources

Best Buy Corporate — Best Buy and Amazon expand Fire TV partnership
Best Buy Corporate announcement

Amazon Ads — Best Buy and Amazon expand Fire TV advertising partnership
Amazon Ads announcement

Best Buy Corporate — Best Buy to debut on TikTok Shop
Best Buy TikTok Shop announcement

Modern Retail — Best Buy puts CTV at the center of its retail media pitch
Modern Retail coverage