How frictionless offsite shopping is rewriting the path to purchase and what it means for CPG brands
Think about the last time you discovered a new food item you wanted to buy. Maybe it was a recipe you saw mid-scroll.
A product that showed up in a video. An ad that caught you at the right moment. You felt the pull, and then life
happened, and it never made it into your cart.
That gap, between the moment a shopper wants something and the moment they actually buy it, is where CPG brands lose
more digital sales than anywhere else in the funnel. Not because the creative didn't work. Not because the targeting
was off. Because the path from "I want that" to "it's in my cart" had too many steps.
The brands closing that gap aren't doing it with more media spend. They're doing it by removing friction from the
moment that matters most.
The List Is Built Before the Trip
Shoppers don't decide what to buy in the aisle anymore. They decide during a recipe scroll at lunch, a video
mid-commute, or a sponsored post on a Tuesday night. By the time they open their Albertsons app, the mental list is
already mostly written.
Matt Seubert, Sr. Director of Digital Marketing and Consumer Experience at Eggland's Best, put it
plainly: "Our goal is to earn a place on the shopping list wherever that list lives: online, in a
retailer app, in the notes app on a phone or even on a sticky note on the refrigerator."
That's the new battleground for CPG brands. Not the shelf. The list. And the brands earning a place on it are the
ones showing up at the moment of inspiration with a clear, immediate path to action.
Where Most Offsite Media Falls Short
Most offsite media is designed to generate impressions, not to capture the intent those impressions create. A shopper
sees an ad, feels the pull, and then clicks through to a landing page, gets asked to log in, or gets redirected
somewhere that has nothing to do with buying the product. The moment passes. The sale is gone.
Every extra step between "I want that" and "it's in my cart" is a place a shopper exits. CPG brands are investing
heavily in reach and creative but losing the sale at the exact moment intent peaks.
The question isn't just whether you reached them. It's whether you converted the intent you created.
One Click. Two Actions. No Drop-Off.
Albertsons Media Collective's frictionless offsite solution, powered by AdAdapted's Add-It technology, is built to solve exactly this problem.
When a shopper clicks an offsite ad, the promoted product is routed to their Albertsons cart in the background. The
shopper never leaves the content they were in. No redirect. No login. No interruption. One click triggers two
actions simultaneously: the product is added to the shopper's Albertsons cart, and they can either continue browsing
their current experience or move on to shop on site. The choice is theirs.
What makes The Collective's implementation distinct is the targeting that sits underneath it. Campaigns reach
verified Albertsons shoppers and directly tie media exposure to both in-store and online sales. Shoppers can choose
to act immediately or save the product for their next trip, meeting them wherever they are in the buying cycle.
Proof It Works: Eggland's Best
Eggland's Best partnered with Albertsons Media Collective to run a multi-product frictionless offsite campaign on The
Trade Desk. The goal was straightforward: simplify the path from product discovery to purchase for Albertsons
shoppers across the brand's premium egg portfolio.
The results:
- 18% year-over-year digital sales growth
- 4.6x ROAS, outperforming the industry average
- 99% cart transfer rate, 20x the industry standard
59% of purchases came from products beyond the primary advertised item. The campaign didn't just move the hero SKU.
It moved the portfolio.
Seubert summed it up: "This partnership helped make the path to purchase easier for Albertsons shoppers while adding
Eggland's Best to more lists and carts."
What This Means for Your Brand
If your offsite media isn't capturing the intent it creates, you're funding awareness without closing the sale. The
brands winning in digital grocery right now are the ones treating offsite as a conversion channel, not just a reach
vehicle.
Frictionless technology makes that shift possible without overhauling your creative, your buying approach, or the
shopper experience. It works inside the formats you're already running. The lift shows up in digital sales.
The shelf used to be the finish line. It's not anymore. The brands earning a place on the list are the ones winning
digital grocery.
Albertsons Media Collective's frictionless offsite solution powered by AdAdapted's Add-It technology is available now
on The Trade Desk. Reach out to your Albertsons Media Collective representative today or email us at mediacollective@albertsons.com to get started!