Retail Media
MonetisationAn Iceland Foods case study
Retail media is now a major revenue stream for UK grocery — Tesco, Sainsbury's and ASDA all let suppliers pay to appear in front of shoppers on their own sites. Iceland needed to catch up. The work introduced a set of monetised ad placements across the highest-intent areas of the site — search results and category pages — while protecting the trust customers have built with the Iceland brand by clearly signposting what's sponsored and giving them the product information they need to decide.
Project Info
ROLE:
UX Designer
COMPANY:
Iceland Foods
DATE:
[TODO]
TEAM:
[TODO: PM, engineers, etc.]
[TODO: Hero screenshot 1]
[TODO: Hero screenshot 2]
The Challenge
How might we open up Iceland's site to advertisers — matching what competitors already do — without compromising customer trust or the shopping experience?
Research & Discovery
A competitor audit across the big UK grocers showed retail media was no longer an experiment — it was an established revenue channel that Iceland's suppliers expected to access. Internally, the commercial team needed inventory they could sell; externally, customers needed to keep trusting that what they saw on the site was relevant and clearly labelled.
The tension to design around
The Solution
The design introduces two types of monetised inventory — banner slots and product slots — placed in the highest-intent surfaces on the site, with consistent sponsored signposting so customers always know what they're looking at.
1. Strategic placements: search & category
Ads sit where intent is highest: search results (the customer has already told us what they want) and category pages (the customer is already browsing a relevant aisle). Putting paid placements where shoppers are leaning in maximises advertiser value without forcing ads into low-intent surfaces.
2. Banner slots
Banner slots give suppliers full creative control for brand-led campaigns — a way to tell a story, run a seasonal promotion, or drive shoppers to a brand landing page. They sit in defined inventory positions on category pages and around search, so the page layout stays predictable.
3. Product slots
Product slots are sponsored product cards inserted inline with organic results. They use the same card layout as everything else on the page — same image, price, title, add-to-basket — so the customer can still shop them the same way. The only difference is the sponsored signpost.
4. Clear sponsored signposting
Every paid placement carries a clear "Sponsored" label, consistent in placement, type style and contrast across surfaces. The label is easy to see without being heavy enough to look like a warning — calibrated to keep customers informed and to meet advertising-standards expectations for native ad disclosure.
5. Product information stays first-class
Sponsored doesn't mean stripped-down. Product slots carry the same information density as organic cards — price, unit price, key claims, ratings — so the shopper has what they need to make a real decision. Banner slots link through to either a PDP or a curated category page, so customers always land somewhere they can act on.
Design Process
Wireframes & Iterations
[TODO: Wireframe / iteration 1]
[TODO: Wireframe / iteration 2]
Usability Testing & Findings
[TODO: What you tested, with whom, and what changed because of it.]
Final Designs
[TODO: Final design 1]
[TODO: Final design 2]
The Impact
[TODO: Outcomes after launch — revenue, conversion, CSAT, contact-centre deflection, etc.]
[TODO: Headline metric]
XX%