- MMA South Africa has released a draft South African Retail Media Measurement Standards Framework for a 60-day public consultation starting 14 September 2026.
- The Framework aims to create consistent, transparent and comparable retail media measurement across South Africa’s retail media industry.
- It adapts international measurement principles to South Africa’s retail market, including physical stores, cash transactions and loyalty-based attribution.
- The draft sets out common reporting standards for data quality, media delivery, ROAS, attributed sales, attribution, incrementality, shopper insights and in-store media.
- The Framework was developed by MMA South Africa’s Retail Media Task Force, led by Jeffrey Bustos with input from retailers, brands, agencies and measurement specialists.
MMA South Africa has opened its proposed South African Retail Media Measurement Standards Framework for public comment, launching a 60-day industry consultation to establish more consistent, transparent and comparable retail media measurement standards.
The Framework, developed through MMA South Africa’s Data & Customer Experience Think Tank (DATT), is designed to address one of the sector’s biggest challenges: creating a common approach for retailers, brands and agencies to measure, report and compare retail media performance.
The initiative forms part of the broader MMA South Africa Retail Media Task Force, which brings together retailers, brands, agencies and measurement specialists to help shape standards for the growing retail media ecosystem.
Sarah Utermark, regional director of MMA Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa, said retail media’s rapid growth requires greater confidence in how performance is measured.
“Retail media is growing quickly in South Africa, but sustainable growth requires confidence in the numbers behind it,” she said. “Marketers need to understand what is being measured, how outcomes are attributed and what they can genuinely compare across retail media networks.”
Framework tailored to the South African market
The Framework was led by Jeffrey Bustos, MMA international advisor to the Retail Media Task Force and lead of its Measurement Standards workstream. Rather than adopting overseas standards wholesale, the document adapts international measurement principles to South Africa’s retail landscape.
According to MMA South Africa, this includes accounting for the country’s predominantly physical retail environment, high cash usage, reliance on loyalty-linked offline attribution, and differing levels of measurement maturity across retailers and retail media networks.
The draft proposes a common reporting baseline across areas including:
- Data quality
- Media delivery
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) and attributed sales
- Shopper insights
- Attribution
- Incrementality
- Advanced measurement
- In-store media
A key principle is greater transparency around methodologies, attribution windows and sales bases, while distinguishing attributed sales from genuinely incremental sales impact.
Bustos said the aim is to give the industry a shared understanding of what can be measured and compared.
“South Africa presents some unique measurement realities, and the Framework has been designed to make those realities transparent while giving the market a clear path towards more advanced measurement.”
Industry consultation underway
Odette van Wyk, who leads the MMA South Africa Retail Media Task Force, said collaboration across the retail media ecosystem has been central to the project.
“Our role has been to bring the industry together so that specialist work such as the Measurement Standards Framework can be tested against the practical realities facing retailers and marketers in South Africa.”
The Measurement Standards Framework is being released as a working draft rather than a final standard. MMA South Africa is inviting retailers, brands, agencies, technology providers and measurement specialists to submit feedback during the 60-day consultation period, which runs from 14 September 2026.
The consultation will include additional online industry sessions before the Framework is finalised following a review of stakeholder feedback.
The Framework is supported by two related MMA South Africa Retail Media Task Force publications: the South African Retail Media Landscape: 2026 Ecoscape Report and the Retail Media Measurement & Market Definitions Guide, also known as the MMA South Africa Retail Media A-Z.
