Most retail media strategy focuses on the very end of the customer journey: monetizing existing site traffic at the point of purchase through traditional sponsored search listings. But what happens when you move upstream to capture new customers and inspire intent before they even know what they are looking for?

Join James Carter (Wolf & Badger) and Chris Lu (Topsort) as they explore how curated marketplaces leverage storytelling, brand discovery, and curation to monetize the entire customer lifecycle. Using Wolf & Badger’s ethical marketplace model as a real-world case study, this session unpacks how retailers can give independent brands high-impact visibility, balance ad monetization with customer trust, and drive sustainable growth beyond traditional ROAS metrics.