Amazon has extended its ad-serving and reporting services to retailers as a third-party offering that the company now calls Amazon Retail Ad Service.

The service allows retailers to implement Amazon’s sophisticated ad-targeting and measurement tools on their own websites or in their apps.

It provides the ability to display contextually relevant ads in search results and product pages; customize ad design, placement, and frequency; access ad measurement and reporting tools; and manage data through individual AWS accounts.

The service, now in beta, runs sponsored ads across retail websites. iHerb, a health and wellness retailer, Oriental Trading, a toy and party supply company, and Weee!, an Asian grocer — all are using the ad service. Tilly’s plans to jump in, and other announcements are coming soon that could easily change the retail media landscape.

Paula Despins, Amazon Ads vice president of ads measurement, believes the experience is intended to target highly relevant advertising that guides customers through the shopping journey to make more informed purchase decisions.

Amazon built its $50 billion ad business, in part, by selling sponsored placements on its website and app. The ecommerce giant now wants to do the same for other retailers that can choose to run ads on their own websites.

Retailers will share with Amazon Ads a portion of the revenue generated from the advertisements, as well as for the use of the technology infrastructure. It will become another way for the company's advertising unit to generate revenue.

The new offering is available through the Amazon Ads console and APIs.

The technology is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its performance-heavy technology that can easily scale advertising for retailers. It also allows consumers to click on the ad and complete a purchase in the retailer’s online store.

Neil Folgate, senior vice president of global marketing at iHerb, told AWS that more than 1,200 shared brands already have active on Amazon Ads, which creates an opportunity for advertisers to connect with iHerb's audience to drive measurable results. This is done within a matter of clicks.

Importantly, retailers implementing the service have full control of the advertising experience. They can choose to make the ads available on the Amazon Ads console or private-label their own console.

They also have full control of the amount of ads that serve in the store on their website or app and whether it will present the customer upon a click with an addition to a cart or go to a product page.

The announcement, made at CES 2025, comes the week before the National Retail Federation’s annual trade show in New York.