Zitcha & Pentaleap link retail ads to product ranking

Zitcha has partnered with Pentaleap to link retail media auctions with product ranking, targeting retailers that want advertising decisions to reflect what sells.

The partnership combines Zitcha's merchant decisioning with Pentaleap's system for ranking organic and sponsored products in a single layer. It is designed to address a longstanding split in retail media, where paid placements and organic product listings are often judged by different systems.

That separation has helped retail media adopt standard advertising measures such as impressions, reach and click-through rates. Merchants, however, typically run their businesses on measures such as sell-through, velocity and margin, creating a gap between ad performance and commercial performance.

Under the combined model, the winning advertising bid is tied more closely to product relevance and margin at the item level. Pentaleap handles the auction layer, connecting demand from sources including ad servers, demand-side platforms, Teads and Amazon Ads. Zitcha provides what it calls Margin Manager, linking merchant data and priorities.

The system runs within a retailer's own data environment and is designed to work with existing search, personalisation, demand partner and campaign tools. Rather than replacing those systems, the approach is intended to fit into current technology stacks and evolve them gradually.

Merchant focus

The deal reflects a wider debate in retail media over who controls product placement and what signals should determine it. In many networks, the highest bidder can secure visibility even when the promoted product does not align with a retailer's margin goals or broader merchandising strategy.

Founded in 2021, Zitcha positions itself as a platform that connects retail media to merchant outcomes across onsite, offsite and in-store channels. The company operates across the United States, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Pentaleap focuses on unified product ranking and open demand within existing retail systems. Its technology is used by retail media networks including CVS, Macy's and The Home Depot, and it has teams in New York, Chicago, São Paulo, Mumbai and Berlin.

The companies are pitching the partnership as a way for retailers to avoid a full rebuild of their advertising and merchandising systems. They argue that a common ranking layer can bring sponsored and organic products into the same decision process without requiring retailers to give up existing tools.

Troy Townsend outlined the rationale for the partnership in a statement announcing the deal.

"For too long, retail media networks have operated in isolation using digital advertising metrics that do not speak the language of the merchant. Our partnership with Pentaleap introduces a shared language. By infusing margin-aware insights into the media workflow, we ensure retail and media grow together while producing evidence that retailers can trust," said Troy Townsend, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Zitcha.

Andreas Reiffen framed the ranking process itself as the main point of intervention.

"The ranking decision is the moment of truth. If organic and sponsored products are ranked by separate systems, neither can be optimised. Pentaleap rewrites that decision so organic and sponsored products are judged against the same standard of relevance, media performance, and product margin. Partnering with Zitcha delivers a best-in-class stack that plugs into existing retail systems to improve them incrementally," said Andreas Reiffen.