How a Leading South African E-commerce Marketplace maximised its Annual Peak-Sale Retail Media Revenue

Background

A leading South African e-commerce marketplace experiences a sharp surge in shopper traffic during its annual peak sale season. As one of the most important moments on the retail calendar, the sale represents a critical window for scaling retail media revenue.

However, peak traffic alone does not guarantee peak monetization. As advertiser demand intensifies and auction competition rises, capturing full revenue potential depends on pricing efficiency, budget readiness, and real-time advertiser action, not just inventory availability.

Challenge: Capturing Peak Demand Without Leaving Revenue on the Table

Ahead of the peak sale event, Osmos conducted a detailed review of historical performance and advertiser behavior. A consistent pattern emerged:

• Advertisers missed high-intent moments due to suboptimal budgets, bids or incomplete setups
  
• Brands that had participated in previous sale events or those with lower spend levels required active re-engagement
  
• Wallet exhaustion during peak days posed a significant risk to sustained campaign delivery

Without real-time monitoring and pricing alignment, a meaningful share of peak demand risked going unmonetized during the most valuable days of the year.

Solution: Sale-Ready Optimisation & Real-Time Guidance‍

To ensure peak demand translated into peak revenue, Osmos focused on pricing readiness, continuous monitoring and in-platform nudges throughout the sale window.

Key Tactical Moves:

• Sale-Time Pricing Optimisation
  Pricing and bidding structures were aligned to reflect heightened competition during the sale, ensuring inventory was monetised efficiently as auction pressure increased.
  
  
• Continuous Reporting on Missed Opportunities
  Throughout the event, Osmos shared ongoing insights highlighting missed spend opportunities particularly for:
  -Advertisers who had participated in previous sale events
  -Advertisers with low or constrained budgets

These insights enabled rapid budget and bid adjustments during the live sale window.

• Real-Time Dashboard Nudges
  In-dashboard nudges were activated to prompt immediate advertiser action. Notifications were triggered as soon as advertisers reached 100% of their daily budgets, with monitoring conducted every 2–3 hours. Advertisers were also guided toward new, relevant categories to expand coverage and capture incremental demand.

These interventions directly drove R1.3M in incremental revenue, by preventing wallet exhaustion and prompting timely top-ups during peak days.

Impact‍

• R41.3M in Ad Revenue highest retail media month in 2025
• 41% month-on-month revenue uplift
• R1.3M incremental revenue driven directly by real-time dashboard nudges