Optimizing "Retailer" Sponsored Search

This week I had an opportunity to discuss the growth of online retailer capabilities with an employee of Kroger.com. She shared that Kroger is now selling sponsored ad space for search keywords on their website. The customer facing sales team for my manufacturing company suggested that sponsoring search keywods on retailer websites is one of the highest ROI driving tactics in digital marketing because of the opportunity to put your brand directly in front of a customer that is specifically searching for your category and is ready, willing and able to hit purchase at that moment.  The fact that an item is sponsored is less relevant than on a site like Google because the item directly matches the keyword searched and does not seem out of place.

For example, Dove bar soap is sponsored in the below search for "soap" on Target.com. See the small "sponsored" call out on the bottom right:

As retailers work to figure out how they will make online retail profitable, one way they will do it is pass the expense on to the manufacturers through things like "retailer paid search." Kroger.com for example is using their sponsored search as a profit center:
https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/kroger-co-courts-advertisers-in-its-newest-side-business-precision-marketing

As customers start to adopt online shopping behaviors, they will start to build out their regular order cart. Many websites allow shoppers to save carts so they can simply be placed on auto reorder. Manufacturers who invest in online search capabilities now will have a significant advantage in that their items will be the first to be set in shopper's auto refill baskets.