CommerceIQ expands AI retail media management to Chewy Ads

CommerceIQ is bringing its AllyAI-powered retail media management tools to Chewy Ads, giving pet brands new ways to optimize bids, budgets and campaign performance. The move comes as pet ecommerce gets more competitive, with CommerceIQ pointing to rising revenue and promotional intensity across the category.

Why it matters: - Pet brands are competing in a crowded ecommerce channel where media performance depends on more than bids alone. - CommerceIQ’s Chewy Ads expansion ties advertising decisions to inventory, content and competitive signals, which can reduce wasted spend and improve discoverability. - The timing matters because pet ecommerce continues to grow, even as brands face sharper pressure on promotions, availability and share of search.

What happened: - CommerceIQ expanded its Retail Media Management platform, powered by AllyAI, to Chewy Ads on October 1, 2026. - The expansion gives pet brands access to agentic AI tools designed to optimize bids and budgets and improve campaign performance on Chewy. - CommerceIQ said the goal is to help brands make faster media decisions on a key destination for pet parents and partners.

The details: - CommerceIQ’s Q2 ecommerce data showed pet product revenue rose 20% year over year. - CommerceIQ’s Q2 ecommerce data also showed revenue lost to out-of-stocks fell 63%. - During Prime Day 2026, pet products saw the largest increase in promotional depth of any category, up 126% versus the pre-event baseline. - CommerceIQ said the pet category’s mix of promotions, availability and pricing makes coordinated media planning more important. - CommerceIQ’s retail media platform combines advertising performance data with real-time digital shelf intelligence through Ally, its AI system for retail. - The system uses a 50-plus signal neural network to evaluate sales performance, competitive dynamics, content quality, product availability and advertising metrics. - The platform is designed to optimize toward business goals such as incremental sales and share of search, not only ROAS. - CommerceIQ said the capability is useful for brands with large product portfolios and high-frequency, replenishment-driven categories. - A campaign can look inefficient if the real issue is an out-of-stock product, weak content or a competitor gaining share of search. - AllyAI for Media is designed to connect media decisions to digital shelf conditions so brands can increase, reduce or redirect investment faster. - Rahul Shah, CEO of CommerceIQ, said pet brands need unified intelligence and AI-powered execution to improve discoverability, conversion and incremental sales.

Between the lines: - The Chewy Ads expansion shows CommerceIQ leaning harder into retail media as a system-level optimization problem, not a standalone ad-buying exercise. - The company is positioning AllyAI as a decision layer that links paid media with shelf health, which could appeal to brands managing many SKUs across a competitive category. - CommerceIQ is also framing AI search and AI-driven shopping as the next battleground for product discovery, not just traditional retail search.

What's next: - Pet brands using Chewy Ads can now apply CommerceIQ’s newer AI capabilities to media planning and execution on the platform. - CommerceIQ is continuing to invest in tools that connect retail media with the broader signals that influence how products are surfaced and chosen. - The company will likely keep pushing its AI retail stack as brands look for faster ways to improve discoverability and conversion across paid and organic channels.

The bottom line: - CommerceIQ is expanding beyond ad optimization to offer pet brands a more integrated way to manage media, availability and discoverability on Chewy.