
How does a 187-year-old department store turn heritage, customer loyalty, and in-store experiences into a future-proof retail media business?
In this episode of Commerce Media Matters, Nick and Paul are joined by Melissa Polglase, Head of Category Marketing and Retail Media at David Jones Amplify, who’s helping lead that very transformation.
With brick-and-mortar no longer the sole destination for consumers to engage with brands or make purchases, retailers need to adapt and build omnichannel pathways that meet customers wherever they are.
Melissa shares how David Jones is doing exactly that by tapping into its national store network, luxury brand partnerships, and rich customer data to build David Jones Amplify, a premium retail media offering.
They explore how the Amplify network is helping both endemic and non-endemic brands unlock full-funnel opportunities, from immersive in-store activations to offsite targeting powered by first-party data and emerging AI capabilities.
Listen in as Melissa walks us through the ROPO (research online, purchase offline) behaviours shaping modern retail—and what it takes to build a media network that’s not bolted on, but built in.
What you'll learn in this episode:
The Amplify advantage: the journey of David Jones' retail media arm, Amplify, and how it’s redefining retail media through premium store experiences, integrated channels, and omnichannel innovation.
Planning for impact: what brands need to know about using first-party data, segmentation tools, and customer insights to deliver more personalised, full-funnel campaigns—and how to align media investments with measurable outcomes through closed-loop attribution.
Beyond the aisles: how retail media creates additional touchpoints across the buying journey, supporting research-online, purchase-offline (ROPO) behaviours both in and outside the store environment.
Double the opportunity: where endemic and non-endemic brands fit, and why both are key to the retail media mix
Learning from the best: what global leaders like Harrods and Nordstrom taught David Jones about building a premium media business
Soundbites to listen out for:
More than just a channel
Retail media isn’t a channel, it’s a set of channels and it’s a full funnel opportunity.
The triple win formula
We want to deliver the triple win—does this make sense for the customer, the brand, and David Jones as a brand?
The amplify approach
We’ve built a retail media business that lets brands show up in premium, contextual, and experiential ways—both online and in store
Catering for ROPO
You take the customer on the journey from research online to purchase offline. So where are you showing up off-site? They’re coming to the site, they’re researching, showing up. It is right through to the store, right through to the point of sale, to making that purchase in-store or through the checkout online.
True omnichannel
It should be a seamless shopping experience, whether you’re in your social app, whether you're on a desktop website, whether you're on our website. It shouldn’t matter how you’re getting back to that final transaction for the customer – it should be seamless.
The funnel is fluid
Funnels collapse in some environments, funnels are full in other environments. No one has the silver bullet to link everything together.
The secret sauce of retail media
Closed-loop attribution is the secret sauce of retail media. It’s more than just intent. You’ve got all of these other data points: someone looked at something, clicked on something, browsed something.
About our guest
Melissa Polglase led marketing efforts across major retail groups in Australia before her current posting as Head of Category Marketing and Retail Media at David Jones Amplify, the department store’s in-house retail media agency.
Since launching in late 2023, Amplify has grown David Jones’ retail media network across its Australia and New Zealand locations by establishing strategic partnerships with local and international premium brands. This approach leverages the retailer’s reported 50-plus million store visits and 100-plus million website visitors annually, not to mention its 187-year-and- counting heritage as the oldest continuously operating department store in the world trading with its original name.
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