Retailers are treating their tech partnerships like state secrets—even after contracts are signed and decisions are final. This opacity creates unnecessary friction that limits growth these retailers seek in the rapidly expanding retail media market. The vendors don’t know what problems to solve when retailers keep their challenges private. A basic disconnect explains this secrecy. Retailers view technology as a means to facilitate sales of physical products, focusing primarily on how technology enables product sales rather than directly generating revenue. This perspective leads to what Jordan Witmer, Managing Director at Nectar First, sees as a major problem. “When we’re staring down the barrel of 250 retail media networks, there’s probably only five or six backend technologies powering them,” he notes. His team has learned to identify which technology a retailer uses through careful questioning and reporting patterns, making the secrecy ultimately futile. Home Depot takes a different approach. Melanie Babcock, VP of Orange Apron Media, has been refreshingly transparent about their technology decisions and partnerships. Babcock has been refreshingly open about the company’s technology partnerships. “I’m going to put it in the top five things that we did for our retail media network,” Babcock says of their technology retooling, explaining how it allows them to build on a strong foundation while maintaining control of their roadmap. Retailers clinging to tech stack secrecy are missing the point. The most sophisticated media buyers have already learned to identify underlying technologies through reporting patterns and targeting capabilities. Meanwhile, retailers who embrace transparency—like Home Depot—are positioning themselves as trusted partners rather than black boxes. Here’s what matters: In an ecosystem where brands have choices and technology directly impacts performance, transparency isn’t just good practice—it’s a competitive necessity. Retailers who continue playing hide-and-seek with their tech stacks risk losing advertiser interest, as advertisers take their budgets to partners willing to have honest conversations about how their platforms actually work.