Topsort
vs. VTEX Ads.
Retail media deserves its own intelligence layer. Topsort is purpose-built to optimize commerce monetization — across whatever commerce stack you run.
Built for different ambitions in retail media.
Topsort Commerce monetization infrastructure | VTEX Ads Retail media within a commerce suite | |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | Commerce monetization infrastructure | Retail media within a broader commerce suite |
| Company focus | Commerce media and monetization | Commerce, marketplace, operations, CX + retail media |
| Core philosophy | Monetization intelligence built into the infrastructure | Unified commerce platform with integrated media capabilities |
| Decisioning | Auction + relevance + catalog + performance + commerce signals | Campaign + audience + catalog + media optimization |
| Optimization | AI-powered bidding, pacing, ranking, relevance, quality, and yield | AI campaign optimization, bid monitoring, targeting, and media performance |
| Operating model | Dedicated monetization layer across commerce stacks and surfaces | Ads product integrated into the broader VTEX ecosystem |
| Best fit | Teams treating retail media as a strategic, performance-driven revenue business | Teams prioritizing a unified commerce suite with integrated retail media |
VTEX extends the commerce stack into media.
Topsort makes media intelligence part of the commerce stack.
Compare the platforms
● Native / core capability ◐ Supported through configuration, integration, or a different operating model
| Capability | Topsort | VTEX Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Commerce-native auction & ranking | ●Core — auctions, relevance, ranking, and performance decisioning | ●Retail-media auction and campaign decisioning |
| Sponsored listings, display & sponsored brands | ●Native commerce ad formats | ●Native |
| Catalog-aware monetization | ●Core to decisioning | ●Native catalog integration |
| Closed-loop purchase attribution | ●Native commerce attribution | ●Native closed-loop attribution |
| AI optimization / autobidding | ●BIDLESS + bidding, pacing, relevance, ranking, and yield optimization | ●AI campaign optimization + Bid Monitor |
| Advertiser self-service | ●Integrated | ●Integrated |
| Audience targeting | ●Audience Builder + commerce behavior | ●First-party behavioral + transactional targeting |
| Onsite retail media | ●Unified platform | ●Core capability |
| Offsite retail media | ●Integrated commerce media product | ●Supported |
| In-store commerce media | ●Native commerce infrastructure + attribution | ●Supported |
| Conversational / AI commerce ads | ●Topsort Prompts + agentic commerce direction | ◐AI capabilities, but different product model |
| API-first customization | ●Core | ●API-first |
| Commerce-stack independence | ●Designed as a dedicated layer across heterogeneous stacks | ◐Can integrate broadly, but strategically sits within the VTEX suite |
| Cross-format optimization | ●Strategic core — optimize monetization across surfaces | ◐Multiple formats supported; optimization is more campaign/channel oriented |
| Monetization intelligence depth | ●Core company/product focus | ◐One capability within a broader commerce platform |
This comparison shouldn't be “who has retail media features?” Both do. The more important question is:
What becomes the intelligence layer of your retail media business?
Don't just add retail media. Build a monetization advantage.
Independent by design
Your monetization layer shouldn't be tied to where your storefront, search, marketplace or OMS came from.
Catalog · Search · Marketplace · Apps · Checkout · First-party data · Advertiser systems
Topsort connects to all of it through APIs while staying independent — so retail media keeps working when your commerce architecture, countries or brands change.
Intelligence is the product
Sponsored listings and banners are table stakes. The advantage comes from what decides which ad wins and where the next dollar goes.
Retrieval · Relevance · Ranking · Bidding · Pacing · Quality scoring · Attribution · Yield
One commerce decisioning layer runs all of it — making every commerce opportunity more valuable, not just running more campaigns. The decisioning was designed by co-founder Michael Ostrovsky, Stanford professor of auction theory, behind ranking and ads systems at LinkedIn and Pinterest and an advisor to Apple Ads.
Built for retail media at LATAM scale
Topsort didn't enter Latin America through retail media. It was forged here, powering the region's most sophisticated retailers and marketplaces.
Magalu · RD Saúde · Cencosud · Falabella · Liverpool · Sodimac · Daki
Different countries, categories and commerce stacks. The common denominator isn't their ecommerce platform — it's the monetization infrastructure underneath. Customer success, engineering, and data teams in market, in Brazil, in your timezone.
One layer across the commerce journey
Retail media doesn't stop at a sponsored product. Every surface should learn from the same commerce signals.
Onsite · Offsite · In-store · AI commerce
The question stops being “listings or display?” and becomes “where should this advertiser's next dollar go?” Not channel management — commerce capital allocation.
Proven across the region's largest commerce businesses.
Different countries. Different retail models. Different commerce stacks.
One monetization layer.
Built in LATAM. Proven at retail scale.
Brazil-scale retail media without slowing down for migration.
Magalu wanted a more robust retail-media platform capable of supporting greater scale and agility. The decision to move to Topsort came immediately before one of the most demanding moments in Brazilian commerce: Black Friday. Topsort and Magalu migrated more than 3,000 advertisers in one month, with the new operation tested and running before the peak period. For one featured Sponsored Products advertiser, Black Friday performance increased 530% in clicks, 1,293% in impressions, and 156% in revenue versus the previous year.
Retail media infrastructure should be able to change at the speed the business requires — even at the scale of one of Brazil's largest retailers.
*Featured advertiser result reported in the Magalu case study.
One retail media infrastructure layer across markets and businesses.
Cencosud partnered with Topsort to transform its retail-media operation and build Cencosud 360 Media across one of Latin America's largest retail groups. The program combines auction-based advertising, self-service seller tools, real-time reporting, catalog infrastructure, and auto-bidding across a business operating in multiple LATAM markets. The platform began with Paris and Jumbo in Chile and expanded into Colombia.
Your retail media infrastructure should scale across countries, banners, and commerce architectures — without rebuilding the operating model every time.
Change the monetization engine. Keep the commerce stack.
Moving retail media to Topsort is an integration project, not a replatforming project.
Native in VTEX environments
Topsort connects to VTEX commerce through dedicated apps for auctions, events, catalog, and banners, installed from your admin. Your storefront, checkout, and OMS stay exactly where they are.
Already running on VTEX stacks
Retailers across the region operate Topsort on top of VTEX commerce today, in multiple countries and categories.
Weeks, not quarters
A standard API integration runs in about three weeks, testing included.
Proven under peak pressure
The migration landed immediately before Black Friday, with the new operation tested and live ahead of the peak period.
The question is not whether you can move. It is what you gain when you do.
Your advertisers come with you. New budgets come too.
A migration should never cost you the demand you already have, and it should open the demand you cannot reach today.
The advertisers you already sell to
Self-service onboarding, whitelabeled seller tools, and hands-on campaign migration, at marketplace scale.
Demand beyond your own network
Toppie captures advertiser demand for the 100+ networks running on Topsort infrastructure across 40+ countries, including international budgets that a single-market network never reaches.
Offsite as an extension of your media business
Run co-op media on Google and Meta from the same platform, with your markup on the operation and one reporting layer across onsite, offsite, and in-store.
Retail media revenue is a function of demand. Your infrastructure should expand it, not gate it.
Every impression has a right price.
Fixed daily rates and manual bidding leave money on both sides of the deal. Price too high and advertisers stop renewing. Price too low and you sell your best inventory below what it is worth.
BIDLESS prices each impression using campaign goal, product, historical performance, shopper context, and the moment of the query. Advertisers stop guessing a bid. You stop selling inventory from a rate card.
Media revenue compounds through yield, not through a longer price list.
Renewals are won in the reporting.
Advertisers renew when they can see, in their own terms, what your inventory did for their business.
Measurement depth
Closed-loop purchase attribution, custom metrics including new to brand, personalized dashboards per advertiser, and direct connections into your data lake.
Engineering that protects the storefront
Auction responses under 10 milliseconds, so monetization never costs page speed. API-first architecture with public documentation your team can read before signing anything.
Attribution is table stakes. What your advertisers can do with it is the difference.
How to evaluate Topsort vs. VTEX Ads
Don't ask which platform checks more boxes. Start with four questions.
Your ecommerce platform is an important choice. Your monetization engine is another one.
Retailers should be able to choose the best commerce infrastructure for each part of their business without making retail media a permanent dependency of another platform decision.
Retail media shouldn"t be another module in your commerce stack. It should be an intelligence layer across it.
Build your media business on independent infrastructure designed around auctions, relevance, performance, revenue, and every commerce surface you operate.