Why a Nordic Marketplace Group Chose To Build Commerce Media Without Legacy Ad Tech

Most marketplaces entering retail media face the same starting point: real traffic, real shopper intent, and a decision about what kind of commerce infrastructure to build on. That decision shapes not only how they monetize today, but how they evolve as shopping journeys continue to expand.

CDON Group operates two of the largest marketplace brands in the Nordics, CDON and Fyndiq, serving more than 2.5 million active customers and generating nearly 100 million annual visits across the region. Following its merger with Fyndiq, the company had no existing retail media program to build on. That gave CDON a rare opportunity: to design its monetization foundation from first principles rather than inherit legacy advertising technology.

They could have followed the established path. Instead, they questioned whether that path was actually the right one for a modern marketplace.

Why Legacy Platforms Didn't Fit

When CDON began evaluating retail media vendors, the usual big-name legacy platforms were on the list, but the complexity, opacity, and heavyweight integration requirements were immediate red flags. CDON explicitly needed the opposite: simplicity and agility.

There was also a more fundamental mismatch. Legacy platforms are built to maximize ad delivery across publisher inventory. CDON needed monetization that worked within their marketplace, connected to product discovery, search relevance, and the shopping experience they'd spent years building. Those are different problems, and the same infrastructure doesn't solve both. As marketplaces expand beyond traditional search into recommendations, offsite media, and AI-driven discovery, that distinction becomes increasingly important.

Building It Right From the Start

Rather than inherit complexity they didn't need, CDON defined exactly what a viable retail media foundation had to look like for them, and held to it.

Launch without overextending the team. With limited engineering capacity, the integration model had to be lightweight. Topsort's API-first architecture, which is built around core catalog, events, and auction calls, gave CDON a modular foundation that could go live without a heavy technical lift. For a team running lean, that wasn't a preference. It was a requirement.

Keep the shopping experience intact. CDON's commitment to UX was a standard they set for any partner they'd consider. Topsort's relevance-based quality scoring means sponsored placements are ranked using bid value alongside relevance signals, and product eligibility is tied to catalog logic: if an item wouldn't appear organically in a placement, it isn't eligible for the corresponding auction. Monetization stays connected to discovery. CDON retains full admin oversight: approval controls, access governance, and complete visibility into what's running and where.

Activate demand without starting from zero. CDON wanted to support both endemic demand from marketplace sellers and carefully curated non-endemic opportunities — relevant external brand placements that complement the assortment rather than compete with it. Rather than spend months sourcing advertisers themselves, they chose a partner whose network could help activate that demand from day one, expanding monetization scope without requiring a larger internal team to support it.

They also wanted more than a retail media solution. For a team building retail media from scratch, having a partner willing to think through program structure and launch strategy alongside them was part of what made the decision clear.

What They're Building

CDON's rollout begins with sponsored products in search and category pages, which is the foundation of marketplace monetization. From there, they're building toward branded placements, offsite activation across Google and Meta, and unified attribution that connects retail media performance to broader marketing measurement.

The roadmap reflects where CDON is headed. Getting there started with rejecting infrastructure that wasn't built for them.

They assessed what retail media actually required for a marketplace in their position and chose infrastructure that was built for that, not repurposed from something else.

For other marketplaces at the same decision point, that's the signal worth paying attention to.

FAQ

What is CDON Group?

CDON Group operates CDON and Fyndiq, two of the largest marketplace brands in the Nordics. Together, they serve more than 2.5 million active customers and generate nearly 100 million annual visits across the region.

Why did CDON choose not to build on legacy ad tech?

CDON found that legacy platforms brought complexity, opacity, and heavyweight integration requirements. The company needed infrastructure designed around marketplace product discovery, search relevance, and the shopping experience.

Why was an API-first architecture important to CDON?

CDON had limited engineering capacity, so the integration needed to be lightweight. Topsort’s API-first architecture, built around catalog, events, and auction calls, provided a modular foundation without a heavy technical lift.

How does Topsort help CDON protect the shopping experience?

Topsort ranks sponsored placements using bid value alongside relevance signals. Product eligibility also follows catalog logic, so an item that would not appear organically in a placement is not eligible for the corresponding auction.

How does CDON plan to launch its retail media program?

CDON plans to begin with sponsored products in search and category pages, then expand into branded placements, offsite activation across Google and Meta, and unified attribution.