Retailers could harness customer behaviour data to potentially build retail media businesses similar to those already established in the US, according to Ryan den Rooijen, managing director of AI and monetisation at Currys.

Speaking at the Retail Technology Show in London, den Rooijen said the sector is only just beginning to realise the commercial value of the insights generated by customers.

“In the US, you’ve got plenty of retailers that don’t make money in retail,” he said. “They make money because they fund an advertising business.”
“We have phenomenal reach and a deep understanding of customer behaviour,” he said. “The question is how we turn that into commercial products and services.”

Three revenue streams

Den Roojen broke down Currys’ business model into three core revenue streams. The first is traditional product sales, which remain foundational but inherently limited. “People can only buy so many fridges,” he noted.

The second is services, including care and repair plans, which extend customer relationships and drive long-term loyalty. Den Rooijen said that Currys is one of the biggest providers of these services in Europe. He explained that this differentiates Currys in a completive market and supports sustainability by extending product lifecycles.

The third revenue stream is assets, which den Rooijen referred to as the monetisation of customer data and behaviour.

Currys has deep visibility into how customers browse, compare and purchase products. Historically, much of this insight has gone unutilised. Den Rooijen argued that aggregating and packaging this data into commercial products could unlock significant new revenue streams.

“If every single person that navigates our website clicks on green products instead of blue products, that’s information we’ve historically done nothing with,” he said. “Do you think manufacturers would like to know? Obviously they would.”

This opens the door to retail media, targeted advertising and market intelligence services, which he said allow brands to better understand demand patterns and target relevant audiences.

Building a retail media arm

Currys is still in the early stages of this journey, with den Rooijen estimating the business at “two out of five” in terms of retail media maturity. However, the foundations are in place, including strong first-party data and customer reach.

The shift requires retailers to think more like publishers, he said, developing capabilities to package audiences, insights and advertising inventory into scalable offerings.

Rather than simply serving ads, the opportunity lies in delivering meaningful, data-driven engagement for brand partners, such as targeting customers who have shown interest in complementary products or specific categories.

AI as an enabler

Den Rooijen described AI as a powerful enabler, rather than a reason to overhaul a company’s methods.

“I’m not doing an AI strategy,” he said. “Currys has a strategy and it’s working.”

Instead, AI is being embedded across the business to enhance existing processes. This includes in-store tools that support colleagues with product knowledge, and systems that analyse customer feedback at scale.

Den Rooijen shared how AI is helping Currys identify patterns in customer comments, allowing teams to prioritise issues based on volume and impact rather than anecdotal feedback. It is also being deployed in repair operations to accelerate diagnostics and improve efficiency.

He stressed that AI adoption must be collaborative, with responsibility shared across the organisation rather than centralised in a single team.

“Everybody needs to own this collectively,” he said, adding that the role of his function is to support and co-create solutions with different business units rather than dictate them.

Despite the rapid pace of technological development, den Rooijen pushed back against the idea that AI will fundamentally disrupt business models overnight.

“This isn’t something where everything is going to change,” he said. “It’s about
having empathy and understanding where the technology can genuinely make a difference.”

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