The role of online retail is ever changing and facing constant disruption by the socially connected web. Despite this, ecommerce remains a major part of internet's ecosystem, with continued growth on the horizon. One company that is emerging as the major ad solution within ecommerce is Criteo. Its go-to-market strategy from day one has been to partner with ecommerce vendors, directly, mostly bypassing the agency. And it seems to be working, given that company is due to have revenues of around 300 million this year -- and has been profitable since 2008. How many ad tech players can say that? Criteo is thought to be mulling over a possible IPO early next year -- with it likely to be another New York listing. But can a retargeting network really have a big IPO? Probably not. Retargeting can only scale so far as a business model. So the pivot is imminent. But this won't be some desperate attempt to justify the retargeting solution -- it will more an evolution of Criteo's emerging e-commerce proposition. Just as we will see an all-singing all-dancing stack in Display, Criteo will justify its value -- and it's likely to be well over 1.5 billion if it goes to market -- by assembling the e-commerce stack. Why become an ecommerce business? As mentioned, offering a retargeting solution, regardless if it is perceived as best in class, will only create a certain valuation. Criteo needs to pivot and there are smarter ways of doing this beyond simply