Wal-Mart to give store data to Nielsen

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores said its Walmart and Sam's Club divisions will now report their U.S. sales data to Nielsen Holdings, which will become the retailer's primary provider for market information, tools and training, the companies said in a joint announcement on Thursday.



Nielsen gathers and analyzes sales information from a variety of U.S. chain stores, giving manufacturers, Wall Street analysts and others a glimpse at how products are selling.



Wal-Mart's U.S. stores had not provided its information in more than a decade, which meant that Nielsen's widely used metrics were missing the country's largest retailer in terms of revenue.