Walmart links category performance, ad data

Walmart is giving participants in its retail media network access to category performance metrics.

The discount giant is now offering its Walmart Luminate platform, which provides a unified picture of category performance and consumer trends at scale, as a self-serve integration for participants in its Walmart Connect retail media network (launched in 2021 as a revamped version of the Walmart Media Group).

The Walmart Luminate Insights Activation is a new self-serve integration with Walmart Connect, marking the first time the discounter is bringing these two solutions together.

According to Walmart, this integration will enable suppliers to identify trends within critical categories to develop more informed, data-driven media strategies based on Walmart data. For example, the retailer said a supplier could identify that a certain segment of a its customer base is trading down, while another is purchasing less frequently, then gain a better understanding of the characteristics of each of those segments and target them with custom messaging.

The Walmart Luminate Insights Activation for Walmart Connect is scheduled to release to all Walmart Luminate Charter subscribers before the end of the year, timed for holiday sales data and 2025 planning. Through the integration, these suppliers will be able to target display ads to Walmart Luminate-sourced audiences, and so will their agencies and partners.

Walmart bolsters value of Walmart Connect

This integration is the latest step Walmart is taking this year to make Walmart Connect more useful to its CPG partners. The retailer  also recently announced four key ways it intends to increase the value that Walmart Connect offers advertisers during 2024. 

These include creating new customer connection points for advertisers such as expanded in-store experiences, self-serve capabilities, media partnerships (such as  TikTok), expanded onsite display access, in-store attribution for sponsored search ads, brand lift measurement, and rest-of-market analysis for Walmart demand-side platform (DSP) and in-store audio.

Walmart is also expanding its managed- and self-serve solutions to support advertisers with more creative capabilities:

• More ways to get in front of customers: These include more onsite and in-store placements, like seasonal programs and single-supplier-led store events.
• More  capabilities: Walmart says advertisers can expect new capabilities including video, new templates and expanded discoverability.
• Expanded solutions for ad creative: Later in 2024, ad partners will be able to plug into Walmart’s Creative Builder machine-learning-powered, self-serve tool for building and optimizing ad creative, through an API. Walmart will also introduce performance reports for campaign creative.

Based in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart operates more than 10,500 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries and e-commerce websites.