Walmart: New ad ecosystem fills the gaps in consumer insights

Walmart sees unique advantages it can offer brands with its new Walmart Advertising Partners program.

In a short Q&A session hosted by digital ad platform (and initial Walmart Advertising Partners participant) Kenshoo, Dionne Resnik, senior manager, retail enablement at Walmart Media Group, explained the discount giant’s strategy for its new digital advertising ecosystem.

“We are addressing a big gap,” Resnik said. “We are using machine learning and data insights to show the right product to the right customer at the right moment in the right format.” 

According to Resnik, Walmart’s strong presence with consumers, both in-store and online, makes the retailer uniquely qualified to provide brands with optimized access to the consumers most likely to purchase their products.

“Each week, 160 million shoppers in the U.S. visit Walmart online and in-store. Walmart is America’s largest grocer, placing us into consumers’ daily lives,” said Resnik. “Ninety percent of shopping is done in the store. That insight is a huge opportunity missed.”

Resnik said Walmart Advertising Partners, which is designed to bolster advertisers’ ability to deliver targeted, sponsored advertising to Walmart shoppers via partnerships with digital ad platforms Flywheel Digital, Kenshoo, Pacvue, and Teikametrics, improves customer experience while increasing the ways brands can engage shoppers.

The program includes pay-per-click ads, which drive traffic to select items by ensuring they appear on the first page of search results and category and item pages. It will also feature a bidded auction-based ad marketplace, which Resnik will increase transparency and control for participating advertisers.

“You can define your brand,” said Resnik. “You might not be the most well-known or have the highest ranking. But you can get in front of the shopper to help build awareness. You can compete with larger brands with high-traffic placement in search results, item detail pages, and the buy box.”

To see previous coverage of Walmart Advertising Partners, click here.