Walmart offers new options to increase value of its retail media business

Walmart is taking its retail media business to the next level, including bolstering the ability for advertisers to target its customers across every touchpoint.

The discounter is expanding the options it offers advertisers on Walmart Connect (launched in 2021 as a revamped version of the Walmart Media Group) to enable advertisers to drive more effectiveness with their overall media spend.  It is designed to provide advertisers the ability to serve personalized, time- and context-specific ads across customer touchpoints including media placements on in-store TV walls and self-checkout screens, Walmart digital properties, mobile devices and corporate events.

In a new corporate blog post, Walmart described four key ways it intends to increase the value that Walmart Connect offers advertisers during 2024. These include:

Exploring new offsite touchpoints, including in stores

New customer connection points for advertisers will include:

• More in-store experiences: Walmart is expanding in-store demo stations and sampling, and testing more areas to reach customers, boost awareness and drive consideration.
• Self-serve capabilities: The retailer will introduce in-store campaign management to the Walmart Ad Center, starting with TV wall ads.
• Media partnerships: Recent pilots with Roku and TikTok are now rolling out to advertisers.

More options for more advertiser types

Walmart is automating and scaling its advertising suite further to increase accessibility to more advertiser types, including API and agency partners that work with advertisers. This effort includes:

• Expanded onsite display access: Walmart will make its Walmart Display in-store display ad business primarily programmatic and auction-based, with greater advertiser access and control. Starting in April 2024, the retailer will make onsite advertising in stores available to brands of all sizes, including third-party Walmart Marketplace sellers through the Walmart Ad Center self-service platform.
• Supporting non-endemic brands: The retailer has started offering offsite media to supporting brands that don’t sell with it but offer complementary products and services that are relevant to its customers – starting with the automotive, entertainment, financial services, quick-service restaurants and travel verticals.
• Increased international support: Walmart began adding internationally based technology providers to its partner network 2023. Now, the retailer is introducing localized self-serve support tools and education for sellers outside the U.S.

Targeting & full-funnel measurement

In 2024, Walmart says it will take measurement and targeting capabilities further:

• Sharper omnichannel measurement: Walmart is currently testing in-store attribution for sponsored search ads, which it expects to enhance throughout the year. The retailer also plans to introduce conversion lift for in-store campaigns, and store lift and reach for in-store demos.
• Conversion & full-funnel insights: The retailer intends to roll out brand lift measurement and rest-of-market analysis for Walmart demand-side platform (DSP) and in-store audio.

Expanded creative capabilities

Walmart is 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.

"Delivering these solutions to our suppliers, sellers and partners will take our retail media offering to the next level this year – but more importantly, support them better as they navigate an increasingly complex marketing landscape," Rich Lehrfeld, senior VP and GM, Walmart Connect, said in the blog post. "It’s how we put Walmart’s purpose in motion as a people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer to better serve our customers and the brands that work with us."