Walmart to Offer Suppliers Combination of Insights and Retail Media

Walmart will launch a new service that allows suppliers to combine insights from its data monetization platform with its closed-loop, omnichannel retail media solutions.

This combination of Walmart Luminate insights and the Walmart Connect retail media solutions was piloted last year and will be available to all Walmart Luminate Charter subscribers by the end of 2024, the company said in a Wednesday (April 17) press release.

“For suppliers, this means being able to identify trends within critical categories to develop more informed, data-driven media strategies based on Walmart’s insights,” the press release said. “Imagine being able to identify that a certain segment of a supplier’s customer base is trading down, while another is purchasing less frequently — then being able to understand the characteristics of each of those segments and target them with custom messaging that drives better outcomes.”

These insights provided by Walmart are derived from the shopping habits of the 90% of American households that shop with the retailer every year and the 144 million who shop with it online and in-store each week, according to the release.

When combined with Walmart Connect, these insights can be applied to suppliers’ media strategies and activations along with that service’s audience solutions, the release said.

The new offering provides a self-service integration designed to help suppliers create more relevant shopping experiences for Walmart customers, per the release.

One supplier that has already used Walmart Luminate data and Walmart Connect solutions together is Bimbo Bakeries USA, according to the release.

“Through the pilot program involving Walmart Connect and Walmart Luminate, we were able to identify a business issue and then utilize purchase-based data to accurately target our audience, ensuring a successful omnichannel experience,” Jeff Hendrix, vice president of customer teams for Walmart and Sam’s Club at Bimbo Bakeries USA, said in the release. “This powerful combination has led to enhanced consumer engagement and media outcomes that outperform category benchmarks.”

Walmart has been expanding its efforts in the in-store retail media space, PYMNTS reported April 2. For example, the retailer is adding more in-store demonstrations and sampling, offering self-serve in-store campaign management for advertisers beginning with television wall ads, and adding media partners while rolling out capabilities from its existing partnerships.

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