One of the best-known retail media networks is Walmart, which is America's largest omnichannel retailer. What path has Walmart taken, what solutions does it offer brands and why should you still consider other players? We've explored it in this blog post!
Walmart has earned a prominent place among retail media players by enabling a strong presence both online and in stores. This closed system allows for a holistic approach, resulting in a much better understanding of customer behaviour and measurable, accountable results.
The Walmart-story
The story of the Walmart discount chain began in 1950 when entrepreneur Sam Walton bought a store from Luther E. Harrison in Bentonville, Arkansas, and opened Walton's 5 & 10. The chain was officially established in 1962 with a single store in Rogers and expanded outside Arkansas in 1968.
The company's first stock split was in 1972, when the share price was $47. At that time, Walmart was already operating in the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma, and expanded into Tennessee in 1973, and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. In 1975, the company expanded into Texas, where it had 125 stores, 7,500 employees and annual sales of $340.3 million.
The company continued to grow and by 1995 was present in every state in the United States and opened its first stores in Canada. Today, it operates 10,500 stores and clubs in 20 countries around the world.
In addition to its in-store presence, it is also focusing on becoming a dominant player in the online space. With solutions such as Mobile Scan & Go and Curbside Pickup, it creates the opportunity to save customers time and money. It can be one of the fastest growing e-commerce organisations. It excels at combining offline and online solutions, so that online and in-store commerce can grow in synergy to support each other.
Walmart in numbers
The retail media market is growing year on year: in 2024 media advertising will increase by more than 22.5%, with $55 billion compared to 2023. No wonder then that more and more people are looking to take advantage of this solution.
E-commerce has been increasing for years. The COVID-19 epidemic has boosted online shopping considerably. Although the big boom has subsided somewhat, growth has not stopped, just slowed.
So online commerce is growing and consumer expectations are changing. In most cases, a digital presence is now a basic requirement, but there is also a need for personalised customer experience and flexible approach.
Walmart is the largest retailer in the United States, able to serve 90% of US households. Of course, this requires a huge team, so it's no wonder that the retail giant boasts more than 1.5 million employees.
“When you think about our store, our store footprint and the percentage of Americans that we reach through our stores, we can deliver Super Bowl-sized audiences every week,” said Ryan Mayward, senior vice president of retail media sales for Walmart Connect, the retailer’s advertising business, to CNBC.
Walmart's advertising offer
Amazon is the most dominant player in the retail media networks, but the fact is that it does not have a "store footprint" and cannot exploit the opportunities that Walmart has, such as online shopping and in-store pick-up or even click and collect.
See what retail advertising solutions it offers!
Self-serve sponsored search ads
There are basically two types: sponsored products and sponsored brands. The idea is that products are displayed based on the user's search terms and product data. It is quite close to the point of purchase, which is the reason for its effectiveness. Brand ads are displayed at the top of the page as search banner ads, which are great for brand building.
Ads on self-service display
There are also two main types of display advertising, on-site and off-site. The former is Walmart display self-service, a self-service platform through which brands can manage their in-store displays. Creatives can be made on the platform and multiple setups can be made for better targeting.
The Walmart DSP is a demand-side platform that opens up Walmart's communities to advertisers and enables open web advertising. Brands can get a wealth of information about how their omnichannel ads are performing and at what point in the consumer journey they are reaching consumers.
Beyond the big players
Walmart is a true professional in the retail media. It has a lot of advantages, but there are also disadvantages. One of the biggest is that its user interface is less user-friendly, lagging far behind competitors such as Amazon. The clunky handling can make it longer and more complicated to launch and set up ads.
The other huge disadvantage is competition. Walmart has more than half a million external sellers, which means that there is a lot of competition in all categories. This also means that it is much harder to stand out and grab consumers' attention.
However, retailers can choose not only from the big players in the retail media market. It is also worth looking at the smaller ones, which often offer more advantageous solutions and conditions. In these cases, for example, there is much less competition, not to mention the possibility of offering a better price. Inhabitad, for example, offers the possibility of not paying for the integration of the system, but only a percentage of the clicks on the ads.
So there is plenty of room for smaller retailers in the retail media market, and brands and consumers can benefit from their success.
