Retail media hasn't been confined to retailer websites for a while now. Amazon has been extending its advertising capabilities across streaming TV, audio and the open web, while other retail media networks are finding new ways to put their shopper data to work beyond their own properties.
So it comes as no surprise that Walmart Connect is continuing down that same path.
At its October 6 Partner Connect event, Walmart Connect announced expanded partnerships with Spotify, Yahoo DSP and Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing Walmart audiences and sales measurement to more streaming audio, connected TV (CTV) and live television inventory.
These aren't new concepts for retail media. But they do signal how Walmart is building out its offering to compete for advertising budgets that extend well beyond sponsored search and onsite display. For brands, the question isn't whether Walmart Connect is becoming a bigger media platform. It's whether these additional capabilities can deliver value that their existing media investments aren't already providing.
What's Changing With Walmart Connect?
The latest announcements expand where advertisers can use Walmart's shopper data and how they can connect media exposure to retail sales. Here's what's new:
Spotify: Advertisers can now activate Walmart audiences across Spotify's audio, video and display inventory through Walmart DSP, with access to closed-loop sales measurement. This gives brands another way to reach Walmart shoppers outside traditional retail environments.
Yahoo DSP: Walmart is expanding its integration with Yahoo DSP, powered by Magnite, beyond VIZIO connected TV inventory to additional CTV publishers. The partnership is moving into an alpha phase following an initial proof of concept, providing more opportunities to use Walmart audiences across streaming television.
Warner Bros. Discovery: Walmart Connect is bringing its audiences and measurement capabilities to select live linear television inventory through private marketplace deals in Walmart DSP. The integration includes networks such as TBS, TLC, truTV, HLN and Food Network, with programmatic access supported by FreeWheel.
The common thread is straightforward: Walmart wants advertisers to use its retail data across more of their media plans, not just when shoppers are browsing Walmart.com.
Walmart Is Following the Broader Retail Media Playbook
This expansion makes sense when you consider where retail media has been heading. Amazon Ads has spent years building advertising opportunities beyond Amazon's retail properties, including Prime Video, Twitch, streaming TV and third-party inventory through Amazon DSP.
Other retail media networks are also extending their reach through offsite media partnerships, giving advertisers access to retailer audiences across channels that historically sat outside retail media budgets.
Walmart Connect needs to offer similar capabilities if it wants to compete for more of those investments. That doesn't make the new partnerships insignificant. It makes them a natural progression in a market where retail media networks are increasingly competing on audience quality, inventory access and measurement capabilities rather than sponsored search alone.
And Walmart has a valuable asset to bring to that competition: shopping data from one of the country's largest retailers. The opportunity is to use that data to reach relevant consumers across more media environments, then connect those exposures to observed Walmart sales.
But access to retail purchase data isn't unique to Walmart. What will matter is how effectively advertisers can use it, whether the inventory adds meaningful reach and how much confidence they can place in the resulting measurement.
Does Retail Data Make Walmart’s Offsite Advertising More Valuable?
Potentially. But the presence of retail data doesn't automatically make a media investment more effective.
Consider a brand that already invests in connected TV to build awareness. Using Walmart audiences could help that brand refine its targeting based on actual shopping behavior rather than relying entirely on demographic or contextual signals. It could also provide additional visibility into whether exposed audiences subsequently purchased the product at Walmart.
That's useful, particularly for brands with significant Walmart distribution. But it introduces questions marketers should be asking before shifting budget:
- Are Walmart audiences reaching new customers or overlapping with existing campaigns?
- Does using retail purchase data improve performance enough to justify any additional costs?
- Are the resulting sales incremental, or simply attributed to another media touchpoint?
These questions become especially important as more and more retail media networks offer access to similar offsite inventory.
A brand could potentially reach the same consumer through Amazon DSP, Walmart DSP and another retail media network, each using its own audience data and reporting framework.
More options are good; more overlapping impressions and competing attribution claims are not. The opportunity isn't simply to activate retail audiences everywhere they're available. It's to understand where those audiences improve the media plan.
Closed-Loop Measurement Is Useful, but It Doesn't Tell the Whole Story
One of Walmart Connect's selling points is its ability to connect advertising exposure to Walmart purchases. That becomes particularly interesting for channels such as streaming audio and television, where tying media activity to retail outcomes has historically been more challenging.
Walmart shared an example from Hidden Valley Ranch, which used Walmart audiences through Yahoo DSP to reach consumers on VIZIO CTV. According to Walmart Connect, the campaign generated:
- 55% incremental reach beyond linear TV
- 27% lower CPMs compared with similar previous CTV campaigns
- A 26% increase in add-to-carts in Walmart's reported comparison period
- 3% brand lift
The results suggest there may be value in combining retail audiences with broader media inventory, although they're specific to one campaign and shouldn't be treated as expected benchmarks.
There's also an important distinction between closed-loop measurement and incrementality. Closed-loop measurement connects advertising exposure to observed retail purchases. Incrementality attempts to determine which purchases happened because of the advertising.
A campaign can generate strong attributed sales without necessarily creating an equivalent amount of new demand. For marketers evaluating Walmart's expanded offsite capabilities, both perspectives matter.
Retail sales measurement can help connect media to business outcomes. But it should complement, not replace, reach analysis, brand lift studies and incrementality testing where available.
What Should Advertisers Actually Do Differently?
For brands already investing in Walmart Connect, the new partnerships provide more ways to extend existing audience strategies. That doesn't mean every brand needs to add Spotify or live television to its media plan. Instead, we'd focus on a few practical considerations.
Look at Your Existing Media Mix First
Before testing Walmart-powered offsite media, evaluate where you're already reaching consumers. If your brand has a substantial CTV investment, for example, determine whether Walmart's audiences or inventory access can add meaningful incremental reach. Adding another buying platform without understanding audience overlap can create complexity without improving results.
Match Retail Audiences to the Campaign Objective
Retail purchase data can be valuable for identifying relevant consumers, but the right audience depends on what you're trying to accomplish. A new product launch may call for reaching category shoppers who haven't purchased your brand. A loyalty-focused campaign may benefit from a different audience strategy. Start with the business objective, not the availability of a new audience segment.
Don't Apply Lower-Funnel Expectations to Every Channel
Streaming audio, CTV and linear television don't play the same role as Sponsored Search. Evaluating all of them against the same immediate ROAS target can lead to misleading conclusions. Use measurement that reflects the campaign's purpose, including incremental reach, brand lift, new-customer acquisition and sales lift where available.
Make Sure Walmart Is the Right Retail Lens
Walmart's closed-loop measurement can provide useful insight into sales occurring within its retail ecosystem. But brands selling across multiple retailers should avoid treating Walmart-attributed performance as a complete picture of business impact. An offsite campaign may influence purchases through other retailers or direct-to-consumer channels that aren't captured in Walmart's reporting. That broader context matters when deciding where to invest.
Retail Media Networks Are Starting to Look More Like Full-Funnel Media Platforms
Walmart Connect's latest announcements aren't a dramatic departure from the direction retail media has been moving. They're another step toward a model in which retailers compete for advertising investment across the entire customer journey.
For Walmart, expanding offsite inventory and measurement capabilities helps it keep pace with larger, more established advertising ecosystems. For brands, it creates additional options for using retail data beyond the point of purchase.
But the value won't come from simply adding more channels to a Walmart Connect plan: it will come from understanding where retail audiences improve targeting, where offsite inventory adds incremental reach and whether those investments contribute to measurable business growth.
Walmart Connect is expanding its capabilities. That doesn't mean your media budget needs to expand with it. The opportunity is to make smarter decisions with the channels and data already available, and to test new capabilities when there's a clear reason to believe they'll improve performance.