The Skai 5: Five Reasons to Add Walmart Connect’s Omnichannel Benefits to Your Expanding Retail Media Portfolio

According to Skai’s Q2 2024 data, retail media spending has increased 21% year over year, making it one of the most important channels in advertising. In our 2024 State of Retail Media report, marketers ranked retail media as their organizations’ most important marketing channel.

from Skai’s 2024 State of Retail Media report

As competition heats up, retail media marketers are starting to rethink their strategies to maintain performance. One of those evolutions is to take a more diversified approach toward retail media networks (RMNs). Instead of relying solely on one platform, such as Amazon Ads, advertisers are spreading their investments across multiple RMNs. A portfolio strategy not only spreads risk but also takes advantage of the unique strengths offered by different platforms.

Walmart Connect should be a cornerstone of any diversified retail media portfolio. Its strong omnichannel capabilities set it apart, allowing advertisers to engage with consumers both online and in-store. Rich Lehrfeld, SVP & GM of Walmart Connect, explains, “As a closed-loop omnichannel media business of America’s largest retailer, we are working hard to innovate and move faster than ever before to deliver distinct omni solutions and accelerate growth for advertisers of all sizes.”

Walmart Connect’s omnichannel integration provides a more complete approach to retail media, ensuring your brand remains visible and relevant throughout the customer journey. By capitalizing on Walmart’s broad reach, which includes 90% of American households, advertisers can drive meaningful engagement and conversions in ways other platforms simply can’t match.

Today, we explore five reasons why Walmart Connect’s omnichannel capabilities are a game-changer for retail media advertisers.

Leverage rich omnichannel data for precision targeting

One of the biggest challenges retail media marketers face is the fragmented nature of consumer data. With so many touchpoints, from online shopping to in-store purchases, it’s difficult to get a complete picture of the customer journey. This lack of cohesive data can lead to ineffective targeting, broken measurement, and missed opportunities, as marketers are forced to make decisions based on incomplete information.

Walmart Connect addresses this challenge by providing access to rich omnichannel data that combines online behavior with in-store purchases. This comprehensive dataset allows marketers to target their audiences more accurately, leading to better campaign performance and higher ROI.

These insights can help build relationships with consumers that are beneficial to both brands and their customers.

“It’s an incredibly transformative time in retail. Making every marketing dollar count has become even more critical for brands,” says Seth Dallaire, EVP & CRO, Walmart U.S. “Walmart Connect is helping our suppliers and sellers do just that by creating meaningful shopping experiences with our customers – and making sure those experiences are valuable to our customers.”

Actionable Strategies: Identify key audience segments based on Walmart’s omnichannel data, then tailor your messaging to address these segments’ unique needs and behaviors across different platforms. Set clear KPIs for each segment and regularly review performance data to refine targeting and maximize conversion rates.

Touchpoints across the entire customer journey

For marketers, maintaining brand visibility with customers across multiple channels is a significant challenge. Consumers are bombarded with ads from all directions, making it difficult for brands to stand out and stay top of mind. Without a consistent presence across digital and physical spaces, brands risk losing relevance and failing to connect with their audience.

Walmart Connect ensures that your brand remains visible throughout a customer’s journey, from online browsing to in-store shopping. By integrating your campaigns across Walmart’s digital properties and physical stores, you can maintain a persistent brand presence that keeps you top of mind for consumers. This omnichannel approach not only enhances visibility but also builds brand loyalty by creating a seamless experience across all touchpoints.

Actionable Strategies: Develop a unified campaign strategy that seamlessly integrates your brand’s message across Walmart’s digital and physical platforms. Implement cross-channel promotions that encourage in-store visits following online engagement and vice versa. Regularly audit your campaigns to ensure consistency in messaging and adjust as needed to maintain a cohesive brand presence.

Achieve consistent brand messaging across channels for a seamless experience

Many marketers struggle with the challenge of maintaining a consistent brand message across multiple channels. Disconnected campaigns can lead to confusion, weakening the overall impact of your advertising efforts. When customers encounter inconsistent messaging, it can erode trust and reduce the likelihood of conversion.

Walmart Connect offers a solution through its seamless integration across both online and offline channels. By unifying your advertising efforts within Walmart’s ecosystem, you can ensure that your messaging is consistent and cohesive, no matter where your customers encounter your brand. This integrated approach not only enhances the customer experience but also strengthens your brand’s overall impact.

Actionable Strategies: Set up integrated campaign management dashboards within Walmart Connect to monitor and adjust messaging across channels in real-time. Create a brand consistency checklist to ensure all communications align with your overall messaging strategy before deployment. Conduct A/B testing across different channels to optimize the customer experience and improve conversion rates.

Maximize point-of-sale marketing no matter where customers checkout

Reaching customers at the critical moment of decision-making is a major challenge for many marketers. While online-only retail media networks can help you reach users at the point of sale online, they don’t provide the same opportunity in physical stores. This limitation can lead to missed opportunities to convert interest into sales, especially for brands that benefit from in-person shopping experiences.

Walmart Connect, however, offers a significant advantage as an omnichannel RMN. It allows advertisers to influence customers directly at the point of sale, whether online or in-store. This is especially powerful given that approximately 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store, making it incredibly likely that your target audience shops at a nearby location. With Walmart Connect’s in-store ad formats, including options like self-checkout screens and audio ads, your brand can stay front and center when customers make their final purchasing decisions, whether in a store or online.

Actionable Strategies: Incorporate dynamic point-of-sale advertising that aligns with peak shopping times, using Walmart Connect’s data to identify high-traffic periods. Utilize in-store promotions synchronized with online ads to create a unified purchase journey. Regularly review sales data to adjust in-store ad placements and formats for maximum impact.

Achieve clear attribution from online to offline and back

For years, measuring the impact of online to offline and offline to online marketing has been considered the holy grail for advertisers. Since the inception of the Internet, the ability to accurately track how digital campaigns drive in-store sales, and vice versa, has eluded even the most sophisticated marketers. The challenge has always been the lack of clear attribution, making it difficult to understand what’s working and what needs improvement. This gap in insight often leads to inefficient ad spend and missed opportunities to optimize strategies effectively.

Walmart Connect is changing the game with advanced targeting and measurement solutions, including closed-loop attribution. This powerful tool tracks the entire customer journey, from digital engagement to in-store purchases and back again. By providing this level of detailed insight, Walmart Connect allows marketers to see exactly how their campaigns are performing across all channels. This data-driven approach enables you to make informed decisions that can significantly enhance campaign performance and ROI.

Actionable Strategies: Implement Walmart Connect’s closed-loop attribution to track customer journeys from initial online engagement to in-store purchases. Use this data to create detailed customer profiles that inform future campaigns. Set up automated reports to continuously monitor campaign effectiveness, and allocate budget dynamically based on real-time performance across both online and offline channels.

Make the most of Walmart Connect’s omnichannel benefits

Diversification is a key strategy to maintain an edge as the retail media landscape becomes more competitive and costly. By spreading investments across multiple retail media networks (RMNs), advertisers can reduce risk and tap into the unique strengths of different platforms. This approach helps manage rising costs and ensures that your brand remains resilient and adaptable in an ever-changing market.

Walmart Connect stands out for its robust omnichannel capabilities, allowing brands to engage with consumers at every stage of the customer journey—whether browsing online, shopping in-store, or moving between both. With Walmart Connect, you can ensure consistent brand messaging, target precise audiences, and influence purchasing decisions at the critical point of sale, regardless of where your customers choose to checkout.

Now is the time to diversify your retail media strategy by incorporating Walmart Connect into your portfolio. By doing so, you’ll capitalize on Walmart’s extensive reach and omnichannel strengths to drive better results across the board.

The Skai advantage for Walmart Connect

To fully maximize the potential of Walmart Connect, Skai’s Retail Media solution offers advanced tools and capabilities that can help you stand out, capture demand, and drive sales. Skai provides a unified platform that supports Walmart Connect and integrates with over 100 other retail media networks (RMNs). This allows you to easily manage campaigns across multiple platforms while gaining deep insights into your performance. With Skai’s optimization, analytics, and automation solutions, you can ensure that every dollar invested is working to its fullest potential.

Interested in learning more? Schedule a brief demo to see how Skai can elevate your Walmart Connect strategy and help you achieve your retail media goals.​