Connecting with Consumers During Walmart Deals: Behavior Shifts That Drive Holiday Advertising Success

Walmart Connect is having a standout year, outpacing other retail media networks in both spend and click growth, and is positioned as a core partner for commerce marketers during fall promotional events.

High traffic holiday events, such as the upcoming Walmart Deals event, October 7-12, often serve as the proving ground for Q4 success, and that pressure intensifies when you’re finalizing strategies for concentrated promotional periods. But here’s what makes this year different: not only is Walmart Connect experiencing unprecedented momentum, but consumer behavior during promotional events is shifting in ways that align perfectly with what Walmart has always delivered best. Regardless of broader economic conditions, consumer emphasis on value, trust, and convenience during high-traffic shopping moments has created an ideal environment for retail media success.

Here’s why evolving consumer behavior trends point to Walmart as a strategic fall event partner, and how to approach these concentrated promotional periods to capitalize on this consumer alignment.

Event-driven shoppers aren’t who they used to be

Recent consumer behavior reveals an acceleration in how shoppers evaluate promotional opportunities during high-traffic retail events. AI-driven shopping tools, social media influence, and compressed decision-making windows continue to reshape how people approach limited-time promotional periods.

During a shopping event like Walmart Deals, consumers operate within a more sophisticated framework that balances three critical elements:

“Strategic deal evaluation” beyond surface-level discounts. Event-driven shoppers have become more discerning about promotional authenticity and value calculation. They’re not just seeking the lowest price, but evaluating deal legitimacy, timing advantages, and total value propositions during concentrated shopping periods.

“Event-driven brand discovery” with trusted platforms. Modern consumers use promotional events as brand exploration opportunities within familiar retail environments. They’re seeking comprehensive product selections and trusted review systems that eliminate uncertainty when discovering new options during limited-time promotional windows.

“Event urgency capitalization” where timing creates competitive advantage. During Walmart Deals, speed of decision and execution separates successful shoppers from those who miss opportunities. Quick checkout processes, immediate inventory confirmation, and flexible fulfillment options now determine purchase completion rates during promotional periods.

These event-driven consumers present unique challenges for marketers: they research intensively but decide quickly during promotional windows, value brand discovery but demand platform trust, and seek genuine deals but won’t compromise on convenience or authenticity.

Shift 1: Strategic deal evaluation — Position your brand within Walmart’s value ecosystem

The shift toward strategic deal evaluation creates the foundation for all fall event marketing decisions. Walmart Deals shoppers aren’t simply hunting for the steepest discounts. They’re calculating comprehensive value equations that factor in deal authenticity, timing advantages, brand reputation, and purchase confidence during promotional periods.

Event-driven consumers have developed sophisticated methods for validating promotional value, cross-referencing prices across platforms and evaluating whether discounts represent genuine opportunities or inflated baseline pricing.

Walmart’s established reputation for authentic pricing gives your campaigns immediate credibility with value-conscious event shoppers. The platform’s infrastructure allows you to communicate comprehensive value propositions—from competitive pricing to fast delivery to extensive product availability—all within the same campaign ecosystem during high-traffic periods.

Pre-event positioning: Build value anticipation. Launch Sponsored Products campaigns targeting deal-focused keywords like “sale,” “discount,” “limited time,” and event-specific modifiers, using automatic targeting to discover additional value-oriented search terms your audience uses during promotional periods. Create Sponsored Brands campaigns that position your brand within Walmart’s competitive value framework with headlines emphasizing authentic savings and quality assurance.

During-event execution: Amplify proven value messaging. Deploy Onsite Display campaigns that showcase value through compelling visual storytelling, using lifestyle imagery that demonstrates product benefits and cost-effectiveness during Walmart Deals. Video ads become particularly effective for demonstrating product value in action and building purchase confidence quickly. Implement keyword expansion strategies that capture value-seeking behavior by targeting competitor brand terms with exact match campaigns, positioning your products as superior value alternatives during high-traffic periods.

Event optimization: Maximize value-focused performance. Shift budget allocation toward your highest-performing value-focused campaigns and use dayparting to concentrate spend during peak shopping hours when deal-conscious consumers are most active. Deploy retargeting campaigns through Onsite Display to re-engage users who viewed your products but didn’t convert, focusing on urgency messaging and value reinforcement to complete their purchase during the promotional window.

Shift 2: Event-driven brand discovery — Capture attention when consumers are exploring

The second shift toward event-driven brand discovery addresses consumers’ tendency to explore new options during promotional periods like Walmart Deals when their usual purchase barriers are lowered. This factor has become increasingly important as shopping behaviors during events blend discovery with deal-seeking, creating unique opportunities for brand expansion.

Event shoppers often use promotional periods to try brands they’ve been considering, making fall high-traffic events ideal moments for customer acquisition and competitive conquest strategies.

Walmart’s trusted retail environment provides immediate credibility for brand exploration. When consumers see your products advertised on Walmart Connect during promotional events, they benefit from the platform’s established reputation for quality curation and authentic deals. The combination of Walmart’s brand equity and comprehensive product selection creates the confidence consumers need to try new brands during promotional periods.

Pre-event awareness: Build discovery momentum. Focus on Sponsored Brands campaigns that emphasize your brand’s unique positioning and product range, incorporating trust signals like customer satisfaction indicators, quality certifications, or innovation highlights in your headlines. Use keyword targeting to appear in searches for your product category during pre-event research phases, positioning your brand within the broader consideration set and building familiarity with shoppers preparing for promotional events.

Event-period conquest: Maximize discovery opportunities. Implement aggressive brand defense strategies by bidding on your own brand terms across all match types while simultaneously launching brand conquest campaigns targeting competitor terms, focusing on differentiation messaging that highlights your unique value during promotional periods. Deploy Sponsored Videos that demonstrate product quality and brand story, as video content effectively builds trust and understanding when consumers are evaluating new options under time pressure.

Discovery optimization: Protect and expand market share. During peak traffic periods, prioritize brand protection through increased bids on your own brand terms as competitors intensify their conquest efforts during high-visibility promotional windows. Use Onsite Display campaigns to maintain brand visibility across high-traffic pages, targeting audiences who have previously engaged with competitor brands but haven’t made recent purchases, emphasizing your differentiated value proposition and promotional advantages.

Shift 3: Event urgency capitalization — Leverage timing pressure for conversion acceleration

The third shift toward event urgency capitalization addresses modern consumers’ need for efficient, decisive shopping experiences during limited-time promotional periods. This factor becomes particularly crucial throughout the Walmart Deals event, when deal expiration pressure and inventory concerns intensify conversion urgency.

Walmart’s extensive fulfillment infrastructure—combining online efficiency with widespread store networks—creates unparalleled convenience for time-sensitive event shoppers. Your Walmart Connect campaigns can emphasize multiple fulfillment options: expedited delivery, flexible pickup, and immediate in-store availability, addressing different urgency levels within the same promotional period.

Pre-event urgency building: Create anticipation momentum. Incorporate availability messaging into your ad creative from campaign launch, using Sponsored Products campaigns that highlight fast fulfillment options and inventory confidence in your product titles and descriptions. Test different landing page strategies by directing some traffic to product detail pages for immediate purchases while sending other segments to your brand store for broader exploration, monitoring performance to understand which approach resonates with event-preparation shoppers.

Event-period urgency: Maximize conversion pressure. Expand your urgency messaging through Sponsored Brands headlines that emphasize speed and scarcity like “Limited Stock – Order Now” or “Event Pricing Ends Soon,” as these messages become increasingly compelling as promotional deadlines approach. Use geographic targeting to promote immediate pickup options in areas with high Walmart store density, capturing consumers who want to secure deals without shipping delays.

Peak urgency optimization: Convert time-sensitive shoppers. During high-traffic promotional periods, urgency becomes your primary competitive advantage, so adjust campaign messaging to emphasize immediate availability and deal expiration using countdown elements or scarcity language in display ads. Increase bids on mobile campaigns, as mobile shoppers during events often exhibit higher urgency and are more likely to value quick purchasing options and immediate confirmation of deal capture.

The Skai tools that make Walmart Deals execution seamless

Managing complex, time-sensitive promotional campaigns across Walmart Connect requires more than manual oversight. Skai provides marketers the automation and intelligence needed to capitalize on compressed event windows when every hour of optimization matters.

Celeste AI for event-specific optimization. Skai’s Celeste AI analyzes performance patterns across your entire Walmart Connect portfolio during high-traffic periods, identifying optimization opportunities that would be impossible to spot manually during fast-moving promotional events. Celeste monitors bid performance, keyword expansion opportunities, and budget allocation recommendations in real-time during peak traffic surges.

Real-time campaign coordination. Walmart Deals’ success requires understanding how different campaign types perform together during promotional periods. Skai’s unified reporting shows you how Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Onsite Display campaigns influence each other when traffic patterns and consumer behavior shift rapidly during events.

Automated budget optimization. Promotional events create dramatic performance fluctuations that can exhaust budgets within hours or leave campaigns underfunded during peak opportunities. Skai’s automated budget management tools prevent campaigns from going dark due to underfunding while avoiding overspending on underperforming initiatives during critical promotional windows.

Multi-retailer event coordination. Most brands run fall promotional campaigns across multiple retail media networks simultaneously. Skai’s platform allows you to manage campaigns across 30+ retailers from a single interface, ensuring consistent messaging and coordinated timing across all your fall event strategies.

Advanced audience targeting for events. Skai’s audience management tools help you capitalize on the three consumer behavior shifts discussed in this post. Create custom audiences based on deal-seeking behavior, brand exploration patterns, and urgency response preferences, then deploy them across campaign types for maximum impact during promotional periods.

Conclusion: Walmart Connect delivers during Walmart Deals

The fall promotional landscape has evolved beyond simple discount competition. Today’s event-driven consumers evaluate opportunities through sophisticated frameworks that balance deal authenticity, brand discovery, and timing advantages. Walmart Connect’s unique position, combining competitive promotional pricing with a trusted brand environment and comprehensive fulfillment options, makes it an ideal platform for reaching these discerning promotional shoppers.

Success requires more than understanding event psychology. It demands sophisticated campaign management that adapts to rapidly changing performance during concentrated promotional periods. The most successful brands will be those that recognize these behavioral shifts early and build comprehensive strategies that address all three consumer factors from initial event awareness through final purchase completion.

Skai’s Retail Media solutions enable marketers to plan, activate, and measure campaigns across 200+ retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart, as part of a broader commerce media strategy. AI-powered pacing, product intelligence, and keyword tools help teams meet shoppers during critical promotional moments and tie spend to sales with confidence.

Schedule a quick demo to see how Skai can help you capitalize on these consumer trends during Walmart’s fall high traffic event.