Walmart Talks Up Its Advertising Platform In Bid To Challenge Amazon

The Walmart Media Group is looking to take on Amazon’s advertising division by touting what the retail giant can do for online sellers.

Walmart Media Group said it has increased “net new advertisers by more than 40 percent this year while delivering measurable improved Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for them.” In a press release, the media division said that while most Americans shop at Walmart annually, the retailer is “connecting brands with millions of Walmart customers every day.”

Walmart added that it is at “the forefront of retail innovation” and is looking to bring about “an omnichannel future designed with the customer in mind.” This includes “tracking sales both online and in-store” while providing “personalized shopping experiences to customers.”

According to the release, that means “the more ways customers shop with Walmart, the more relevant Walmart Media Group’s omnichannel platform becomes – both to Walmart advertisers” and its customers.

Walmart said that in the third quarter of this year, its eCommerce business grew by about four-fifths. “With more customers purchasing online, resulting in increased web traffic on Walmart’s digital platforms, the retail media business is experiencing the same acceleration in its momentum, too,” the release added. “Offering easy access, transparency and full accountability in retail advertising is foundational to our success.”

For its part, Amazon is on track to post its first $100 billion quarter, with an estimated $21 billion coming from annual advertising dollars alone.

Amazon’s crowded online marketplace has caused merchants to step up their advertising on the site in order to be more visible in search results. The eCommerce giant’s advertising business is currently growing faster than its retail, cloud and Prime subscription divisions, the Financial Times reported. The boom in advertising dollars has helped Amazon become a formidable rival to Google search, which has dominated online advertising.