Walmart launched its new Digital Landscapes solution on June 5th 2024, which is poised to help suppliers and retailers better leverage data and insights about their shoppers and how they interact with products before they purchase them. This is increasingly important as technology is revolutionizing the way retailers can use data for more informed decision making and to better meet the needs of their shoppers. In this piece, we discuss the launch and impact of Walmart’s Digital Landscapes solution and how suppliers may be leveraging it to better reach their shoppers. 

What is Walmart’s Digital Landscapes? 

Walmart’s new Digital Landscapes technology is a part of the bigger suite of solutions called Walmart Luminate. The technology enables suppliers to track consumer behavior and online shopping habits, allowing suppliers to analyze engagement before a purchase. Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been widely adopted in aiding CPG brands on consumer behavior patterns post-purchase, Walmart has been a leading retailer facilitating insight gathering on pre-purchase behaviors without the use of third-party cookies.  

Before the technology’s introduction, Walmart suppliers tended to use shopper’s post-purchase data to make sales and marketing decisions. However, this new technology will broaden supplier capabilities to reach shoppers earlier in the funnel. Suppliers can leverage additional insights to strengthen their campaigns for both customer acquisition and retention across social, digital, and physical platforms throughout Walmart’s retail landscape.  

How Does it Work? 

Walmart’s Digital Landscapes tracks sources that are bringing shoppers to both the Walmart website and mobile app using external search engines and social platforms. It then analyzes shopper behavior and engagement with products, allowing for precise data analytics and reporting tools for suppliers.  

What can suppliers take away from the platform? 

Insights that suppliers can gain from Digital Landscapes include: 

• Where shoppers start their product search journey. 
• When shoppers find a product. 
• How a product compares to others in the category. 
• What a customer’s path to purchase looks like. 

This information is important for suppliers as it helps them better understand the needs of their shoppers which, in turn, can help them allocate resources to certain campaigns or demand planning. While they had estimated guesses of this information with insights provided after shopper purchase items, this will provide a deeper dive, giving suppliers information to plan for supply chain disruptions, inventory management, and most of all shoppers shopping habits.   

Next Steps for Suppliers & Businesses

With the promise of accessing a new level of consumer insights with this innovative technology, suppliers can augment their sales and marketing strategy to best fit their shopper needs.  

One example of how to use this data in action could be through enhanced personalization opportunities to curate the omnichannel shopper experience and better understand how suppliers are connecting with their shoppers. Shoppers prefer personalized shopping, with 60% of shoppers reporting they would become repeat buyers after a positive personalized shopping experience. Having greater transparency into the end-to-end shopper journey allows suppliers to optimize outreach and effectiveness of campaigns. 

Walmart’s new Digital Landscapes technology is coming at a critical time for suppliers. It provides the kind of tracking and targeting data that is in demand as Google is transitioning away from third-party cookies. As such, this technology is in high demand by marketers and suppliers, as it gives tracking insights that some retailers cannot readily provide.  

Looking Ahead 

So, what’s the impact of Walmart’s Digital Landscapes solution? It’s allowing suppliers a sneak peek into shoppers shopping decisions.

Taking those insights and implementing them into your marketing campaigns is the key to increasing customer engagement. Consumer insights are critical to sales and marketing teams, and being able to dissect shopper data to drive more intentional outreach and personalization tactics can lead to achieving marketing goals. For more guidance on Walmart’s innovation and your sales and marketing strategy, reach out to Clarkston for support. 

Contributions from Leah Harding