What happened
Walmart Connect U.S. General Manager Ryan Mayward said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that Walmart is expanding advertising beyond retail media, adding self-service tools, connected TV through VIZIO, and non-endemic advertisers.
Why it matters
Mayward said advertising margins are above 70%, compared with approximately 5% for Walmart's core retail business, and called advertising profit incremental rather than shifted from other trade-investment categories.
What to watch
Mayward flagged early work with Google and OpenAI on agentic shopping interfaces, while Sparky's weekly active customers doubled year over year and average order value was 40% higher than non-Sparky trips.
WHO IT HITSThis lands on retail advertisers and marketplace sellers of all sizes, from small brands spending $1,000 per month to large brands spending $10 million per month, who may get more self-service tools and connected-TV inventory. It also touches large consumer packaged goods advertisers that Mayward said are adopting VIZIO targeting strongly.
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Walmart Connect has shifted over the past several years from a managed-service publisher model, centered on sponsorships tied to major shopping events and a nascent search business, toward a more scalable advertising platform. Mayward, who became general manager about eight or nine months ago after joining Walmart Connect in sales, described the company's marketplace and advertising operations as "symbiotic": more third-party sellers expand assortment and gross merchandise value while also increasing competition for consumer attention through advertising, particularly paid search.
The connected-TV push is anchored in VIZIO, which Walmart acquired on Aug. 4, and in partnerships that extend Walmart's audience and measurement beyond its own properties. Mayward said Walmart is working with Magnite on VIZIO inventory, that Yahoo DSP advertisers can activate campaigns there, and that DV360 integration is expected to follow. A beta with YouTube lets advertisers use Walmart data to target and measure campaigns, and Walmart has also established advertising partnerships with Meta and TikTok.
The stakes hinge on whether Walmart can turn these early capabilities into a broader advertiser base. Mayward characterized the Google and OpenAI agentic shopping work as early and relatively small, and said placing Sam's Club and international advertising operations on a common technology stack could improve data use and eventually support deeper relationships with global brands. If those efforts mature, Walmart's advertising opportunity could extend well beyond what its retail business alone enables — a possibility Mayward framed, not a guaranteed outcome.
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