Walmart Connect is taking retail media measurement straight to brands. Ahead of the holiday ad-buying window, the retail media network has begun approaching advertisers directly with on-site brand lift studies, bypassing agencies and putting incrementality at the center of the Q4 sales conversation.
Three agency executives confirmed to Digiday that multiple clients had been approached, though none named the brands. Stella Rising, a digital media and marketing agency, said it was among those seeing the pitch. Walmart did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
What Walmart is offering
The studies are being offered based on how much an advertiser spends through Walmart Connect, according to Anthony Costanzo, chief analytics officer at Mile Marker. At least four Mile Marker clients are participating. While retailers routinely run beta tests with large advertisers, Costanzo said the conversation is now starting to trickle down to more and more accounts.
That timing is deliberate. Brands are locking in Q4 spending and finalizing 2027 media budgets, and Walmart is signaling it wants to be measured beyond the bottom of the funnel.
“From our experience, Q4 is when advertisers are least willing to fund spend they cannot defend,” said Lacie Edgeman, co-owner and managing director at PrograMetrix. She added that Walmart wants to be evaluated “as a full-funnel partner… not only as a lower-funnel conversion engine.”
Why measurement is the new battleground
Retail media is growing fast, but proving effectiveness remains messy. Advertisers are expected to spend $69.33 billion on retail media this year, according to eMarketer, and Walmart’s global ad business grew 38% in the second quarter. Yet lagging standardization, walled-garden data and fuzzy incrementality leave many brands with hodge-podge measurement approaches.
The central question is whether a campaign drove an extra sale, or whether the retailer simply claimed a purchase that would have happened anyway. If Walmart can prove incrementality, it can unlock larger ad commitments and position itself more aggressively against Amazon.
The trade-offs marketers should watch
Brand lift studies can be costly, tied to spend thresholds, and slow. Reporting can take up to nine weeks after a campaign ends, Edgeman said. Advertisers also still lack direct access to independently set up and run these studies, leaving retailers like Walmart often grading their own homework, Costanzo said.
Still, he called the move a step in the right direction and expects other retailers to follow Walmart’s lead.
Before joining a retail media lift study, marketers should clarify:
- What exactly is being measured: sales lift, brand lift or both?
- Who sets up and controls the study?
- When will reporting arrive, and in what format?
- Can the results be validated against independent measurement?
What happens next
Walmart’s timing is no accident. If the studies convince CFOs and CMOs that retail media spend is defensible, Walmart stands to convert measurement trust into budget share. That would sharpen its challenge to Amazon in a market projected to keep growing well beyond the holiday quarter.
For now, the pitch is clear: Walmart wants credit for the sale, and it is asking brands directly to give it the chance to prove it.
Source: Digiday
