Walmart Connect announces social media, livestream partnerships
With social commerce reaching new heights, Walmart Connect, the retailer’s closed-loop media business, has announced several strategic partnerships that will help create a robust, diverse ecosystem in an effort to expand advertiser support, increase services and deliver access anywhere advertisers need it. The newly expanded offering includes additional touchpoints and channels to reach customers with new ad formats wherever they are.
The Innovation Partners program will include TikTok, Snapchat, Firework, Roku and TalkShopLive, each of which will provide “test and learn” social, entertainment and live streaming opportunities for Walmart sellers. More specifically:
- TalkShopLive will help enable supplier-funded shoppable livestreams on Walmart.com/live, TalkShopLive’s platform, brand and publisher sites, and across the web. Walmart Connect is testing how brands can seamlessly amplify their content and connect with shoppers at scale, and have already executed livestreams with J&J, L’Oreal, P&G and Samsung, among others.
- Firework enables supplier-funded shoppable livestreams and short shoppable videos on Walmart.com/live. Walmart Connect is testing how brands can leverage Firework’s capabilities to create premium, engaging, mobile-first video experiences and has already partnered with J&J, L’Oreal, P&G and Unilever.
- Snap Inc’s first-of-its-kind partnership with Walmart Connect will bring advertisers Snap Ads, Collection Ads and Snap AR with Walmart Connect geo-based measurement. This is the first-time advertisers can buy Snap ad units through Walmart Connect.
- TikTok’s first-to-market partnership with Walmart Connect will provide advertisers with the opportunity to serve in-feed ads on TikTok and understand effectiveness through Walmart Connect’s targeting and measurement.
- Roku’s new experience with Walmart Connect will connect brands to customers through the T-commerce platform on Roku and offers product discovery with a seamless checkout experience, enabling purchase directly at the time of inspiration.
[Read More: Walmart enhances user experience on app, website]
“Our partnerships further underscore how Walmart Connect is committed to evolving our business and expanding our offerings to actively stay ahead of what advertisers need,” wrote Seth Dallaire, EVP and CRO of Walmart, in a company blog post. “There is no other platform that can extend to new formats where customers are engaging and interacting, and leverage Walmart’s unparalleled first party omnichannel data to deliver measurable sales performance. We are excited to test, learn and iterate on what drives performance for advertisers as we continue to break new ground with our partners.”
In July, Walmart Connect revealed several new solution partners in the wake of joining forces with CommerceIQ, an e-commerce platform that provides artificial intelligence-driven e-commerce channel optimization across the supply chain, marketing and sales. Its other partners are Intentwise, an ad optimization software-as-a-service platform that offers recommendations, automation and analytics; Perpetua, an e-commerce ad platform providing optimization and intelligence software; Quartile; an e-commerce cross-channel ad platform for activating and optimizing digital advertising; and Sellozo, an e-commerce ad optimization and intelligence software platform.
Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit Walmart’s more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites under 46 banners in 24 countries. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide.
This story originally appeared on Progressive Grocer.