Honestly, if you still think of Walmart as just a place to buy bulk paper towels and cheap rotisserie chickens, you’re missing the biggest shift in the advertising world since Google first auctioned off a keyword.
The retail giant isn't just selling groceries anymore. It’s selling attention.
And business is booming.
Earlier this week, specifically on January 12, 2026, Walmart’s stock hit an all-time high of $117.48. While the rest of the market was sweating over tech volatility, the "Blue Giant" was busy flexing its muscles as a high-margin advertising powerhouse. This isn't just a lucky streak. It’s the result of a massive, multi-year pivot where Walmart Connect—the company's retail media arm—has become the primary engine driving its profits.
What’s Actually Happening with Walmart Retail Media News?
The big news right now is that Walmart has officially moved past the "testing" phase of its retail media journey. They are now in full-blown execution mode, and the numbers are honestly a bit staggering.
In the most recent reports, global advertising revenue for the company surged by 53%. To put that in perspective, the advertising side of the business is growing six times faster than the actual retail sales.
Why? Because Walmart has something even the most sophisticated digital platforms lack: closed-loop data.
When you buy an ad on Facebook, the platform hopes you buy the product. When you buy an ad through Walmart Connect, Walmart knows exactly if, when, and where you bought that box of cereal—whether you did it on their app at 11:00 PM or walked into a physical store in middle-of-nowhere Ohio the next morning.
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That "store-as-a-hub" model is the secret sauce.
In late 2025, Walmart finished its integration of Vizio. If you didn't catch that bit of walmart retail media news, here’s the gist: Walmart now owns the operating system (SmartCast) in millions of living rooms. They can now link the ad you see on your TV directly to your shopping cart. It’s the "holy grail" of marketing—connecting the living room to the checkout line without any guesswork.
The AI Shift: Meet Marty and Sparky
We can't talk about 2026 without mentioning AI, but Walmart isn't just using it for chatbots that don't work. They’ve launched "Marty," an agentic advertising assistant that helps brands build and troubleshoot campaigns using plain English.
Imagine being a small business owner and saying, "Hey Marty, my ROAS is down for my organic dog treats. Fix the bidding." And it actually does it.
It’s currently in beta for Sponsored Search, and early data shows that 97% of the queries users are typing in are unique. That means people are actually talking to this thing like a colleague, not just clicking buttons. Then there’s "Sparky," the consumer-facing AI. In late 2025, Walmart started testing ad formats within Sparky’s interface. So, if a customer asks Sparky, "What do I need for a 5-year-old’s birthday party?" the AI might suggest a specific brand of streamers or a cake kit—and that suggestion is a paid placement.
It’s subtle. It’s effective. And it’s making traditional search bars look like relics from the 90s.
Is Walmart Actually Chipping Away at Amazon’s Lead?
This is where things get spicy. For years, Amazon has owned about 75% of the retail media market in the U.S. They were the only game in town.
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But 2026 is the year the "walled gardens" are starting to look more like "hedged gardens."
Walmart is leveraging its physical footprint—4,600+ stores—in a way Amazon simply can't. They are turning those stores into digital billboards. We’re talking about ad-enabled screens in the freezer aisles and personalized offers that hit your phone the second you walk through the sliding glass doors.
Brands are starting to diversify. They’re tired of the high costs on Amazon and the "pay-to-play" environment that eats their margins. Walmart is positioning itself as the more "omnichannel" alternative. If you’re a CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) brand like Pepsi or Unilever, you care deeply about what happens on the physical shelf. Walmart gives you that data; Amazon gives you a shipping label.
The International Play: Flipkart and Beyond
It’s not just a U.S. story, though. If you look at the walmart retail media news coming out of international markets, the growth is even more aggressive.
Flipkart, Walmart's crown jewel in India, is seeing massive demand for digital visibility. As more people in India move to online shopping, the competition for "digital shelf space" is skyrocketing.
Walmart is also pushing hard into Mexico (Walmex) and Canada. They are essentially taking the playbook they wrote in Bentonville and exporting it globally. By the end of fiscal year 2026, analysts expect Walmart to hit over $710 billion in total revenue. A massive chunk of the profit from that revenue—not just the sales—will come from these high-margin ad services.
Basically, the more stuff they sell, the more data they get. The more data they get, the more they can charge for ads. It’s a flywheel that’s getting faster every month.
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Reality Check: The Risks
It’s not all sunshine and stock peaks. Walmart is facing some real headwinds in 2026.
- Tariffs: With roughly 20% of imports tied to China, any trade friction could force Walmart to raise prices. If prices go up, shoppers might buy less. If they buy less, the data gets "thinner," and the ads become less valuable.
- Labor Costs: They’ve invested billions in wages and benefits, but the labor market is still tight.
- Measurement Standards: Every retail media network (RMN) uses different metrics. Brands are getting frustrated trying to compare a "view" on Walmart to a "click" on Amazon.
How Brands Should Handle the New Walmart Ecosystem
If you’re a marketer or a business owner, you can't just "set and forget" your Walmart ads anymore. The landscape is moving too fast.
First, get comfortable with the creative tools. Walmart recently rolled out an Automated Creative Generator that reportedly cuts production time by 80%. You can generate lifestyle backgrounds for your products in minutes. Use it. Don't waste weeks on a photoshoot when the AI can do 90% of the heavy lifting.
Second, pay attention to "off-site" media. Walmart's partnership with Google and its integration into the Gemini AI interface means your products could show up in a Google search as a direct-to-cart option. This is called "agentic commerce," and it's going to be the dominant theme of the next two years.
Third, look at the physical store. In-store retail media is finally—after years of hype—becoming a reality. If you have products sitting on a shelf, you need to be bidding on the digital screens near those products.
Walmart is no longer just a store. It's a marketing cloud that happens to have a lot of warehouses. If you aren't treating it with the same level of sophistication you give to Google or Meta, you're leaving money on the table.
Next Steps for Your Business:
- Audit your current ROAS on Walmart Connect specifically for the "Cyber Five" period to see where your conversion gaps are.
- Test the new GenAI creative tools in the Walmart Ad Center Hub to see if you can lower your content production costs.
- Sync your inventory data with your ad spend; Walmart's new systems punish ads for out-of-stock items more severely than in previous years.