Shopper Experience
03 April
Walmart has a new ecommerce look. It will boost retail media
After a redesign, Walmart's app and website have a more visual, social style.
Walmart's revamped app. (Courtesy photo)
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Shopping on Walmart’s digital properties will have a new look this week.
The news: The retailer is rolling out a new look for its app and website that is geared toward creating a more engaging experience. The changes are taking place as Walmart continues to emphasize its third-party marketplace, and gain more digitally-savvy customers at a time of rising inflation.
What’s new? Walmart said the revamp included the following:
A redesigned homepage that is designed with more curation and a “product-focused experience” in order to provide inspiration, and focus around specific occasions such as holidays or big events. This timely focus was evident at launch on Monday, as Easter, spring Mother’s Day and Earth Day were in focus throughout the homepage.
Elements of the new shopping experienceinclude rich imagery, live video and a social media-like scroll that allows for browsing.
Who benefits? Walmart broke down a few ways that the redesign benefits its constituencies:
Customers will be able to more easily browse and discover items.
Suppliers and marketplace sellers will have new opportunities to showcase more relevant products and better tell their stories.
Creators will have more resources, tools and products to build community and inspire customers. This comes after Walmart launched a new creator platform last year.
Under the hood: The Walmart Global Tech product and design teams collaborated to bring the redesign to life.
How we got here: Walmart’s ecommerce operation was supercharged during the pandemic, as demand for online shopping accelerated and the retailer coalesced its offerings around an omnichannel approach that included capabilities like curbside pickup and membership through the Walmart+ subscription program. What grew out of necessity during a health emergency has now become the future of the business. This year, Walmart continues to put a big emphasis on ecommerce growth by expanding its third-party marketplace, building out automated fulfillment operations and growing a retail media network that is powering a higher-margin digital business alongside the existing selling of goods.
The redesign figures to be an important component in driving and retaining traffic on Walmart's ecommerce stores. Adding more visual and social features also shows that the retailer took the opportunity to provide a UX update so that its ecommerce site aligns with how people use the internet now.
On the company’s most recent earnings call, CFO John David Rainey noted the importance of strong website traffic to the business.
“As we get more assortment on the marketplace, we get more eyeballs coming to our website, that allows more advertisers or makes advertisers want to spend money there, too, with the larger audience,” he said.
So, along with customers and brands, the redesign will also create more opportunities for retail media growth. It’s an area that Rainey has said will become more important as a profit-driver for the business in the next five years. Last decade, advertising from brands and retailers helped platforms like Facebook and Instagram drive outsize growth. This decade, retailers themselves are implementing more social experiences and advertising. Given the growth of online shopping and changes to privacy, companies like Walmart are now positioned to reap the benefits.Subscribe to The Current Newsletter
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Retail Media
2h
Gopuff moves fast on a new retail media approach: Non-endemic ads
The quick commerce marketplace is partnering with Rokt to expand beyond CPG advertising.
(Photo via Gopuff)
In some ways, retail media campaigns function like promotions in a brick-and-mortar store.
With retail media, brands can reach customers with advertising on the websites where shopping is taking place. This proximity to the point of sale provides an opportunity for brands who are already selling within a marketplace to take advantage of opportunities to elevate their position in search results, and stand out from a crowd of listings. This is the same goal that many brands have when they purchase highly-trafficked space in a store. But instead of checkout aisle and endcap placements, there are now sponsored products in search results.
But that’s not the end of the story.
The fact that retail media is internet-based and powered by first-party data collected at the purchase level is poised to open up new opportunities to reach consumers that go beyond today’s norms.
One such example is the introduction of non-endemic advertising. This allows brands that aren’t directly selling a product within a marketplace to purchase ad space.
Why would a brand want to advertise in a place where they can’t make a direct sale? The thinking goes like this: The marketplaces have the audience, and the data on them that allows for precise targeting. They can be places to learn about a new product, just as much as they can be a place to buy.
One early example of the recognition of the opportunity in non-endemic advertising arrived this month. The quick delivery marketplace Gopuff partnered with ecommerce technology company Rokt to enable brands outside the CPG category to advertise on Gopuff’s app.
Under the hood, the companies are combining machine learning technology from Rokt that is designed to present relevant offers to customers with a Gopuff audience that is made up of Gen Zers and millennials, engaged and curious about trying new brands.
The partnership will enable advertisers to target customer segments by demographic and location. Customers will also receive offers to try new brands, such as Hulu, AdoreMe and Noom.
What sets this advertising approach apart will be the consumer categories where it is focused. Typically, ads on Gopuff are focused around the convenience store items already available on the app. Now, shoppers will see other kinds of products in the mix, and they will click through to checkout pages that are outside Gopuff if they are interested in buying. This also has the potential to change how advertisers approach media spend. It means everyone from a sporting goods brand to a car company can now consider Gopuff as they plan. They must also consider how these channels work together as a whole.
"We are thrilled to partner with Gopuff and enhance its ad business, helping it move beyond the CPG category," said Elizabeth Buchanan, CCO of Rokt, in a statement. "By delivering relevant offers to Gopuff users, Rokt will help Gopuff Ads' brand partners across all categories create more meaningful customer connections and drive incremental sales."
The partnership underscores how retail media networks have three key building blocks for digital advertising: They’re a destination that people visit with an intent to shop, they have the audience that brands want to reach and they have data that can help to reach the right consumers.
It points to how ecommerce marketplaces can not only become the new store, but also emerge as ad networks like Facebook and Google before them. It’s a big reason why retail media networks have exploded over the last year, and why growth is forecast to continue to accelerate.
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