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Ryan Mayward, senior vice president of retail media sales at Walmart Connect, shared three ways retail media is evolving and how Walmart is keeping up on our Reimaging Retail podcast.

Walmart and NBCU teamed up again for shoppable ads during Thanksgiving Day NFL games. It also rolled out several Walmart Connect updates earlier this year: It offered offsite media to non-endemic brands and made its display ads available to 鈥渂rands of all sizes鈥� through the programmatic Walmart Ads marketplace.

Retailers like Dollar General, Walmart, and Target are rethinking the self-checkout experience, scaling back on kiosks or removing self-checkout from their locations altogether. But considering 55% of US adults prefer to get through their in-store grocery shopping as fast as possible (according to a November 2023 survey from Kearney) it鈥檚 unlikely self-checkout will be leaving stores anytime soon. Here are five stats on self-checkout, including how and why consumers like to use it, the reason some retailers are pulling back, and what the future holds for the technology.

Walmart and Amazon see (mostly) clear skies ahead while Target warns of headwinds. Mass merchants Amazon, Walmart, and Target presented varying pictures of consumer spending in Q3.

Walmart now expects net sales to increase between 4.8% YoY and 5.1% YoY this year鈥攁head of the 4.6% growth projected by Wall Street and a considerable upgrade from its prior estimate for growth between 3.75% and 4.75%. How we got here: More high-income shoppers are turning to Walmart for their everyday needs.

Pepsi is accused of offering an unnamed big-box retailer鈥攚hich sources identified to CNBC as Walmart鈥攁n unfair price advantage over competitors ranging from big grocery chains to local convenience stores. The FTC鈥檚 suit argues that Pepsi violated the RPA by giving Walmart advantages, such as 鈥減romotional payments鈥� and advertising, which it did not offer to rival retailers.

Target and Walmart weren鈥檛 the only retailers with mixed Black Friday results. Lowe鈥檚 also saw foot traffic rise on Black Friday (up 1.8%), per Placer.ai, but visits to The Home Depot and Tractor Supply Co. were down, by 7.1% and 2.1%, respectively. What it means: Target has faced stiff competition from Walmart this year.

Amazon, Walmart, and Nordstrom use genAI (among other tools) to offer shoppers tailored homepage experiences, which they hope will boost engagement and convince customers to spend more. And still others see genAI as an opportunity to save money on customer service personnel.

Section 4: Walmart, Amazon, and other key players. Walmart, the dominant retailer in digital grocery, is expected to grow its share of total sales over the next 2 years. Instacart dominates the grocery delivery space, though DoorDash and Uber are slowly increasing in market share. In 2025, Uber and DoorDash will be among the fastest-growing players in digital grocery.

Our take: While Albertsons is wise to lean into price and convenience, it still has a ways to go to win share from competitors like Walmart and Kroger. This article is part of 蘑菇AV鈥檚 client-only subscription Briefings鈥攄aily newsletters authored by industry analysts who are experts in marketing, advertising, media, and tech trends.

The insight: Costco firmly rebuffed a shareholder proposal that challenged its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives鈥攁 marked contrast with retailers like Walmart and Lowe鈥檚 that have scaled back DEI measures in response to pushback from activist investors.

But its decision to cede the rapid-delivery market to its local competitors (and Walmart) cost it market share and growth opportunities. Amazon鈥檚 share of India鈥檚 ecommerce sales is expected to fall to 30.5% this year and continue dropping into 2026, per our forecast.

Amazon and Walmart combined will gobble up more than 84% of all retail media ad spending in 2025, representing a pervasive and unyielding dominance within the channel. The share of ad spending allocated to all other RMNs increased by less than 1 percentage point between 2019 and 2024.

Amazon and Walmart follow a similar playbook: The retailers use exclusive access to events like Prime Day and Walmart+ Early Access to showcase the value of their membership programs.

For example, Walmart now lets shoppers purchase prescription medications online and have them delivered alongside groceries and other items on the same day. Some 55% of its customers expressed a desire for such a service, and it was most requested by customers who self-identify as time-sensitive, busy families, according to Walmart.

Net charge-off trends differ, although Capital One鈥檚 charge-off rate jumped mainly from the Walmart card鈥檚 loss sharing agreement ending, the company said. Capital One鈥檚 net charge-offs (NCOs) were 6.02%, up on both the quarter (5.60%) and the year (5.33%). Without the Walmart effect, NCOs for the quarter would have been 5.66% in Q4 2024.

Why it matters: The new ad product reinforces Amazon鈥檚 position as a dominant force within digital advertising and will help solidify its grip on retail media even as competitors like Walmart and Instacart enhance their own capabilities.

Walmart customers kept spending, driving comparable sales up 4.2%. Walmart hasn鈥檛 seen any signs of weaker consumer spending, though its shoppers have grown more 鈥渃hoiceful, discerning, value-seeking,鈥� and focused on essentials over discretionary items, CFO John David Rainey told CNBC. Total revenues: $167.77 billion (4.8% YoY). Walmart US net sales: $115.35 billion (4.1% YoY).

On today's podcast episode, we discuss how retail media is meeting the demand for full funnel campaigns, what folks are building to help with measurement, and how in-store audio can upgrade the experience. "In Other News," we talk about whether there is enough money to go around in retail media and why performance marketers are shifting their priorities to brand building. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Sarah Marzano and Ryan Mayward, SVP of retail sales at Walmart Connect.

While Temu, Amazon, and Walmart will drive most of the growth, there鈥檚 still room for growth. Just ahead of the new year, Lowe鈥檚 and Best Buy each announced plans to launch third-party marketplaces. And we think dollar stores may be next.

Unlike Walmart鈥攐r Costco, which has a similar upscale customer base to Target鈥擳arget hasn鈥檛 found a formula that works in this macroeconomic environment. It is hard to shift brand perceptions, and Target鈥檚 increased emphasis on value is playing on turf owned by Walmart and Costco.

No matter how far Amazon pushes its grocery business, it鈥檚 unlikely to catch up to Walmart Inc., the leader in US grocery, which will amass $69.60 billion in grocery ecommerce sales next year compared with Amazon鈥檚 $49.77 billion. Prediction: Beauty gets hyper-personalized. Outcome: Correct.

Walmart expanded the beta test for its genAI shopping assistant and is using AI to show shoppers more relevant holiday content throughout the season. Our take: GenAI is set to play a larger role this holiday season. Retailers are trying to offer customers more relevant experiences, and customers are relying on the tech to research products and uncover deals.

The news: Walmart is scaling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including eliminating key partnerships and rebranding efforts, marking a significant shift in corporate diversity strategy among major retailers. The retailer is ending its $100 million commitment to the Racial Equity Center, a program launched in 2020.