Walmart Luminate Goes International

Walmart has begun rolling out its data analytics product suite, Walmart Luminate, internationally — starting with Walmex in Mexico and to be followed by Walmart Canada later this year.

In 2021, the retail giant established Walmart Data Ventures, a division dedicated to developing new business applications from first-party data. The idea then was to enhance the customer experience across the entire value chain through Walmart Luminate, wrote Mark Hardy, head of Walmart Data Ventures, in a recent corporate blog post. 

Mirroring the strategy used in the U.S., this will be a phased launch, starting with shopper behavior followed by channel performance and customer perception. This move allows Walmart’s multi-market suppliers to now leverage the Luminate platform outside the U.S.

“We couldn't be more excited to extend our innovative retail solutions to these new markets and empower our merchants and suppliers with a shared view of the customer and our products – from the physical to the digital shelf,” Hardy wrote. 

Walmart Luminate was designed to aid suppliers’ retail strategies — from product assortment to product development — regardless of the size. Hardy said 90% of Walmart's largest suppliers have signed up for a Luminate Charter subscription, and some of the smaller suppliers account for approximately 50% of its total subscriptions.

“Through our acquisition of Volt Systems in 2022, we’ve been able to extend our value proposition to store operators and primary service providers by providing on-demand visibility to merchandising resources that help ensure our customers can find the right product, in the right place, at the right time,” Hardy wrote. 

"At Kimberly-Clark, Walmart Luminate has played an integral role in our strategy,” said Amanda Coussoule, vice president of sales for Walmart at Kimberly-Clark. “[The platform empowers us to tailor our offerings precisely to consumer needs, ensuring unparalleled shopping experiences. Extending this capability to Walmex and Walmart Canada will further enhance our ability to make data-driven decisions.”

Excerpt from P2PI’s Retailer Profile for Walmart (Available to Members Only)

Walmart Luminate is a suite of data products built for Walmart’s internal merchants and outside vendors in partnership with Dunnhumby. It mines info on Walmart’s 150 million online and in-store shopper visits per week. Primary users are Walmart merchandising, account and brand/shopper marketing teams, which can use the data and insights generated for category reviews, assortment optimization and planning across channels. Merchants and suppliers have the same view of data surrounding, for example, packaging redesigns, line extensions and distribution changes that may affect a brand’s performance across Walmart’s sales channels. Merchants and suppliers can also survey customers about what drove their purchase decisions. 

Beginning in October 2023, Walmart began requiring all its suppliers to move over to the service as it phases out its Decision Support System app — which suppliers used to track store sales, survey inventory and predict demand in stores — in early 2024.

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