Walmart Luminate intros free basic package for suppliers
Following last year's launch of Walmart Luminate, Walmart is going one step further by offering a basic package free of cost to suppliers, according to a post on the company’s website by Mark Hardy, head of Walmart Data Ventures.
Noting that Walmart Luminate disrupted big data and analytics — an industry predicted to reach $655.53 billion by 2029, Hardy said, "Recognizing the tremendous opportunity to help accelerate the Walmart “Flywheel,” we commercialized and democratized our retail insights to deliver a single source of truth. We unlocked a unified picture of category health and consumer trends with unprecedented scale, bringing suppliers and merchants closer together to power data-driven business decisions. This, in turn, has allowed us to continue to deliver Every Day Low Prices to our customers.”
Noting that in just 11 months, the retailer grew revenue over 80% quarter over quarter, Hardy said, “Our total customer count has also grown and represents a diverse stable of categories and company sizes. But we’re far from done. Today marks the next chapter in Walmart Luminate history, as we formally announce the forthcoming launch of a Basic package free of cost to suppliers, making it even easier for suppliers of any size to work with merchants to grow their businesses."
[Read more: Walmart launches Healthcare Research Institute]
Hardy explained that at a high-level, basic subscribers will gain access to a subset of its Channel Performance insights, including the standard operational metrics needed to run their business. Charter subscribers will continue to receive the full suite of Channel Performance insights, in addition to meaningful Shopper Behavior and Customer Perception insights.
Access to a dedicated account team and engineering support for API ingestion will still only be available to Charter subscribers, Hardy said. "Suppliers that select Charter also will benefit from the ongoing addition of incremental data sets never seen before. For example, digital product transactability (i.e., insights regarding items added to cart and purchased via grocery pick-up and delivery) has been added to the roadmap for the upcoming fiscal year," he added.
Hardy continued, "This move also underscores the modernization of Walmart’s tech stack, as we upgrade the technology our customers and partners use to drive results. Walmart Global Tech created the platform in-house by leveraging existing Walmart Global Tech platforms and Walmart enterprise assets. Within just a few months, the team developed an enhanced experience that includes faster results for complex queries, the collation of real-time retail events, optimized insight visibility as well as increased data security and governance."
Hardy shared that feedback from merchandising associates has been overwhelmingly positive to date.
[Read more: Walmart acquires robotics automation company]
John Laney, senior vice president, GMM of Center of Store Food at Walmart, said, “Shared access to Walmart Luminate with our suppliers has been a gamechanger. Improved visibility to Shopper Behavior, Channel Performance and Customer Perception empowers us to make better, more strategic data-driven decisions. We can optimize assortments, forecast inventory and analyze customer sentiment which helps us deliver a more enjoyable, more personalized experience for customers.”
Hardy added, "Finally, we are exploring new and innovative ways to embed Walmart Luminate insights into other areas of our business. For example, we are working to directly integrate Walmart Luminate insights into existing merchandising tools to better facilitate data collaboration with suppliers. We are also piloting ways for actionable Walmart Luminate insights to be deployed, automated and scaled across Walmart Connect’s advertising ecosystem, and have seen positive results to date."
Walmart Luminate Basic is expected to become available in 2023.
Those interested in learning more about Walmart Luminate Charter can visit here.