Walmart Connect’s full-funnel ambitions come into focus, with Amazon in its sights

Walmart Connect, its ads business, grew 41% in the U.S. as reported in Walmart’s Q4 2025 earnings on Feb 19. That figure is up from its reported 33% growth in Q3.

“Walmart has solidified itself as that viable option and…when you look at competitively how Amazon is performing, Walmart’s performing is competitive in that space,” said Preston Larson, CEO of Modifly media agency and chief media officer of CourtAvenue, Modifly’s parent company. 

Walmart’s global ad business grew 46% to nearly $6.4 billion last year. Meanwhile, Amazon made $68 billion from advertising in 2025. Notably, Amazon just eclipsed Walmart in annual revenue for the first time.

Big swings paid off

Walmart’s recent investments are attempts to better compete in an increasingly crowded media marketplace. Last month, Walmart rolled out ads in Sparky, its AI shopping agent. It has also inked partnerships with Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT for AI-powered shopping experiences.

“Walmart is doing so many good strategic moves. Even when they’re partnering, there is a clear path to how they benefit,” said Mike Feldman, svp of commerce at Flywheel. He added, “Some of the most interesting ones are that they are so open for business in the AI space, which is obviously very different than how Amazon has historically approached it.”

While Walmart has partnered with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Amazon has not, which aligns with its more in-house approach to build proprietary tech as opposed to renting it, per Feldman.

These latest deals are on top of its existing relationships with key partners like Disney, LiveRamp, Meta, TikTok and of course, The Trade Desk. (Last August, Walmart ended its four-year exclusive partnership with The Trade Desk, allowing advertisers to use other DSPs to access its shopper data.)

Perhaps the biggest signal of Walmart’s ambitions was its acquisition of Vizio at the tail end of 2024. On its earnings call, the retailer reported “triple digit growth” in advertising with Vizio, according to evp and CFO for Walmart, John David Rainey.

Related Insights

Retail Media Rewritten

P&G bets big on retail integration as CPGs question incrementality Read More

Walmart has become a media network in its own right, working “across the entire value chain, not just in their traditional role as merchants,” P&G president and CEO Shailesh Jejurikar told investors and analysts at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) Conference.

In the 15 months since it acquired Vizio, Walmart’s promised to leverage Vizio’s SmartCast platform for advertising and open up ad inventory across connected TV placements. But that offering hasn’t yet delivered Amazon-like returns, per commerce execs. Walmart is still working on connecting its comprehensive data structure to turn it into full-funnel advertising, or an ad ecosystem, while the execs note that Amazon already has that set up.

Still, at least clients at Acadia digital agency, including big brands in the outdoor garden category, are seeing value in purchasing ads on the platform, according to Ross Walker, Acadia’s director of retail media. “They’re not small buys. It’s not a test the water,” said Walker, who declined to name any brands or budgets. “We’re making a significant investment in it.”  

The Vizio acquisition adds a new capability and “a lot of strong inventory” that Walmart Connect previously lacked, said Chris Rigas, vp of media at Markacy.

‘Catch up growth’ 

Whether Walmart’s efforts are enough to chip away at Amazon’s market share is still up for debate. U.S. advertisers are expected to spend $69.3 billion on retail media this year, up from $58.8 billion in 2025, per eMarketer. Walmart and Amazon will vacuum up over 89% of the incremental dollars spent in retail media, per the report.

“I would label this as ‘catch up’ growth for Walmart. Walmart’s ad business, even with this year’s growth, is still only about 10% of the size of Amazon’s,” said Rigas. “Amazon’s dominant position in the retail ad market reflects their stronger capability set than Walmart at this stage. ” 

That said, Rigas predicts that the gap between Walmart and Amazon will narrow — but only if Walmart is able to maintain its current expansion into higher-end offerings.