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There\u2019s been talk for some time about the collapse of the traditional \u201cfunnel.\u201d Consumers no longer move along a linear path from awareness to consideration to purchase, and they haven\u2019t for years. Now, with the rise of AI-powered search and discovery, that path to purchase is becoming even more fragmented and variable. But regardless of how ecommerce evolves from here, core hubs of commerce activity and intel will remain \u2014 and one of those hubs is the app and website of the world\u2019s largest retailer, Walmart<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Walmart\u2019s digital platforms feature 20 million<\/strong> first-party items that are shopped by millions<\/strong> of consumers every week. That\u2019s a lot of insight into what consumers are looking for and ultimately buying. For years now, Walmart has been working to coalesce that data and make it accessible to its suppliers through the Scintilla suite of insights tools, to help improve not only sales performance but also the customer experience.<\/p>\n \u201cThe customer journey is really not linear, and with that level of assortment and all the different entry points into our site and our app, we wanted to provide a product that delivers really robust insights around the digital shopping journey<\/strong>,\u201d said Linda Lomelino, Group Director at Walmart Data Ventures in an interview with Retail TouchPoints<\/em>. That way, \u201cboth suppliers and internal users alike can understand how customers are shopping our site and app, as well as [determining] what these pre-purchase behaviors are so that we can make the customer experience even better going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that data is getting an upgrade with a series of enhancements to Scintilla\u2019s Digital Landscapes tool, including the addition of 15<\/strong> new metrics and a revamped user experience.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see the priorities in the [Walmart] business, and we hear from our suppliers all day,\u201d Lomelino said. \u201cAs a product person, you want to make sure that you\u2019re delivering exactly the value that you hope to deliver, and a lot of that [right now] is driven by an <\/strong>increased importance of the PDP<\/strong> [product detail page], but also making sure that we can cater to things like viral moments.<\/strong> And the piece that is really critical is being able to see the metric and then pivot strategy quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what skin and haircare brand E.T. Browne<\/strong>, an early beta tester of the new Digital Landscapes experience, was able to do. The company noticed a massive surge in transactions for its Palmer\u2019s Cocoa Butter Firming Formula lotion, and using insights from Walmart shopping sessions was able to track the upswing back to a viral moment on TikTok<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce they understood what was actually happening, they capitalized on that moment and adjusted their forecasting and replenishment strategy<\/strong> to accommodate the increased traffic coming to that product,\u201d said Lomelino. \u201cThey took what could have been a pretty large supply chain challenge and used it to really drive sustained growth going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The Digital Landscapes product launched last June and has been available to Charter members of Scintilla \u2014 who pay a subscription fee for enhanced data access and tools \u2014 for over a year now. E.T. Browne isn\u2019t alone in finding the enhanced tool useful, with Lomelino saying that the response from beta testers has been \u201coverwhelmingly positive.\u201d Now the experience is live for all Charter members.<\/p>\n Enhancements include a complete redesign of the user experience aimed at making the insights \u201csuper consumable,\u201d so that both data experts and non-experts can \u201cvisualize the insights in a more effective way and understand what a metric means and how it drives the business,\u201d said Lomelino. \u201cYou\u2019ll see things like a Sankey chart [a type of flow diagram] that really beautifully describes how traffic is both coming in and exiting our site and our app, to help [suppliers] understand if there are improvements they can make to drive traffic to their product page or drive conversion.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The update also includes the addition of 15<\/strong> incremental metrics, including:<\/p>\n Suppliers can view aggregate metrics on their full Walmart product slate or drill down to the single UPC level<\/strong>. What\u2019s not available are competitors\u2019 metrics, for obvious reasons, but Lomelino said that with the new search insights, brands will be able to learn a lot about category-level behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cThese enhancements can really drive improved digital strategies, whether it\u2019s advertising or supply chain or just a better understanding of how customers search for the category<\/strong>,\u201d Lomelino added. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to drive on our side is improved discoverability, improved product conversion, increased purchases and loyalty over time, which fits in really nicely with the larger mission of becoming America\u2019s favorite place to shop.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, one of the most important ways suppliers will use this data is to inform their advertising strategies, which at Walmart means the Connect retail media business.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can allocate their digital spend more effectively, because they understand the digital journey much better<\/strong> with the insights that we provide,\u201d said Lomelino. \u201cNot only that, but then in real time they can optimize campaigns that are in flight by understanding if the campaign is driving the behaviors they expect it to be driving.\u201d<\/p>\n And of course, given that one of Walmart\u2019s biggest strengths is its physical store network, other Scintilla modules offer omnichannel insights into shopper behavior and product sales performance.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have heard from our suppliers very broadly is that they\u2019re triangulating the Digital Landscapes data with all of the other transactional data <\/strong>so they can optimize for broader messaging,\u201d said Lomelino. \u201cSo if you see keyword searches that point to something very specific or something viral, suppliers are obviously going to be able to capitalize on some of those signals and then leverage them, whether it\u2019s in-store or online, through Walmart Connect or their traditional marketing assets.<\/p>\n \u201cWalmart\u2019s mission is to make the digital shopping experience intuitive and help customers find what they\u2019re looking for as seamlessly as possible,\u201d she added. \u201cBy empowering both our suppliers and our internal users to have those insights, they can work on behalf of this mission of helping us give customers the most seamless experience possible.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhat\u2019s New in Digital Landscapes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Insights Designed to Drive Business Results<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Data Helps Refine Advertising Campaigns<\/strong><\/h2>\n