Walmart beat Wall Street's expectations Q3 2022 fueled by shoppers buying low priced groceries and a strong back-to-school season. In the U.S., ecommerce sales grew 16% year-over-year. With these latest numbers, Walmart raised its outlook for the whole year. Here are a few updates and initiatives that Walmart is implementing to continue growth on their website and app.
PDP content update
It's been quite a year for brands without enhanced content since Walmart debuted its integrated website. Enhanced content, however, is back and some capabilities are now becoming available.
Once again, above-the-fold videos are back. Because this wasn't available this past year, many brands held off on creating or updating enhanced content for their PDP. If you find yourself in this scenario, OneStone can help you get started with our in-house design services.
New feature: Interactive videos on Walmart's site
Walmart now lets you add interactive videos to its image carousel in addition to numerous standard videos. In this InstantPot example, the brand lets shoppers try their own experience on Walmart.com. It’s more engaging than your standard video. Other interactive videos from brands let you select product attributes like size, color, and other features. Across the top you'll see options for video, interactive video and photos.
Links to Brand Stores are on PDPs
Look to the right, just above the product title, to see what's new. Shoppers may now access extra articles, videos, and other information by clicking through to your brand's store link. Use this area to inform shoppers about your company's name, products, and services, and to strengthen brand equity. Instant Brands example below:
Walmart's Retail Media business continues to grow
From this week's Q3 earnings call, Walmart’s ad business continues to grow. Its global advertising business grew more than 30% year over year, led by gains in the U.S. In the third quarter, Walmart had the highest ad spend all year for sponsored search.
Beginning in October 2022, Walmart Connect made its self-service ad bidding offer—dubbed Search Brand Amplifier—available to Walmart Marketplace sellers. Previously, only a few handpicked Marketplace vendors and 1P suppliers had access to the service according to Walmart's press release.
What this means is that shoppers will be able to discover new sellers, but it also increases competition among all brands competing for limited space. It's important that brands routinely conduct advertising audits of keywords and campaigns to adapt to changing shopper behaviors and advertising competition.
Walmart is rolling out sponsored video ads
In order to catch up with Amazon and Instacart, Walmart plans to test sponsored video ads in Q4 with a full rollout out through 2023. These ads will be sold on a cost-per-click model.