Walmart Connect and Index Exchange extend shopper data to open web
Walmart Connect is extending retail media data to the open internet via its Connect Select marketplace, developed in collaboration with Index Exchange. The initiative leverages Vizio TV inventory to allow advertisers to link streaming ad campaigns with in-store and online sales data for closed-loop measurement.
Key Takeaways
- Connect Select marketplace enables programmatic access to premium streaming inventory via Index Exchange and secondary supply partners.
- The initiative leverages Vizio's SmartCast operating system to reach millions of households with direct retail media integration.
- Walmart's 'Backyard Escapes' campaign, produced by in-house studio Lightbox Creative, drove nearly 50% new shoppers in-store.
- Closed-loop measurement capabilities now trace non-linear consumer journeys across 4,600 brick-and-mortar stores and 150 million weekly online shoppers.
- The platform focuses on collapsing silos between brand and performance budgets by providing verified purchase outcome data for top-of-funnel streaming ads.
Why It Matters
This move signals the maturation of retail media networks from static display platforms into multi-channel operating systems. By bridging Vizio’s streaming hardware with Walmart’s transactional data, the partnership creates a formidable alternative to the Amazon/Freevee ecosystem. For advertisers, this resolves long-standing attribution friction in CTV, shifting streaming from a reach-only channel to a measurable performance driver. As retail media spend moves offsite, the industry’s ability to prove incrementality across fragmented platforms will determine market leadership. Watch for Walmart's upcoming 'Join The Club' back-to-school campaign for secondary performance benchmarks on this integrated stack.
Additional Context
The expansion of Walmart Connect follows the retailer’s December 2024 closure of its $2.3 billion acquisition of Vizio. According to Marketing Dive (June 2026), this integration has been pivotal in Walmart’s internal transition away from a four-year exclusivity agreement with The Trade Desk, as the company increasingly manages its own DSP and supply-side partnerships. Recent eMarketer data from July 2026 projects that U.S. retail media ad spend will reach $71.09 billion this year, with Walmart and Amazon expected to capture nearly 90% of all net-new dollars in the category. This growth is increasingly driven by 'offsite' activations where retailers weaponize their first-party data on external streaming and social platforms. Technically, Walmart is streamlining this cross-platform experience through a unified login system that connects Vizio devices and Walmart’s private-label Onn TVs, as reported by Mass Market Retailers in March 2026. This allows for persistent identity resolution, aiding the 'closed-loop' attribution Diana Finster highlighted. Performance metrics reported at the 2026 IAB NewFronts indicated that CTV campaigns via Walmart Connect delivered a median of 44% new-to-brand buyers in fiscal year 2026. This high conversion rate is credited to the 'content-to-commerce' model, which uses Vizio’s Inscape ACR data to track viewing habits and match them against Walmart’s database of 150 million weekly customers. Industry analysts at Osmos (July 2026) suggest that as commerce media converges with CTV, retailers are evolving from inventory sellers into full-stack technology providers, forcing pure-play streamers to adopt more rigorous measurement standards to compete for performance-based budgets.
Read full article at indexexchange.com
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