WASHINGTON: Walmart Inc will consolidate advertising sales for its stores and websites, it said on Tuesday, aiming to boost profits from an untapped business as the world's largest retailer competes with marketing titans Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc.
The move comes as rival Amazon is boosting profits by letting merchants pay for high placement in its search results. Its ad sales and other revenue jumped 95 percent to US$3.4 billion in the fourth quarter. At Walmart's investor conference in October, Chief Executive Doug McMillon said its ad business was"tiny" and"it could be bigger." He said the company's data has not been monetized.Walmart also said this month its online losses are likely to widen this year due to investments to expand the business, and the advertising push could offset some of that.
The challenge for companies and marketers often is gauging whether their investments are yielding a return. Walmart will address that challenge by connecting data from stores and online and offering a pitch that is"much more effective than many others can," Bratspies said.