Walmart Connect quietly made a change this winter that improves vendors’ ability to manage and optimize their advertising campaigns in the Walmart ecosystem. That change is integrating Pickup & Delivery advertising with Walmart.com advertising.

It’s just one of the many offerings from the newly renamed and rebranded Walmart Connect (formerly Walmart Media Group), providing increasing opportunities for brands to grow their businesses in Walmart’s omnichannel system.

Pickup & Delivery is a grocery program, but it’s also much more. Because it utilizes Walmart’s brick-and-mortar stores, brands with an in-store presence with non-grocery items like diapers, makeup, or craft supplies are seeing a big uplift with this program.

Let’s break down the details of the Pickup & Delivery program, how ad campaign integration works, and how vendors can optimize their ad strategy. 

Caption: Walmart.com offers shoppers a choice to order for shipping or to use Pickup & Delivery

What is Pickup & Delivery?

Pickup & Delivery is the app and site Walmart uses to enable shoppers to purchase groceries and other items by ordering directly from their local Walmart brick-and-mortar store. These orders are fulfilled by either curbside pick-up or home delivery. Pickup & Delivery is available only for 1P vendors, not for 3P sellers.

This program is an ingenious use of Walmart’s incredible network of local stores to expand fulfillment options for their ecommerce shoppers. One of Walmart’s greatest strengths is its more than 5,000 stores across the U.S. and this is utilizing that strength.

It’s a change that leverages these assets to meet the covid era need for contactless grocery shopping. The pandemic saw a seachange in online grocery shopping habits. 

Before the pandemic, only 19% of consumers had ever bought groceries online. By the middle of 2020, nearly 80% were getting their groceries online. During that time, Walmart passed Amazon as the largest ecommerce grocery retailer.

Pickup & Delivery is designed to give shoppers a lot of control over their shopping experience. They can use the site or the app to shop 24/7 to get the same prices as they would find in the stores. There’s a $35 minimum order but then contactless pickup is free. Home delivery is also free with a Walmart+ membership.

Caption: Walmart Pickup & Delivery enablers online shoppers to get their orders from their local Walmart store

How does ad campaign integration work?

In March, Walmart Connect introduced the integration of ad campaigns, simplifying ad management. The update means greater opportunity for advertisers on the Walmart marketplace. 

The change makes all inventory on both pickup and delivery as well as marketplace platforms available for advertising via marketplace ads, creating opportunities to advertise grocery and store items.

Vendors now get unified reporting. Ad sales attribution is combined across both Pickup & Delivery and Walmart.com, as are impressions, clicks, CTR, and so on. 

Reported ROAS is now based on clicks only. This represents a move away from view-plus-click attribution to a more standard way of calculating ROAS.

Pickup & Delivery ads can appear in several placements, including search in-grid, featured items, carousel, and “you may also like.” The homepage carousel ad placement delivers based on localization so shoppers see only items that are available in stores near them. 

Advertisers still have access to both auto and manual campaign types, giving you the power to discover performing keywords and take control over how you bid on them. As with the dot com ads, base SKUs only can be advertised. Across the entire Walmart platform, the cost per click will start at $.20 for auto campaigns and $.30 for manual campaigns.

Get the most juice out of pickup and delivery

What does the change mean for Walmart vendors? It means your ads will deliver across more search types, giving you the opportunity to see higher clicks and conversions.

As a Walmart ads API partner, Teikametrics has access to Pickup & Delivery which is now integrated into the ad platform. 

That means we’re perfectly positioned to help you take advantage of the opportunity to market to grocery shoppers in Walmart’s ecommerce ecosystem. 

Our analysts will help you understand where you have the potential for incremental growth and will structure and optimize your ads to achieve your goals.

Takeaways

Here’s what you need to remember about Walmart Pickup & Delivery:

  • Pickup & Delivery ads are now integrated with Walmart.com
  • The integration makes it easier to control your Walmart ads
  • It also gives you easier access to the large volume of online grocery shoppers
  • Brands with an in-store presence for non-grocery items are seeing big uplift
  • Teikametrics can help you plan your Pickup & Delivery strategy

Interested in Teikametrics’ ad management services for Walmart?

Let’s Talk