Following to the announcement of their media business Walmart Connect, Walmart launched a display self-serve platform to enable advertisers to activate and manage display campaigns with automation capabilities. This platform will deliver the same omnichannel impact but with more speed, control and convenience.

Walmart acquired Thunder’s IP and technology, which will offer creative versioning, testing and optimization to help advertisers increase their return on ad spend (ROAS). Thunder’s technology and team will reduce the time between the idea for an ad and the ad going live for suppliers. The Thunder technology will be integrated with display self-serve platform to help brands automate their creative. Thunder will also increase ad effectiveness over time with creative versioning, testing and optimization – unlocking advertiser-specific insights for higher return on ad spend.

“While we expect our largest suppliers to adopt automation technology fastest, we are building this new platform to scale for Marketplace sellers and suppliers of all sizes. It also makes Walmart Connect an option for more and more suppliers.,” the company said in a press release.

The advertisers will also be able to review different ads performances and can make changes on the basis of marketing requirements. 

In late January, the company had highlighted that Walmart Connect would focus on three strategic areas to become one of the top ten advertising platforms in the U.S. over five years, including expanding offsite media opportunities at scale, introducing new in-store experiences, and growing offerings across Walmart's digital properties.

The company is also launching new omnichannel capabilities that enable advertisers to reach its millions of in-store shoppers each week. These include media activations on in-store TV walls and self-check-out screens with nearly 170,000 digital screens across more than 4,500 stores. 

Lastly, Walmart has partnered with The Trade Desk to launch a demand-side platform for suppliers and their media ad agencies to drive performance outside of Walmart’s proprietary sites using first-party shopper data.