It’s not exactly fish and loaves, but Walmart’s Q2 earnings report looks like a miracle of sorts. This week, TWIRM is marveling at how, despite economic headwinds, the retail giant’s ad network has gone from a strong revenue stream to an all-mighty profit engine.
TWIRM, as always, is the This Week in Retail Media podcast, where Kate Dickson, Head of Marketing and Communications, Retail Media, STRATACACHE, and Jonathan Rosen, STRATACACHE’s Global EVP of Retail Media Strategy, gab about three retail media news stories that intrigue them, excite them and even, sometimes, shiver their proverbial “timbers.”
This week’s first timber-shivering story (courtesy of Digiday) is about Walmart’s stunning 46% global advertising revenue surge in Q2 2025, including 31% growth from its Walmart Connect platform alone. Those numbers are impressive on their own, but the big picture is jaw-dropping: Advertising, along with membership and marketplace services, now accounts for half of Walmart’s incremental profit.
Is the retailer’s data on shoppers of every stripe behind the surge? “Walmart is America,” notes Jonathan. “Their shopper base is so enormous that they have every demographic and every psychographic of customers.” Kate agrees that its massive success likely hinges on analytics and attribution, which is separating “the victors from the ones just having a go” across the retail media landscape.
Next, Kate and Jonathan size up BP’s partnership with Axonet to roll out retail media across 8,500 U.S. locations, and ask if the fabled “late-mover advantage” is real. Finally, they roll over to U.K. grocery giant Waitrose’s smart trolley trial, which is equipping carts with AI-powered cameras and mobile retail media screens.
