Walmart – The Things We Never Knew
Monday, August 1st, 2011In my former life, I worked for a global agency on a global CPG brand. Much of what I did was research and shopper activation for North America and because of that, much of my life revolved around Walmart.
Well…that’s not entirely true.
Walmart is a retail powerhouse and everything that happens in their store is their business.
So much of my former life was spent standing outside Walmart speculating about what might be happening inside.
For decades, Walmart has never shared its store sales data with the outside world. For brands, agencies and researchers, the lack of data made it incredibly difficult to estimate or project the total sales of products or brands in the market.
Case in point – one of my old clients estimated more than 80% of their North American product moved through Walmart. They knew how much product was moving into Walmart but never really knew what happened once it left the trucks.
No idea who was buying. Price point, placement, purchase cycle, coupons? No idea.
Don’t get me wrong. Walmart would give us bits and pieces throughout the year BUT unless we were a dedicated initiative (or in bed with Bentonville), we had no idea what was actually happening in the world of Walmart.
Which leads me back to standing outside Walmart trying to get in.
For our clients, this was frustrating. For someone with a job in research and activation, this was infuriating.
Thankfully our sanity and patience have been saved: After more than a decade, Walmart and Nielsen have reached an agreement. In the agreement, Walmart and Sam’s Club will share sales information with Nielsen – in turn, Nielsen will analyze and incorporate the data into the marketplace.
Friends. Clients. Colleagues.
This is huge.
We all know shopper behaviors have changed drastically in the past few years. Everything from online shopping, to crazy couponing, flash sales, private label and packaging trends have changed consumer behaviors. As researchers, we struggle to paint an accurate picture because not only is so much happening, so much is unknown.
With Walmart data, a huge piece of that puzzle falls into place.
We don’t have to hypothesize or infer – we can know.
The more accurate the shopping information gathered by retailers and manufacturers, the better we can determine sales volumes, pricing, merchandising and promotions. We can finally have a clear view of shopper purchasing patterns and unmet needs.
That information is power.
The power to understand pricing, influence and purchase point.
The power to know an unmet need and a relevant brand to fill the void.
The power to fully understand and leverage all the things we never knew.
