When Sam's Club "Connects" With Walmart, What Actually Connects?

When I sat down with Harvey Ma at Cannes Lions this week, I wanted to understand what was really happening behind Walmart’s announcement that it was bringing Walmart Connect, Walmart Connect International, and Sam’s Club’s retail media business into closer alignment. On the surface, it looks like a straightforward consolidation storY. But as Harvey explained, the reality is much more nuanced.
In this episode, I unpack what the new Sam’s Club Connect brand means for advertisers, how Walmart and Sam’s Club plan to share technology and measurement capabilities, and why maintaining distinct shopper experiences may be more important than achieving scale. I also explore the surprising differences between Walmart shoppers and Sam’s Club members, and what this tells us about the future of retail media consolidation.

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline
00:24 – Walmart announces a major restructuring of its global advertising business, bringing Walmart Connect and Sam’s Club closer together.
02:05 – What the launch of Sam’s Club Connect actually means and why “operate separately, increasingly aligned” is the key phrase to understand.
03:31 – Harvey explains how Sam’s Club’s deterministic member data creates a unique measurement advantage that can benefit Walmart.
04:10 – How Sam’s Club’s experiential retail media expertise—from demos to sampling—could influence Walmart’s broader strategy.
06:19 – Harvey shares why the overlap between Walmart shoppers and Sam’s Club members may be much smaller than advertisers assume.
07:57 – The biggest misconception about the announcement: why Walmart isn’t trying to create “one blob” of retail media.
09:05 – What the Sam’s Club Connect rebrand reveals about retail media consolidation, commerce media networks, and the limits of scale.

Links & Resources
Follow Harvey Ma, VP & GM, Sam’s Club Connect Retail Media, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:'Not A Tax': How Sam's Club Is Fixing Retail Media's Trust Problem (Forbes)
Sam's Club Cracked the Code on In-Store Retail Media—Here's How They Did It
Sam's Club Bets Big on 'Experiential' Retail Media
What if there really are too many commerce media networks?

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