Walmart Connect partners with Yahoo DSP

In May 2026, Walmart Connect announced an expanded partnership with Yahoo DSP (and Magnite) to make Walmart's first-party shopper data available for activation across offsite connected television (CTV) and programmatic inventory. This move allows advertisers to leverage Walmart's rich purchase-based audience segments — built from hundreds of millions of in-store and online transactions — beyond Walmart's own owned-and-operated properties and its proprietary DSP. By integrating with Yahoo DSP and Magnite's supply-side infrastructure, Walmart Connect effectively becomes a data layer that can be activated across a much broader ecosystem of premium video and display inventory. The significance of this partnership lies in Walmart Connect's strategic ambition to compete directly with Amazon's retail media network, which has long offered advertisers the ability to reach Amazon audiences across third-party properties via the Amazon DSP. By opening its first-party data to established demand-side and supply-side platforms, Walmart is lowering the barrier for agencies and brands already operating within Yahoo DSP's or Magnite's ecosystems to access Walmart audiences without needing to onboard a new DSP. This is a critical step in making Walmart Connect's data assets more accessible and scalable for mid-market and enterprise advertisers alike. From a broader retail media perspective, this partnership signals a maturation of the retail media network (RMN) model — moving from walled-garden, on-site ad placements toward an open, interoperable data distribution model. Walmart Connect is positioning itself as a data and audience provider as much as a media seller, which could significantly increase its total addressable revenue by monetizing its data across inventory it does not own or operate.

This partnership accelerates a key structural shift in retail media: the unbundling of first-party data from owned media inventory. Historically, retail media networks like Walmart Connect and Amazon Advertising required advertisers to buy media through their proprietary platforms to access their audience data. By distributing Walmart audiences through Yahoo DSP and Magnite, Walmart Connect is adopting a more open, interoperable model that threatens to commoditize the DSP layer while elevating the value of first-party data itself. This puts pressure on Amazon Advertising to similarly open its audience data to third-party DSPs, a move Amazon has resisted. Competitors like Kroger Precision Marketing, Target's Roundel, and Instacart Ads may feel compelled to follow suit with their own third-party DSP integrations to remain competitive. For Yahoo DSP, the partnership is a significant differentiator in a crowded DSP market, giving it a unique data asset that rivals The Trade Desk, DV360, and Amazon DSP may not offer. Magnite benefits as a preferred SSP for activating this data on the supply side, reinforcing its position in CTV programmatic. The deal also reflects the growing importance of CTV as the premium channel for retail media offsite extension, as advertisers seek to connect purchase-based targeting with high-impact video formats. Identity resolution and clean room infrastructure will be critical enablers of this partnership, likely involving intermediaries such as LiveRamp or Snowflake to facilitate privacy-safe data collaboration.