Walmart Luminate highlights what’s happened inside the store and online like never before. Insite AI emphasizes what to do next with the data.
Walmart Luminate is a game-changing data platform that shines a light into a deep, dark data void, where no CPG has had visibility before. The platform delivers shopper insights, product performance and channel data such as pickup and delivery orders across 140 million households — weekly.
The platform is revolutionizing how brands use data to reach their consumers, but Insite AI can help unlock even more potential within the data. For example, Walmart Luminate highlights what’s happened inside the store and online like never before. Insite AI emphasizes what to do next with the data. Insite AI’s machine learning and AI models provide a forward-looking tactical layer on top of the Walmart data. Brands can see how a change in pricing, promotions or pack sizes will alter their course in the marketplace.
Walmart Luminate delivers the data. We help you put it in motion.
Walmart Luminate and Insite AI at work
Having spent nearly 20 years of my career at Walmart, most recently as the VP of merchandising in dry grocery, as well as working within bakery, personal care and other categories, I have been fortunate to see Walmart pilot and cultivate the Walmart Luminate program.
I also have a tremendous amount of experience working with brands to grow and maneuver within Walmart. I mention this, because alongside Brooke Hodierne, who was SVP of merchandising at 7-Eleven, and Capri Brixey, who was a former leader at Coca-Cola, we add a human element to the numbers. We overlay business intuition and consultation as a result of our deep and diverse business backgrounds.
With that said, let’s look at some hypothetical scenarios where Walmart Luminate and Insite AI can work together to help brands get better results.
- Product innovation. A snack food brand uses Walmart Luminate to look at larger category trends and in the process identifies a competitive product making waves. The new challenger brand delivers higher protein content and is more affordable. In response, the snack food brand has decided to create a new line of products with 10 more grams of protein. Insite AI can help that brand forecast a range of scenarios on how a certain pack size would perform against that competitor. What pricing would work better? Would a specific promotion generate more sales at launch, and how will it be performing months down the line?
- Brand-switching behavior. Walmart Luminate delivers a weekly report to a detergent brand that shows the detergent was out of stock in a specific region of the country. It also shows what percentage of households switched to a new brand because of the out-of-stock product, highlights what brand the households bought and shares more in-depth analysis. Insite AI can then layer in predictive market analytics around demand forecasting in consumer segments and parts of the country to help the detergent brand see where its brand loyalty lies and how to effectively respond.
- Delivery trends. Within Walmart Luminate’s data is a look at online transactions for delivery and pickup at the store, and a beer brand, for example, can narrow in to see if there was a spike in delivery during the first Sunday of the NFL football season. What brand had the highest delivery? Which brands lagged? At what time of the day did the deliveries occur most? Insite AI can layer on the tactical to see if the trend will continue and deliver efficient forecasts on what types of promotions or moves can be made to accelerate the trend and predict when out of stocks may occur.
Factor in all the categories and shopping behaviors happening daily inside a Walmart, and the scenarios facing brands are endless. Walmart Luminate works with brands of all sizes, offering a free package with limited insights. There is a monetized version which provides customer decision trees, leakage trees and real-time insights across 140 million households.
No doubt, the data platform will grow. Insite AI will grow alongside it, working with CPGs to help solve their challenges.
Unprecedented data and insights
No other data platforms deliver a view into online delivery and pickup behaviors, giving Walmart Luminate a major competitive advantage. Before Walmart Luminate, CPGs had to rely on panel data and qualitative data sets to try and spot a trend.
But the panel data is tens of thousands of households, and the data is months old. Brands have done excellent work with panel data but it can also be tricky. The results rely on how the panel responds, and sometimes people say what they want you to hear, or the subset of people in the panel isn’t very broad, in my opinion.
Walmart Luminate offers brands data at scale, and the data presents a complete picture of shopper behaviors and households. The data withholds any identifiable information of a shopper, but it represents 140 million households across income levels and ethnicities shopping at Walmart stores. CPGs have at their fingertips truly robust data.
