Scaling Innovation, Full-Funnel Growth, and Performance: Key Themes from CES 2026

This year at CES, Walmart Connect showcased how AI-powered retail media — grounded in real customer behavior — is shaping how brands drive growth with greater speed, relevance, and accountability.

Retail media is entering a more disciplined phase, shaped by the need for scale powered by AI, solutions that connect across the funnel, and performance held to real business scrutiny. Success will no longer be defined by reach alone, but by how effectively platforms help brands make smarter decisions to drive sales.

During our week in Las Vegas, we anchored our conversations around three core themes: omnichannel scale built for real-world reach, full-funnel solutions that ignite brand growth and closed-loop signals that deliver performance you can trust.

Innovation that scales

At CES, we shared how AI powers scale at Walmart Connect, enabling brands to move faster, work smarter, and grow more efficiently, built on Walmart’s access to real customer insights across digital and physical touchpoints.

That scale is built on Walmart’s access to approximately 150 million U.S. customers every week across digital and physical touchpoints,¹ and more than 4,600 stores nationwide.² When combined with AI, this access allows brands to reach customers with greater relevance and precision, while supporting faster execution and more efficient growth.

AI is also expanding where and how customers engage. New AI-driven surfaces like Walmart’s shopping agent, Sparky, are beginning to reshape how customers search, discover, and evaluate products. Sparky is already seeing strong adoption, with 94% of surveyed users saying it performs as well as or better than other retailers’ chatbots.³ This evolution reflects a broader industry shift toward agentic AI, as retailers and platforms explore how intelligent systems can help brands move faster and operate more effectively at scale.

GenAI is also beginning to change how advertisers bring ideas to market at scale. In a conversation with James Kotecki at the C Space Studio, we touched on how tools like the Automated Brand Shop Builder enables ready-to-activate ad creative in minutes, while the Automated Creative Generator can reduce advertisers’ median creative production time by up to 80%.⁴

Full-funnel solutions that spark brand growth

Retail media is most effective when solutions work together across the funnel. At CES, the focus was on how integrated brand, performance and measurement solutions ignite brand growth at every stage of the connected commerce journey, helping brands build awareness, accelerate consideration and drive conversion.

That integration is taking shape through agentic tools and high-impact media environments. Marty, Walmart Connect’s advertising assistant now in beta for Sponsored Search, helps brands plan, launch and optimize campaigns through plain-language guidance and actionable recommendations, with 97% of advertiser queries proving unique.⁵ At the same time, Walmart Connect and VIZIO continue to expand the role of CTV in driving full-funnel impact. New research showed that adding Walmart Connect CTV or VIZIO to linear buys unlocked net new reach, with three-quarters of those audiences not reached through linear TV alone, turning awareness into action on the biggest screen in the home.⁶

Partnerships are extending that impact even further. At CES, Walmart Connect and Omnicom Media Group announced the expansion of an influencer proof of concept through a new collaboration with Meta, which was re-amplified on Omnicom’s stage alongside Ryan Mayward, Omnicom, Meta, and Bimbo. By combining Walmart’s purchase-based audience insights with influencer follower data across Meta platforms, the partnership reframes influencer discovery around what audiences actually buy. Alongside first-to-market measurement partnerships like NBCUniversal, these collaborations reflect how full-funnel solutions are evolving, bringing media, culture and commerce closer together while keeping performance front and center.

Performance that delivers

As retail media matures, advertisers are demanding more than reporting. They want proof of what’s sparking real sales. Delivering that proof requires signals that connect media exposure directly to business outcomes across both online and in-store.

This shift mirrors how customers shop today. Omnichannel shopper research across categories including food, beverages, home décor, electronics and toys shows that nearly half of surveyed in-store shoppers research online before purchasing,⁷ underscoring why performance measurement must capture influence wherever the transaction occurs. 

At CES, that focus on measurable, incremental impact was reinforced in industry conversations, including in an interview with The Drum that highlighted the growing importance of incrementality as the foundation for sustainable growth and advertiser trust. A key example is Search Incrementality (now in GA), a capability that quantifies the true business impact of Sponsored Search by translating complex data into causal signals. Early results show sales lift of up to 9.0% and iROAS as high as $10.06 for a General Merchandise advertiser during the case study testing period.⁸ 

Third-party validation further underscored the strength of these signals. New data released at CES showed Walmart Connect delivers 2.8x stronger incremental ROAS and 2x higher sales lift than Circana digital media benchmarks across qualifying campaigns in key categories.⁹ These results reinforce what advertisers are increasingly demanding from retail media: signals that move beyond reporting to connect media directly to sales, giving brands the confidence to invest and scale with certainty.

The next phase of retail media

CES 2026 reflected rising expectations for retail media, with greater emphasis on scale, integrated solutions and signals that connect media investment to real business outcomes — giving brands faster insight into what’s working, what’s selling and where to invest next.

That evolution is already taking shape. Let’s spark sales.

Footnotes & citations

1. Walmart annual report papers, March 14, 2025.
2. Walmart first-party data, February 2025.
3. Walmart's "Ask Sparky" AI-based Shopping Assistant Custom Survey; Walmart Customer Spark Community data provided by Walmart Scintilla; survey conducted by the Walmart Connect Media Insights Primary Research survey team; August 2025. Walmart's "Ask Sparky" AI-based Shopping Assistant Custom Survey; Walmart Customer Spark Community data provided by Walmart Scintilla; survey conducted by the Walmart Connect Media Insights Primary Research survey team; August 2025. 
4. Walmart first party data from August to October 2025. Creative production time is measured in minutes between the time creative is created to the time creative is submitted. Beta participants using ACG compared against all advertisers submitting creatives manually within the same timeframe. Due to limited timeframe, results may vary.
5. Walmart first-party data, August 11–December 9, 2025. 
6. Walmart 1st party data 4/2025 – 10/2025; iSpot Professional Services were used to categorize whether a Walmart Connect campaign used either VIZIO, CTV, Linear TV or combination of VIZIO, CTV, and Linear TV. iSpot is an independent third party and not affiliated with Walmart Connect. Walmart 1st party data 4/2025 – 10/2025; iSpot Professional Services were used to categorize whether a Walmart Connect campaign used either VIZIO, CTV, Linear TV or combination of VIZIO, CTV, and Linear TV. iSpot is an independent third party and not affiliated with Walmart Connect.
7. WMC Omnichannel Survey: Walmart Customer Spark Community data provided by Walmart Scintilla, Nov 2025.
8. Search Incrementality General Merchandise Case Study; Walmart first-party data February 5–March 3, 2025.
9. Walmart Connects sales lift benchmarks analysis performed by Circana, September 2024 – September 2025. Walmart Connect benchmark data includes campaigns that qualified for a sales lift data in either the Food, Consumables, Beverages, or Alcohol categories only. Industry benchmarks are provided by Circana. Circana is an independent third party and not affiliated with Walmart Connect.