Walmart Connect China Summit: ROAS Hits 5:1, 85% of Cross-border Sellers on Platform Leverage Official Ads for Growth

[Ebrun Original] Recently, Walmart Connect hosted its first annual China Summit in Shenzhen. Under the theme "Leading New Growth," the summit attracted over 2,000 cross-border e-commerce sellers and industry partners.

The event focused on key topics such as trend insights, peak season strategies, advertising products, and local services, unveiling multiple significant business metrics and comprehensively showcasing Walmart Connect's strategic layout in the global marketing arena for cross-border brands.

"We aim to make ad traffic a reliable lever for cross-border brands going global, covering the entire consumer journey from exposure, clicks, conversions to repeat purchases, thereby driving sustained sales growth," noted Kramer Wang, Group Director of Walmart Connect China, at the summit. He emphasized that cross-border enterprises are transitioning from 'product globalization' to 'brand globalization,' necessitating an upgrade in growth strategies.

01 Expanding Scale Momentum: First-Party Data Empowers Sellers

Latest financial report data shows that in Q2 of fiscal year 2027, Walmart's global advertising business grew 38% year-over-year, with U.S. advertising (including VIZIO) also up 38% year-over-year. As the largest retailer in the U.S., Walmart's advertising growth is fundamentally driven by its thriving retail business.

Currently, Walmart operates over 4,600 stores in the U.S., with approximately 150 million American consumers shopping weekly through physical stores and online channels.

Focusing on e-commerce, in the first half of this year, Walmart's marketplace business grew 50% year-over-year, marking the fastest growth rate in over two years. Maggie Preketes, Global Head of Emerging Sales and Marketplace Sales at Walmart Connect, pointed out that the company's comprehensive merchandise sales growth has achieved its best performance in five years, driven by strong e-commerce performance.

Certain categories have particularly excelled online.

For instance, in the fashion category, e-commerce brands now account for over 40% of total online sales; in the automotive category, e-commerce brand sales grew over 40% year-over-year, with $1 out of every $3 in sales coming from e-commerce brands.

Benefiting from rapid e-commerce growth, Walmart has accumulated vast first-party data.

Khurrum Malik, Vice President of Business & Product Marketing at Walmart Connect, stated that this enables Walmart Connect to generate insights based on genuine consumer behaviors like browsing, researching, and purchasing, applying these signals to ad targeting and performance measurement.

At the summit, he further shared insights into Walmart consumer behavior.

Data shows that 86% of beauty category consumers and 78% of pet category consumers research online before purchasing, meaning brands can influence consumers earlier through content and video before they make final brand choices.

However, some categories follow different 'discovery logic': 74% of women's apparel consumers and 61% of jewelry and accessories consumers discover products through browsing rather than active search, implying that for such audiences, if sellers only invest in search ads, their products are nearly invisible.

"This is the true value of first-party data—it tells you which stage of the consumer's shopping journey your category corresponds to," Khurrum Malik explained.

Beyond identifying behavioral differences in shopping journeys, first-party data also helps brands correctly understand consumer purchasing rhythms.

Khurrum Malik noted that U.S. consumers typically start shopping research four weeks before Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. Once consumers confirm their preferred stores, 80% to 92% of them make repeat purchases after the holiday shopping season.

This observation challenges traditional year-end promotion logic: the holiday season is not just about creating a single sales peak; after promotions end, brands still have opportunities to cultivate consumer loyalty and drive subsequent repeat purchases.

02 Full-Funnel Coverage and Multi-Stage Empowerment: What Advertising Solutions Does Walmart Offer?

At the summit, Walmart unveiled multiple latest advertising metrics, showcasing a simultaneous improvement in the scale and effectiveness of Chinese sellers' advertising investments.

Focusing on Chinese sellers, the number of new Chinese advertisers using Walmart ads has continued to grow this year, now accounting for 27% of total active advertisers. Meanwhile, the overall attributed sales from Chinese advertisers increased 52% year-over-year.

Across all sellers, 85% of cross-border e-commerce sellers on the platform now use Walmart ads, achieving an average return on ad spend (ROAS) of 5:1. Sellers using Walmart ads generate sales 8.6 times higher than those not using ads.

Different ad combinations also yield varying results. Data shows that sellers using both on-site display ads and sponsored product ads see a median increase in new-to-brand customer sales that is 45% higher than those using only sponsored product ads.

Behind these figures lies a comprehensive advertising solution built around the consumer decision-making journey.

On-site, the 'Full-Funnel Search Engine' integrates sponsored brands, sponsored video, and sponsored products ads to guide consumers from discovery, research, comparison, to purchase.

Off-site, diverse solutions such as social media, Walmart DSP, CTV/VIZIO, and in-store advertising cover multi-channel consumer touchpoints online and offline.

Earlier this year, Walmart acquired Vibe, a self-serve streaming TV advertising platform, now used by over 10,000 advertisers.

Shifting focus from ad reach to seller growth, Walmart provides a suite of tools designed to simplify operations and optimize campaign performance.

Yongyong Kennedy, Group Director of Product Marketing at Walmart Connect, segmented new seller growth into three phases: rapid scaling, refined growth, and foundation building.

For new sellers in the rapid scaling phase, Walmart will soon integrate Seller Center and Ad Center, allowing sellers to create and optimize ads directly within Seller Center without switching between platforms.

A negative keyword feature has also been launched to reduce budget waste from irrelevant traffic.

Additionally, the platform has introduced various AI tools that tailor ad strategies to individual seller situations and even auto-generate ad creatives meeting platform requirements.

Advertisers using this feature have seen a median 80% reduction in time spent creating creatives in the Ad Center's creative hub.

For sellers in the refined growth phase, Yongyong Kennedy recommended the Performance Max tool, which leverages smart bidding strategies like target ROAS and maximize sales to automate delivery, eliminating complex manual monitoring.

The platform will soon introduce variant-level bidding. A lower entry bid threshold lowers the barrier for video ads.

For mature brand sellers, Walmart Connect promises increased traffic support for brand stores.

For eligible advertisers, the platform is also rolling out audience-specific customer lifetime value (LTV) reports, helping sellers better understand the long-term value of different consumer segments and providing data-driven support for subsequent marketing decisions.

03 Rooted Locally with Enhanced Subsidies: Walmart Extends an Olive Branch to Chinese Sellers

Localized support is another crucial aspect where Walmart empowers Chinese brands to expand overseas.

Cici Yang, Senior Director of the Key Account Team at Walmart Connect, stated that Walmart Connect is providing more systematic local services to Chinese sellers across local team full-process support, product feedback mechanisms, advertising learning systems, and partner ecosystems.

Currently, Walmart has established 11 offices in China and built a professional seller service team.

Additionally, at the summit, Walmart unveiled an annual key benefit for advertisers:

qualifying sellers can receive up to $1,000 in ad credits to encourage opening Walmart ad accounts and testing campaigns;

for those with sponsored products experience eager to try new ad combinations, the platform also offers up to $500 in credits for sponsored brands and sponsored video ads.

It is noted that Walmart Connect is the international commerce media business under Walmart, a leading omnichannel retailer in the U.S. In China, Walmart Connect is dedicated to providing Chinese enterprises going global with omnichannel advertising solutions, closed-loop measurement, localized support, and ecosystem partner services, helping businesses at various development stages reach U.S. consumers, expand overseas markets, and build global brands.

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