Will Walmart Make More Profit from Advertising, E-Commerce than Brick-and-Mortar Store Sales?

The announced acquisition of TV manufacturer Vizio by Walmart will marry Walmart's streaming content with a key appliance supplier, boosting opportunities to create advertising revenue. 

And some believe Walmart will eventually make more profit from its advertising, streaming and online platform than from sales of goods at its retail stores.

By some estimates, Amazon controlled 75 percent of the $45.15 billion U.S. retail media ad market in 2023. Of course, the total U.S. digital ad market is larger. 

U.S. Digital Advertising Estimates, in Billion USD

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027	2028
Statista	90.08	114.70	139.00	168.70	224.20	243.90	271.20	298.40	325.00	350.90	376.50	402.00
Cowen and Company					183.40	221.00
GroupM	73.39	90.99	107.10	121.90	157.70	189.10	205.70	229.80	243.30	266.30
Magna				136.00	179.00
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)	88.30	107.50	124.60	139.80	189.30
Winterberry Group		127.70	152.90	176.70	240.40

Other estimates of retailer advertising suggest a smaller market. The IAB, for example, estimates current retailer revenues at lower levels. But most estimates suggest Walmart shows the fastest growth in the category.

In 2023, for example, Walmart digital ad revenues grew 42 percent. Amazon almost certainly posted the greatest amount of net new ad revenues in 2023 at $5.5 billion.

Year	Estimated Annual U.S. Retailer Advertising Revenue (USD Billion)	Growth Rate (%)
2023	10.0	N/A
2024	11.5	15%
2025	13.3	15.6%
2026	15.4	16%
2027	17.8	15.6%
2028	20.4	14.6%
2029	23.3	14.2%
2030	26.5	13.8%

But retail leads digital advertising, accounting for perhaps 28 percent of all such advertising in 2023, followed by consumer packaged goods at about 15 percent of total and financial services at about 11 percent of total.