TLDR: Brands and MAP teams…if you’re enforcing MAP but ignoring Walmart, you’re not enforcing MAP.
Here at Pervasive Mind, we speak to brands every day, so we hear a lot about their world; specifically, their efforts to stay on top of protecting their brand reputation, driving revenue, and maximizing retailer relationships. Many of the companies that we speak to are proud of the time and effort they spend on cleaning up Amazon and getting a major source of their sales in line.
What many often overlook, however, is the marketplace that Amazon watches the most: Walmart. As the second-largest e-commerce site in the U.S., Walmart’s influence on online retail pricing is substantial, yet many MAP programs treat it as an afterthought – if they include it at all.
That oversight can quietly cost brand teams significant revenue and control of the brand that they’ve worked so diligently to protect.
Walmart Isn’t Optional - Even If You Don’t Sell There
Last week, we were speaking to a well-known tool brand and were shocked to hear, “We don’t really focus on Walmart.” The VP of Sales chimed in and said, “Let me clarify…we don’t sell to Walmart directly, so we really don’t pay it much mind.” They might have sensed our shock as we sat there silently, mouths hanging open in surprise.
Our VP of Sales broke the silence – “But that doesn’t mean Walmart isn’t impacting your business, right?“
As the tool team slowly chose their words carefully, we chimed in: “Because Amazon constantly monitors Walmart’s prices, even if you’re not.”
[For those new to price monitoring, we’ll give a quick rundown of how price monitoring plays out in the real world, and if you’re a seasoned pro, please bear with us.]
If a product is lower on Walmart, due to Everyday Low Pricing (EDLP), third-party sellers, or unauthorized discounts, Amazon’s algorithms will often match that price, eroding margins and potentially leading to suppressed listings.
So even if your Walmart sales channel is minimal – or nonexistent – the price erosion you’re seeing on Amazon might be triggered by activity you’re not monitoring.
Walmart's Marketplace: Rapid Growth and Expanding Influence
It’s no secret that Sam Walton knew what he was doing when even back in 1962, when he opened the first Walmart in Rogers, Arkansas. Since the first store’s opening, Walmart has been on an unstoppable trajectory and you may be hard pressed to find somone who doesn’t know what Walmart is.
Since the inception of the online marketplace, Walmart’s online platform has experienced significant growth, becoming a critical component of its e-commerce strategy:
- Second largest US Marketplace: Walmart trails only Amazon in its ranking of online marketplaces. Nowadays, more than 90% of all online purchases in the US are initiated on Amazon, Walmart, and Google Shopping.
- Seller Growth: As of 2024, Walmart’s marketplace hosts over 150,000 active sellers, up from approximately 50,000 in 2022. This rapid expansion reflects Walmart’s commitment to growing its online assortment.
- Product Assortment: The marketplace offers more than 400 million items, providing consumers with a vast selection and increasing the potential for price competition.
- E-commerce Sales: In Q4 2024, Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce sales grew by 20% year-over-year, marking the eleventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
- Online Grocery Market Share: Walmart captured a record 37% of the U.S. online grocery market in Q2 2024, highlighting its dominance in this sector.
They aren’t slowing down anytime soon, and these figures illustrate how Walmart’s influence continues to grow in the world of e-commerce, making it a marketplace that brands cannot afford to ignore.
Legacy Providers Are Quietly Backing Away
If you’re following along as intently as we hope you are, you now can see why you can’t lessen the importance of the behemoth that is Walmart. It needs to be a critical part of your online strategy, even if you personally don’t shop there as much as the next person. In short, you can’t afford to ignore it.
But…here’s something that doesn’t get said out loud in most pitch decks: legacy MAP providers are struggling with Walmart.
In recent months, we’ve spoken to numerous brands that were surprised to learn their existing MAP provider either:
- No longer includes Walmart in their proposals
- Quietly removed it from their coverage altogether
- Sends inconsistent or incomplete violation reports, hoping that they’re not examined in detail, or
- Reports fewer violations not because there are fewer problems – but because they can’t get the data (this is the most common issue)
“This doesn’t apply to me, though…my provider has Walmart included in our plan”
As we’ve written about before, having Walmart included in your plan isn’t the same as receiving all the available data from the marketplace.
The reason? Walmart has aggressively upgraded its anti-bot and anti-extraction measures, deploying sophisticated blocking strategies designed to prevent unauthorized monitoring. Many legacy providers rely on open-source extractors or basic scraping tools that typically break down the moment Walmart updates its site structure or blocking logic.
Some gave up entirely. Others keep Walmart listed on their site, but it is not in your reports.
The Cost of Invisibility
Speak to anyone who has been in the MAP game for years, and you’ll hear a common refrain, something akin to: Your MAP enforcement is only as strong as your line of sight.
If you can’t see what’s happening on Walmart, you’re flying blind – and it’s not just Walmart that’s affected.
Here’s what happens when you lose visibility into this critical channel:
- Amazon reacts to Walmart’s pricing even faster than you do. You’re already behind.
- Unauthorized sellers flourish, undercutting your pricing and damaging retailer trust.
- Retailer relationships deteriorate when partners see one channel being policed while another runs wild.
- Revenue leaks silently as sales shift toward lower-priced, unmanaged listings.
While this sounds like hyperbole or like we’re potentially outlining a doom-and-gloom scenario, we see it all too frequently, and too many brands are left scrambling to course correct.
Put simply: If you don’t have control over Walmart, you don’t really have control at all.
How Pervasive Mind Breaks the Walmart Barrier
Unlike legacy providers, Pervasive Mind was built for modern marketplaces. Our approach doesn’t rely on brittle scraping tools or public extractor kits. Instead, we’ve invested in years of developing our own proprietary intelligent infrastructure, powered by machine learning, that continuously adapts to Walmart’s (and other sites’) evolving defenses.
This means:
- We’re still successfully monitoring Walmart, while others have stopped trying.
- We don’t wait weeks to adjust to new blockers – we adapt in hours.
- We deliver full product and seller visibility, not partial listings or guesswork.
- You get screenshots and violation evidence that hold up when it counts.
If you’re evaluating MAP providers or wondering why your Walmart data has gone quiet, it may not be a coincidence – it might be a coverage issue. It’s likely time to start a new provider conversation.
Final Thought: Don't Let Walmart Be Your Blind Spot
Brands spend millions annually monitoring Amazon and protecting their brand reputation on the largest e-commerce site in the world, yet let Walmart operate unchecked, not realizing that the two platforms are connected in more ways than you might realize.
If your MAP strategy doesn’t include Walmart, you’re leaving the back door wide open.
If you’d like help closing that door – with full transparency, intelligent monitoring, and an unwavering partner who has your back – reach out…we’re here to help.
