Amazon DSP vs. Walmart Connect in 2026: Which Retail Media Network Wins?

Retail media is no longer a line item — it’s a budget category. U.S. retail media network spend hit an estimated $62.4B in 2025, according to eMarketer, and is projected to reach $74B by the end of 2026. Two platforms dominate that conversation: Amazon DSP, the programmatic arm of the world’s largest product search engine, and Walmart Connect, the ad network that has quietly grown into a $4.1B annual business on the back of Walmart’s first-party data and its $2.3T in annual gross merchandise volume.

For Shopify merchants expanding beyond their owned channels, Amazon sellers trying to move demand off-platform, and DTC founders who need profitable customer acquisition at scale, the choice between these two networks is now one of the most consequential media decisions of the year. This comparison breaks down where each network wins — and where it falls short.

What Is the Real Reach Difference Between Amazon DSP and Walmart Connect?

Amazon DSP reaches an estimated 96% of U.S. internet users through its owned properties — Amazon.com, Prime Video, Twitch, IMDb TV — and its off-Amazon programmatic inventory. That scale is largely unmatched in retail media. Amazon’s DSP reported $14.7B in advertising services revenue in Q1 2026 alone, a 19% year-over-year increase.

Walmart Connect’s reach story is different but increasingly competitive. Walmart.com attracts roughly 500 million monthly visits, and Walmart’s omnichannel footprint — 4,600 U.S. stores, Walmart+ with an estimated 22 million subscribers, and the Sam’s Club ecosystem — gives it first-party purchase data that very few networks can replicate. Its off-site network, powered by The Trade Desk partnership announced in late 2024, now extends Walmart’s audience segments into open web programmatic inventory.

“Walmart Connect’s store visit data is genuinely differentiated. When you’re running a campaign and you can tie ad exposure to an in-store basket, that’s a signal Amazon doesn’t have. The question is whether their CPMs justify that signal for a pure-play online brand.” — Carly Maddox, VP of Growth, Keplar Agency

💡 Article Summary

Key Insights

1

What Is the Real Reach Difference Between Amazon DSP and Walmart Connect?

2

How Do Minimum Spend Requirements and Access Compare?

3

Which Platform Has Better Audience Data and Targeting Precision?

4

How Do the Measurement and Attribution Frameworks Compare?

5

What Are the CPM and ROAS Benchmarks Brands Are Actually Seeing?

Source: Ecommerce Times

How Do Minimum Spend Requirements and Access Compare?

This is where the two platforms diverge most sharply for mid-market sellers. Amazon DSP has historically carried a $50,000 minimum managed-service commitment, though Amazon’s self-service DSP — available through the Amazon Ads console — has lowered the barrier considerably for brands doing $1M+ in annual Amazon revenue. Managed DSP engagements typically require a 90-day minimum campaign window.

Walmart Connect’s Sponsored Products and Display products are accessible at much lower entry points — as low as a $100 daily budget for Sponsored Products. Its programmatic display product, Walmart DSP, carries minimums closer to Amazon’s managed-service model, typically starting around $25,000 per campaign. For agencies running campaigns across multiple smaller brands, Walmart Connect’s lower floor is a meaningful operational advantage.

• Amazon DSP managed: $50,000+ minimum, 90-day commitment standard
• Amazon DSP self-serve: No hard floor, but requires Amazon seller or vendor account
• Walmart Connect Sponsored Products: $100/day minimum, self-serve
• Walmart DSP programmatic: ~$25,000 minimum, managed or via The Trade Desk
• Walmart Connect off-site display: Available through Walmart’s agency portal

Which Platform Has Better Audience Data and Targeting Precision?

Amazon’s data moat is its purchase intent signal. Shoppers on Amazon have declared intent — they’re searching for products, reading reviews, adding to carts. Amazon DSP can target users based on purchase behavior, keyword affinity, category browsing history, and life events. Its Audiences product, updated in Q1 2026, now includes AI-generated lookalike modeling that several agency buyers have credited with 15–22% improvements in ROAS on prospecting campaigns.

Walmart Connect’s data advantage is transactional depth across both digital and physical retail. A household that buys diapers, pet food, and OTC medication at Walmart every week represents a purchase pattern that is extraordinarily valuable for CPG brands — and Walmart’s Luminate data platform, launched in 2023 and expanded significantly in 2025, now makes that data actionable for advertisers at a segment level. For brands selling in categories where Walmart has dominant market share — grocery, consumables, household goods — the targeting precision is genuinely competitive with Amazon.

“We ran a 12-week split test — same creative, same budget allocation — and Walmart Connect delivered a 34% lower cost per new-to-brand customer than Amazon DSP in our pet supplement line. Walmart’s basket data in that category is just better than Amazon’s.” — Derek Fung, Founder, Nourish Supply Co.

How Do the Measurement and Attribution Frameworks Compare?

Attribution remains the most contested battlefield in retail media. Amazon DSP’s attribution defaults to a 14-day click, 14-day view window and reports against Amazon-side conversions. For brands selling exclusively on Amazon, the closed-loop measurement is clean. For DTC brands running Amazon DSP to drive traffic to their own Shopify store, the attribution picture fractures — Amazon’s pixel has limited off-Amazon visibility, and connecting DSP exposure to Shopify-side revenue typically requires a third-party tool like Northbeam, Triple Whale, or Rockerbox.

Walmart Connect launched its own closed-loop measurement suite — Walmart Measurement Solutions — in mid-2025. It now offers view-through attribution, in-store conversion tracking, and a direct integration with The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0 framework for cross-channel identity resolution. For omnichannel brands with Walmart.com and brick-and-mortar distribution, this is a meaningful step forward. For pure-play online sellers, the measurement story is still maturing.

• Amazon DSP: Strong closed-loop on Amazon; off-Amazon attribution requires third-party tools
• Walmart Connect: Closed-loop on Walmart.com + in-store; UID2 integration improves cross-channel view
• Industry standard: Most agency buyers layer in MTA tools (Northbeam, Triple Whale) on both platforms

What Are the CPM and ROAS Benchmarks Brands Are Actually Seeing?

Benchmark data from Tinuiti’s Q1 2026 Retail Media Report — which surveyed 312 brands spending more than $500K annually on retail media — shows Amazon DSP display CPMs averaging $8.40 for in-market audiences, with video CPMs on Prime Video averaging $22.50. Walmart Connect display CPMs came in 28% lower on average at $6.10, reflecting both lower competition and earlier-stage demand.

ROAS benchmarks are trickier. Amazon DSP’s median reported ROAS across the Tinuiti sample was 4.2x on a 14-day attribution window. Walmart Connect median ROAS was 3.6x, but brands in grocery, consumables, and household categories reported ROAS as high as 6.1x — outperforming Amazon in those verticals specifically. For apparel, electronics, and beauty, Amazon’s ROAS lead was consistent and significant.

“The mistake brands make is treating this as an either/or decision. Amazon DSP is your demand capture engine. Walmart Connect is your incremental reach play in categories where Walmart owns the consumer relationship. Run both. Size them differently.” — Jason Birk, Head of Retail Media, Tinuiti

Which Platform Is Better for DTC Brands Not Selling on the Marketplace?

This is the question most DTC founders are actually asking. If your store is Shopify-native and you’re not an Amazon or Walmart seller, neither platform was originally designed for you — but both have made moves to change that.

Amazon’s off-Amazon DSP product allows non-Amazon sellers to use Amazon’s audience data to target users across the open web and Amazon’s owned properties. The catch: you’re paying Amazon CPMs to drive traffic to a competitor of Amazon. Some DTC brands have made it work — particularly in high-consideration categories where Amazon’s research behavior signals are uniquely predictive — but minimum spend requirements and the lack of direct Amazon sales data to close the loop make it a harder case to build.

Walmart Connect’s off-site product, powered by The Trade Desk, may actually be more practical for DTC brands. You can access Walmart’s purchase segments through The Trade Desk’s platform using a DSP you already have a relationship with, at Walmart-adjacent CPMs, without needing a Walmart seller account. Several Shopify-native brands in the health and wellness category reported using this route to reach Walmart’s household buyer segments at $5–7 CPMs with measurable DTC site conversion lift in Q1 2026.

The bottom line for operators: Amazon DSP remains the default for scale, intent-based targeting, and brands for whom Amazon is already a primary revenue channel. Walmart Connect is a credible challenger in CPG, grocery, and household categories — and its Trade Desk integration is making it genuinely accessible for DTC brands who want Walmart’s audience data without a Walmart seller account. For 2026 budgets, the most sophisticated retail media operators are allocating 70–80% to Amazon and 15–20% to Walmart Connect, with the remaining 5–10% testing emerging networks like Instacart Ads and Target’s Roundel. The ratio is shifting — slowly, but it’s shifting.