Global advertising at Walmart grew 38% in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, with Walmart Connect in the United States up 43% excluding VIZIO. The company raised full-year guidance today. Its shares fell 8.9% in premarket trading.

Walmart Inc. today reported second-quarter results for the 13-week period ended July 31, 2026, disclosing total revenues of $187.9 billion, up 5.9%, or 5.1% in constant currency. Operating income reached $9.4 billion, an increase of 28.8% on a reported basis and 17.4% on an adjusted constant-currency basis. GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.80, with adjusted EPS of $0.81.

For the advertising industry, the number that matters sits several lines below the headline. Walmart's global advertising business grew 38% in the quarter. Walmart U.S. advertising, a figure that includes VIZIO, also grew 38%. Walmart Connect on its own, stripped of the connected television unit, grew 43%.

That five-point spread between Walmart Connect and the blended United States advertising line is the most analytically loaded disclosure in the release, and it points in the opposite direction from where it pointed a year ago.

When Walmart reported the second quarter of fiscal 2026 on August 21, 2025, advertising growth of 46% globally was substantially propped up by the newly acquired smart television business; Walmart Connect on an organic basis grew 31% in that quarter. Including VIZIO pushed the headline rate higher. By the fourth quarter, that arithmetic had inverted. Walmart Connect grew 41% while the global figure including VIZIO came in at 37%, a four-point gap in the other direction.

Today's numbers extend that pattern by another point. Walmart does not disclose VIZIO's advertising revenue separately in the quarterly release, so the precise contribution cannot be calculated from public figures. What the two disclosed rates establish is that the VIZIO component grew more slowly than 43% in the quarter, pulling the combined United States rate down to 38%.

Part of that is mechanical. VIZIO was acquired during fiscal 2026, and by the second quarter of fiscal 2027 the business sits in both the base period and the current period. Growth rates that once benefited from a partial-year comparison no longer do. The remainder is a question the company did not address on the call, and neither Chief Executive John Furner nor Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey was asked about it by analysts.

Walmart's global advertising business does not appear as a single revenue line in its financial statements. The company's own definition, published in its earnings terminology document, describes advertising as an operational metric whose value is recorded either in net sales or as a reduction to cost of sales depending on the nature of the arrangement. No dollar figure for quarterly advertising revenue was provided. The most recent absolute number remains the $6.4 billion the company reported for full-year fiscal 2026.

Rainey made the clearest statement yet linking advertising growth to the economics of the wider business, and he made it in response to a question from Chris Nardone of Bank of America about incremental margins in the digital business.

"When we see things like our advertising business, that continues to grow at a 40% clip on a much higher base, that actually gives us confidence and the ability to maybe see incremental margins even go higher," Rainey said. For margins to keep rising, he added, advertising growth would have to outpace eCommerce growth, which is what the company has been seeing by a large margin on a larger base.

The quarter's data bears that out. Global eCommerce net sales grew 23%. Walmart U.S. eCommerce grew 24%. Advertising grew 38%. The company said its Walmart U.S. eCommerce business achieved double-digit incremental margins for the first half of the year, driven by advertising and membership revenue, densification of the delivery network, fee-based fast deliveries at an all-time high of 37% of store-fulfilled deliveries, and automation. Walmart said 3,100 of its United States stores are now served with some level of automated freight and that more than 50% of eCommerce fulfillment volume passes through automated facilities.

Rainey put the profit-mix shift in blunt terms during an exchange with Greg Melich of Evercore ISI. Adjusting the Walmart U.S. comparable sales figure for the health and wellness drag, he said comps were effectively 3.5% against operating income growth of 10% excluding tariffs. "That is 4x the level of revenue growth," Rainey said. "We have not done that level of profit growth relative to the U.S. comp in 2 decades." He added that almost half of the profit growth came from membership, advertising and Walmart Marketplace.

That claim about the share of incremental profit has been rising steadily. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, Rainey told investors that half of incremental profit excluding claims was related to advertising, membership and marketplace. The framing has now shifted from a claims-adjusted figure to a headline one.

The advertising number does not stand on its own. United States marketplace net sales grew 52% in the quarter, and nearly 50% of the marketplace business flowed through Walmart Fulfilment Services, an increase of close to 400 basis points against the prior year. Marketplace growth exceeded 40% in categories including hardlines and home.

That matters to advertisers because third-party sellers are the population from which sponsored product demand is drawn. A marketplace expanding at 52% enlarges the pool of advertisers competing in the same auctions. Walmart also said it expanded its marketplace platform into Mexico and Canada during the quarter and launched Walmart+ in Canada, which extends the same supply dynamic beyond the domestic market.

Membership fee revenue grew 17% globally and reached an all-time high. Walmart International membership fee revenue increased 28%. Sam's Club U.S. membership fee revenue grew 6%. Rainey said members spend approximately four times more than non-members.

Walmart International advertising grew 20%, led by Flipkart Ads, on net sales of $35.2 billion, up 12.8% on a reported basis and 7.9% in constant currency. International eCommerce grew 19%, with eCommerce now representing approximately 30% of international net sales in constant currency, up around 300 basis points.

The gap between international advertising at 20% and United States advertising at 38% reflects a structural difference the company has acknowledged before: there is no VIZIO-equivalent connected television asset in the international portfolio, and market maturity varies widely across China, India, Canada and Mexico.

A timing issue will complicate the next comparison. Rainey told investors that the shift in Flipkart's Big Billion Days event between quarters produces a headwind of more than 100 basis points to third-quarter sales growth, with a benefit of similar magnitude expected in the fourth quarter. The same event timing distorted international advertising comparisons through fiscal 2026, when Big Billion Days ran nine days in the third quarter and two days in the fourth.

Walmart quantified the cost of its most recent advertising acquisition for the first time. Rainey said the company expects costs related to the acquisition and integration of Vibe to be an approximate 20 basis point headwind to operating income growth for the fiscal year.

That figure represents a change from the position stated at announcement. When Walmart agreed to acquire the self-serve connected television platform on June 23, 2026, the company said it did not expect the deal to affect fiscal 2027 sales or operating income growth guidance. Financial terms were not disclosed then and were not disclosed today.

For comparison, the VIZIO acquisition created an 80 basis point headwind to adjusted operating income growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 while contributing 20 basis points to net sales growth guidance.

Furner described the rationale in his prepared remarks. "We believe Vibe expands our ability to help advertisers of all sizes reach customers through self-service tools while measuring results against real shopping behavior," he said. "Combined with Walmart Connect and VIZIO, this further strengthens our platform and creates value for customers, sellers, suppliers, and advertisers."

Rainey framed the same transaction in terms of addressable market. "With the acquisition of Vibe.co, this gives us a new addressable market that we didn't have before in these small and medium-sized merchants," he said. Vibe.co had more than 10,000 advertisers at the time the agreement was announced.

The one genuinely new product disclosure on the call concerned Walmart Data Ventures. Rainey said the company announced that it is extending the Scintilla platform to Sam's Club U.S. next year, describing it as one of the top requests from suppliers.

Scintilla has been the vehicle for Walmart's data distribution strategy through 2026. Walmart Data Ventures launched the Scintilla Media Data Feed on April 28, 2026, an API-based product allowing advertisers to share Walmart first-party operational and retail data with agency and technology partners. That sat alongside a broader sequence: Connect Select, a curated programmatic connected television marketplace inside Walmart DSP, opened on April 27, 2026; Walmart Connect first-party audiences became available inside Yahoo DSP through Magnite on May 28, 2026; and purchase-based audiences reached Google Display and Video 360 for YouTube inventory on June 11, 2026.

Extending Scintilla to the warehouse club format brings a second, structurally different shopper dataset into the same distribution architecture. Sam's Club U.S. reported comparable sales excluding fuel of 4.4%, driven by a 7.0% increase in transactions against a 2.5% decline in average ticket, with eCommerce up 26% and digital mix reaching about 20% of net sales excluding fuel.

Furner disclosed two figures on Walmart's artificial intelligence shopping assistant. The number of customers using Sparky is up 70% against the prior year, and customers who use Sparky for shopping spend 40% more per order than those who do not.

The second figure has moved. In March 2026, Walmart U.S. leadership put the Sparky basket premium at approximately 35% in reporting on the company's disclosure that conversion rates for products sold directly inside ChatGPT ran three times lower than for journeys requiring a click through to Walmart's own site. Larger baskets create more sponsored placement inventory, which is why the assistant's commerce performance connects directly to advertising economics.

Rainey closed his prepared remarks by describing the company as "leading in agentic experiences," without providing further detail or metrics on agentic advertising.

The quarter's profit figure carries a substantial one-off. Walmart received approximately $2.9 billion in refunds tied to tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, amounting to roughly half a percent of annual United States net sales. Rainey said operating income growth included a net benefit of approximately 750 basis points related to those refunds, and that underlying operating income growth excluding the benefit sat at the top end of the 7% to 10% guidance range.

Much of the money went back into price. The Walmart U.S. team delivered more than 11,000 rollbacks during the quarter, up from about 7,000 at the end of the first quarter against a normal level Furner described as around 5,000. Because the price investments landed late in July, their full-quarter effect falls into the third quarter, which is why Rainey repeatedly asked analysts to assess the second and third quarters together. Taken together, he said, reported operating income growth would average approximately 10% per quarter.

Investors were not persuaded. Walmart beat consensus on both lines, with adjusted EPS of $0.81 against a $0.74 forecast and revenue of $187.9 billion against $186.75 billion. Shares fell 8.91% to $104.12 from a previous close of $114.30, a decline of $10.18 per share that put the stock near the lower end of a 52-week range of $95.42 to $135.16.

One numerical inconsistency appears in the earnings call transcript published by Investing.com, which carries a disclosure that it was generated with artificial intelligence support and reviewed by an editor. In the closing remarks, Furner is transcribed as saying operating income was "up 74%" without the benefit of the refunds, a figure that does not reconcile with any measure in the earnings release or presentation. The release states operating income growth of 28.8% reported and 17.4% adjusted in constant currency, with underlying growth excluding tariff refunds at the top end of a 7% to 10% range.

Walmart raised full-year fiscal 2027 guidance for the first time since issuing it on February 19, 2026. Net sales in constant currency are now expected to increase 4.0% to 5.0%, up from 3.5% to 4.5%. Adjusted operating income in constant currency is expected to grow 7.0% to 8.5%, up from 6.0% to 8.0%. Adjusted EPS guidance moved to $2.80 to $2.87 from $2.75 to $2.85. Capital expenditures were raised to approximately 4.0% of net sales from approximately 3.5%.

For the third quarter, the company expects net sales growth of 3.0% to 3.75% in constant currency, operating income growth of 2.0% to 4.0%, and adjusted EPS of $0.62 to $0.64. Guidance assumes more than $2 billion of incremental fuel-related costs above original assumptions and the roughly 20 basis point Vibe headwind.

Three things follow for media buyers, suppliers and competing networks.

The first is a disclosure problem. Walmart reports advertising as a growth percentage rather than a revenue line, and the only absolute figure available is an annual one. Amazon, by contrast, reports advertising services revenue directly, and disclosed $19.8 billion for the second quarter of 2026, up 26%. Comparing a 38% growth rate against a disclosed dollar figure requires assumptions about a base that Walmart discloses once a year.

The second is the divergence within retail media itself. Walmart Connect grew 43% in the quarter. Criteo cut full-year guidance in early August after second-quarter revenue fell 11% to $428 million, with retail media client scope reductions accounting for a $75 million full-year headwind. The Trade Desk shares dropped 24% after third-quarter guidance pointed to a 12% revenue decline. Retail media as a category is not growing uniformly; the retailer-owned networks with proprietary transaction data are compounding while the intermediaries serving them are contracting. The Interactive Advertising Bureau projected commerce media growth of 12.1% for the United States in 2026, a rate Walmart is exceeding by roughly three times.

The third concerns where Walmart's advertising inventory will be bought. Every distribution move the company made in 2026 pushed its first-party data outward, into Yahoo DSP, into DV360, into agency stacks through Scintilla APIs. Extending Scintilla to Sam's Club follows the same logic. For brands, that reduces the workflow cost of activating Walmart audiences. For competing demand-side platforms, it means Walmart data increasingly arrives as a targeting input rather than as a reason to log into a separate environment, which is a different competitive position from the one the company occupied when it relaunched its media business in July 2021 with in-store screens and a data partnership with The Trade Desk.

Walmart said approximately 280 million customers and members visit more than 10,900 stores and its eCommerce sites each week across 19 countries.

• July 2021: Walmart relaunches its media business as Walmart Connect, selling in-store digital screens, onsite ads and first-party data integrations including a partnership with The Trade Desk
• August 21, 2025: Walmart reports second-quarter fiscal 2026 advertising growth of 46% globally, with Walmart Connect up 31% excluding VIZIO
• January 6, 2026: Walmart Connect introduces a conversational advertising assistant in beta for Sponsored Search campaigns alongside AI creative tools
• January 1, 2026: Maximum Fair Price drug pricing regulation takes effect
• February 19, 2026: Walmart reports fiscal 2026 advertising revenue of $6.4 billion, up 46%, with Walmart Connect growing 41% in the fourth quarter; initial fiscal 2027 guidance issued and a $30 billion share repurchase authorization approved
• March 2026: Walmart discloses that ChatGPT checkout conversion ran three times lower than click-through journeys; Sparky basket premium reported at approximately 35%
• April 1, 2026: VIZIO appears as a selectable media type in a Walmart Connect Ad Center beta interface alongside TikTok, Meta and Disney
• April 27, 2026: Connect Select opens curated programmatic CTV inventory inside Walmart DSP
• April 28, 2026: Walmart Data Ventures launches the Scintilla Media Data Feed API
• May 1, 2026: Thirteen-week first quarter of fiscal 2027 ends
• May 21, 2026: Walmart reaffirms fiscal 2027 guidance unchanged
• May 28, 2026: Walmart Connect first-party audiences become available in Yahoo DSP via Magnite for VIZIO CTV inventory
• June 11, 2026: Walmart Connect purchase-based audiences reach Google DV360 for YouTube campaigns
• June 23, 2026: Walmart agrees to acquire Vibe.co, a self-serve CTV platform with more than 10,000 advertisers
• July 31, 2026: Thirteen-week second quarter of fiscal 2027 ends
• August 20, 2026: Walmart reports second-quarter fiscal 2027 results, discloses 38% global advertising growth and 43% Walmart Connect growth, quantifies a 20 basis point Vibe headwind, announces Scintilla extension to Sam's Club U.S., and raises full-year guidance

• Walmart Connect hits 41% growth as ad business nears $6.4B - Full-year fiscal 2026 advertising results, including the international advertising split and the Flipkart Big Billion Days timing effect.
• Walmart advertising revenue surges 46% amid economic pressures - The second quarter of fiscal 2026, the comparison period for today's figures, including the 31% organic Walmart Connect rate.
• Walmart is buying Vibe.co to bring self-serve CTV ads to small businesses - The June 2026 acquisition agreement whose integration cost was quantified today.
• Walmart's Scintilla API opens retail data to media partners - The data platform now being extended to Sam's Club U.S.
• Walmart Connect opens CTV to all advertisers with Connect Select - The curated programmatic CTV marketplace launched inside Walmart DSP in April 2026.
• Walmart Connect's first-party data lands in Yahoo DSP for VIZIO CTV reach - The first activation of Walmart audiences inside a third-party demand-side platform.
• Walmart Connect brings real purchase data into Google DV360 for YouTube ads - The June 2026 integration extending Walmart audiences to YouTube inventory.
• Walmart Connect bets on AI agents to reshape retail advertising - The January 2026 conversational advertising assistant and automated creative tooling.
• Walmart's ChatGPT checkout flopped. Here's what comes next. - Conversion data from agentic checkout and the earlier Sparky basket premium figure.
• VIZIO appears in Walmart Connect Ad Center's new display beta tab - Evidence of the CTV unit converging into the retail media buying interface.
• Amazon advertising gains 26% to $19.8 billion as sports inventory sells out - The competing disclosure standard, with an absolute quarterly revenue figure.
• Criteo cuts full-year guidance as Q2 revenue falls 11% to $428 million - Retail media intermediary results running counter to retailer-owned network growth.
• Trade Desk stock drops 24% as Q3 guidance points to 12% revenue decline - Independent demand-side platform performance in the same reporting window.
• IAB forecasts 9.5% ad growth as marketers shift toward agentic AI - The 12.1% commerce media growth projection for the United States in 2026.
• Walmart now selling ads in DOOH screens, digital retail ads, and offering data integrations - The 2021 relaunch that established Walmart Connect.

Who: Walmart Inc., reporting under President and Chief Executive John Furner and Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey, with segment commentary from David Guggina of Walmart U.S. The disclosures affect brand advertisers on Walmart Connect, third-party marketplace sellers, agency media teams buying Walmart audiences through third-party platforms, and competing retail media networks.

What: Global advertising grew 38% in the quarter and Walmart Connect grew 43% excluding VIZIO, a five-point gap indicating the connected television unit grew more slowly than the core retail media business. International advertising grew 20%, led by Flipkart Ads. The company quantified an approximate 20 basis point operating income headwind from the Vibe acquisition and integration, having said in June that no guidance impact was expected. Walmart Data Ventures will extend the Scintilla platform to Sam's Club U.S. next year. Total revenues reached $187.9 billion, up 5.9%, with operating income of $9.4 billion including approximately 750 basis points of benefit from roughly $2.9 billion in tariff refunds. Full-year guidance was raised on sales, operating income and EPS.

When: Results were announced today, August 20, 2026, covering the 13-week period ended July 31, 2026, compared against the 13-week period ended August 1, 2025. Guidance reflects company expectations as of August 20, 2026.

Where: Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart operates more than 10,900 stores and eCommerce sites across 19 countries, serving approximately 280 million customers and members weekly. Advertising results span Walmart Connect and VIZIO in the United States and Flipkart Ads and other markets internationally.

Why: Advertising, membership and marketplace now account for almost half of Walmart's profit growth, according to Rainey, and advertising growing faster than eCommerce is the specific mechanism he identified as driving incremental margins higher. That reframes advertising from a revenue diversification story into the central determinant of the company's margin trajectory, while the widening gap between Walmart Connect and the blended United States figure raises an unaddressed question about the performance of the connected television business Walmart acquired to enter that channel.