Big Data: Walmart, Consultancy Ink Deal

If you are among the group of Americans that was outraged to hear that an American man learned about his teenage daughter’s pregnancy from Target, get prepared to be even more outraged about privacy issues and big data.

Consumer and retail market research firm The NPD Group has inked an agreement with retail goliath Walmart to “receive and analyze its point-of-sale information in the U.S.”  According to a recent release, NPD now receives information from more than 900 retailers representing 150,000 retail doors globally. Adding Walmart to the mix will improve NPD’s data and enable them to build upon their product lineup.

The agreement will give NPD sales data from U.S. Walmart stores and walmart.com and will cover merchandise categories including entertainment, apparel, home, and toys. Naturally, NPD’s analysis and reporting will help the retail giant better understand what people are buying and what they want to buy.

“We are sharing our point-of-sale information so that we’re able to identify opportunities sooner and work with our manufacturer partners to develop more impactful customer-driven programs in the future,” said Executive V.P. of Walmart Global Customer Insights Cindy Davis.

Walmart will be using NPD as the main provider of data for the general merchandise categories tracked by NPD and NPD DisplaySearch. This follows NPD’s point of sale data deal with Sam’s Club, a major U.S. retailer and Walmart subsidiary.

 

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