Walmart Scintilla (formerly known as Walmart Luminate) is ushering in a new era of retail insights for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Fundamentally, according to Walmart, Scintilla will “further democratize a unified view of retail insights, making it easier for suppliers of all sizes and merchants to grow their businesses.”
With full visibility into in-store and online performance data, CPG companies can leverage a single source of truth to enhance supplier-retailer collaboration and improve customer-centric decision-making.
In this guide we will discuss:
Walmart Scintilla (formerly Walmart Luminate) is Walmart’s proprietary comprehensive data analytics product suite within Walmart Data Ventures. It replaces the older Decision Support System (DSS) within Walmart’s Retail Link, which has its limitations and can be time-consuming and cumbersome for users.
This transition to Scintilla marks a significant shift in how Walmart and suppliers will manage and utilize data. Walmart believes this changeover to a more responsive, flexible, and better-equipped platform will help suppliers connect with their buyers and account managers more effectively in today's complex retail environment. This improved alliance will streamline joint business planning, leading to more effective results for Walmart and suppliers.
Scintilla, billed as a next-generation data platform, will contain more comprehensive datasets, feature more user-friendly interfaces, and offer a suite of advanced reporting tools. Additionally, it will provide greater data transparency and new metrics so brands can gain a deeper understanding of category health and consumer trends.
Walmart Scintilla offers two subscription options: Scintilla Basic, a required free version that provides access to select features and data in Walmart Scintilla, and Scintilla Charter, an optional paid package that allows full access to the entire Walmart Scintilla product suite.
Walmart Scintilla Basic subscribers will have access to standard operational metrics with pre-packaged and ad hoc downloadable reports to unlock business-critical insights needed to run and grow their Walmart business. This includes a subset of Channel Performance features and insights spanning store sales; e-commerce sales; store, distribution center, and fulfillment center inventory; and demand forecasting.
Although Walmart Scintilla Basic does not include all the features of the paid Charter version, many of those features will still be accessible to suppliers in Retail Link (e.g., OTIF scorecard and SQEP dashboard). Also, Basic will not allow report sharing, data feeds, and data consumption via APIs.
The Walmart Scintilla Charter package is comprised of three products (or offerings or modules): Channel Performance, Shopper Behavior, and Customer Perception.
Unlike Retail Link, Charter includes an API key to feed the data to an external platform or software solution such as VELOCITY for data cleansing and harmonization and deeper analysis. This allows brands to have more control over their data and improves its usability.
Exclusive benefits for Charter subscribers include access to a dedicated account team and engineering support for API ingestion. Additionally, subscribers will have access to new and unique datasets, such as insights into digital product transactability (e.g., information on items added to an online shopping cart and purchased through grocery pick-up and delivery).
Overall, with Walmart Scintilla tools and insights, CPGs can better understand the Walmart customer and optimize omnichannel operations with increased speed and greater clarity.
For CPG companies, Walmart Scintilla's enhanced data and reporting capabilities and greater ease of access to the data are game changers. With more available data, more timely data, and unified data—suppliers have increased visibility into their performance to make more informed decisions, optimize their supply chains, and improve their overall retail strategies with Walmart merchants. The ability to combine inventory and sales data within a single report, for instance, offers a more comprehensive view of retail performance, enabling better forecasting and inventory management.
Because Scintilla provides more sophisticated tools for segmenting Walmart retail data (for example, companies can now separate brick-and-mortar sales from online sales within the same platform), CPG companies can develop more targeted strategies (e.g., sales, marketing, trade promotion, new product launches) and gain nuanced understandings of different sales channels. Furthermore, Scintilla’s advanced date handling improves the accuracy and relevance of reports, ensuring that brands are working with the most current and actionable data and insights available.
While Walmart Scintilla provides an abundance of data, it's important for CPG companies to focus on the most relevant information that helps drive profitable growth. Key fields and attributes related to daily retail data, such as sales performance, inventory levels, and supply chain metrics, are essential. These daily data points help businesses more accurately track their products' performance, effectively manage stock levels and avoid out-of-stocks, optimize trade promotions, and ensure timely store replenishment.
Reports in Scintilla can be built in Basic and Charter subscriptions; however, Basic reports can only be fetched manually (with the data dictionary aiding in understanding DSS field names). Scintilla Charter offers more selection options, such as the previously mentioned separating physical store POS data from dotcom sales. Additionally, API access—especially when aided by an automated data ingestion solution like VELOCITY—provides faster data extraction and facilitates seamless data integration with existing systems or third-party solutions and workflows to drive deeper analytics, further improve strategy development, and improve retail execution. With this approach, you gain more control of your data, and you get more data to better inform your planning and execution decisions.
Even with Walmart Scintilla's advanced features and richer datasets, the quality of your data remains paramount. Clean, normalized, and harmonized data ensures accurate reporting, analytics, and insights not only for individual Walmart stores and across Walmart stores but also for cross-retailer comparisons—that is, if you want to gain a comprehensive view of your overall business performance.
"Although Walmart Scintilla will provide more data than the company previously did and provide more detailed data, it doesn’t necessarily mean that data will always be clean and accurate."
Data cleansing, at its core, involves identifying and correcting errors in the data, such as duplicates, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies. Data normalization structures the data in a standardized format, while data harmonization ensures that data from different sources is comparable and compatible. No matter the data source (Walmart or other retailers) or how trustworthy you believe the source to be, these processes are essential for ensuring and maintaining optimal data integrity and ensuring that reports and analyses are based on the most precise and reliable information.
Although Walmart Scintilla will provide more data than the company previously did and provide more detailed data, it doesn’t necessarily mean that data will always be clean and accurate. And it’s important to remember that clean data is not only about accuracy; clean data also enhances the usability of the data. When data is standardized and error-free, it becomes easier to integrate with other systems and applications, analyze, and derive insights. This leads to more confident and effective decision-making and strategic planning, ultimately driving better business outcomes for all parties involved.
Walmart Scintilla represents a big step forward in strengthening retail-supplier communication and collaboration and driving mutual growth through greater customer-centric insights. With this significant step, though, comes a substantial investment that suppliers anticipate yielding a high return. Therefore, it’s crucial for suppliers to have the quickest and easiest access to the highest-quality data and optimize its usage for making strategic decisions that maximize their investment.
Handling large amounts of retail data manually can be overwhelming for CPG companies and is prone to costly errors. Implementing an automated data collection, cleansing, and harmonization solution such as the VELOCITY® retail data platform simplifies the extraction and management of data, ensuring seamless ingestion, integration, and updates of daily SKU-store-level data.
One of the main advantages of data automation and VELOCITY is that it significantly improves data accuracy. It also brings joy to IT personnel, data analysts, and business analysts as it reduces tedious manual work and frees up their time to focus on more valuable tasks. This includes uncovering insights that can drive sales, revenue, and profitability.
"Automated data pipelines enable near real-time data processing and integration, ensuring that decision-makers have access to the most up-to-date information when they walk in at the start of the workday."
By automating data ingestion and cleansing of Scintilla data through VELOCITY, CPGs can significantly reduce the risk of human error and ensure more consistent data quality so teams across the enterprise can work from one accurate and reliable source of data and actionable insights.
Moreover, automated data pipelines enable near real-time data processing and integration, ensuring that decision-makers have access to the most up-to-date information when they walk in at the start of the workday. This is particularly important in the retail industry, where market conditions and consumer behaviors and demand can change rapidly and without notice. With automated data processes that put timely, trustworthy data in the palm of CPGs’ hands, brands can respond more quickly and appropriately to those changes and maintain a competitive edge.
Collecting and integrating Walmart Scintilla with the VELOCITY platform offers numerous benefits to CPG companies:
In the dynamic retail landscape, effectively managing and analyzing data is crucial for success and staying ahead of the competition. Walmart Scintilla, combined with Retail Velocity's VELOCITY software, provides a robust solution for optimizing retail operations. By focusing on gathering and leveraging the most relevant data and ensuring it is clean and harmonized, CPG companies can make more informed decisions that drive profitable growth and ensure retailer relationships with Walmart remain strong and mutually beneficial.
VELOCITY not only simplifies the data management process but also enhances the quality and usability of the data, leading to more effective strategic planning and retail execution. By integrating Walmart Scintilla with VELOCITY, businesses can unlock the full potential of their retail data, gaining deeper insights and driving better business outcomes.
Explore how VELOCITY can transform your retail data management with Walmart (and all retailers!). Contact us today to learn more about integrating Walmart Scintilla with our industry-leading software.