NRF 2026: Walmart Mexico Rolls Out Thousands of In-Store Sensors

January 8, 2026 by guest author, Antonia Hamberger

Just ahead of NRF this weekend, Walmart Mexico has announced a major upgrade to its in-store retail media platform, Walmart Connect. The retailer has begun a large-scale deployment of in-store audience intelligence technology across hundreds of Walmart Supercenters. Unlike the technology that recently brought New York-based grocer Wegmans into the headlines, the deployed sensors do not store biometric data — they only analyze customers for certain attributes to create an anonymized audience blueprint.

More on Walmart’s retail media strategy in Florian Rotberg’s latest invidis article: Retail Media: Walmart Challenges Tech Giants

The analytics system is powered by Swiss technology company Advertima. While audience measurement technology has existed for some time, this rollout is expected to be one of the largest in-store deployments to date. It will involve thousands of sensors installed across digital and non-digital in-store locations, enabling Walmart Connect Mexico to introduce real-time audience targeting.

The move reflects a broader effort to bring performance-based media logic — long standard in online retail media—into brick-and-mortar environments, where media has historically been planned and evaluated based on fixed placements rather than verified audiences.

Walmart Mexico began experimenting with camera sensors in 2023, announcing a large rollout in partnership with long-time CMS partner Navori. Whether that system is still in use or now integrates with Advertima’s sensors is unclear, but there had been a lot of headwind in the press for reasons Dave Haynes addressed in a recent column on Sixteen:Nine.

According to Walmart and Advertima, the initial focus of the current rollout will be on three areas: audience measurement for non-digital in-store promotional spaces, measurement for digital in-store screens, and real-time audience-based targeting on digital in-store media through direct bookings. The first category means sensors will be attached to not only digital signage screens but also static displays.

Auses 3D sensors to monitor large sections of the shop floor. (Image: Advertima)

These use cases aim to allow in-store media to be planned, bought, and evaluated using similar criteria to digital channels, rather than being treated as a separate or less accountable medium.

While this is often described as a breakthrough for in-store retail media, large-scale deployments of analytics technology often fail because of grocers’ lack of ROI confidence and consumers’ privacy concerns.

Another challenge, according to Advertima, is scale — particularly in large-format stores. Walmart Supercenters, for example, typically cover vast floor areas with multiple media touchpoints operating simultaneously.

Advertima says its system uses 3D sensors capable of monitoring large sections of the shop floor and supporting multiple zones from a single device. This setup is designed to link audience data to several digital and non-digital media placements at once, reducing infrastructure complexity while covering a large number of locations.

“When we looked at how in-store retail media needs to evolve, it was clear that the same principles must apply inside the physical store as well,” said Jonatan Fasano, Business Development Director, Walmart Connect Mexico. “Advertima demonstrated a clear understanding of what this requires in hypermarket environments, and the ability to execute it at scale in a privacy-first way.”

Walmart Connect Mexico has been among the more active retail media operators in Latin America, where physical retail continues to dominate overall sales. Industry estimates indicate that more than 80 percent of retail transactions in the region still occur in physical stores, despite rapid growth in e-commerce.