Walmart recently rebranded its Walmart Luminate platform to "Scintilla," signaling an expanded vision for its data capabilities.
Walmart's Luminate, initially launched in 2021, provided a comprehensive suite of data analytics tools that allowed suppliers and merchants to gain insights into category performance and consumer trends.
The platform offered data on shopper behavior, channel performance, and customer perception, enabling suppliers to optimize their product offerings and enhance their positioning within Walmart’s vast retail ecosystem.
As of 2025, Walmart Luminate will be known as Scintilla, a rebranding that underscores the platform's enhanced capabilities and its potential to act as a catalyst for new ideas and strategies in the retail space.
The name Scintilla, derived from Latin, translates to "spark," reflecting the platform's focus on using granular data to ignite broader business transformations. Walmart's rebranding aligns with a broader strategy to deepen its international reach, beginning with the expansion into Walmex in Mexico and Walmart Canada.
The rollout is structured in phases, starting with shopper behavior insights, followed by tools that provide a holistic view of Walmart’s product offerings across both digital and physical shelves.
One of the critical selling points of Walmart’s Scintilla platform is its ability to provide actionable insights directly to its suppliers.
Through features like "Insights Activation," suppliers can seamlessly integrate data into their marketing campaigns, refining their strategies to better resonate with customer preferences. The tool allows users to apply data insights directly to Walmart display ad campaigns through a self-serve, automated solution, streamlining the process of translating data into actionable marketing strategies.
Walmart's broader goal with Scintilla is to ensure that suppliers of all sizes—from global brands to small and medium-sized businesses—can leverage its data tools.
In 2024, Walmart reported a 173% increase in the U.S. client base of its data ventures division, with significant growth among smaller suppliers. This accessibility is crucial in leveling the playing field, providing smaller businesses with the insights needed to compete with larger players.
Walmart Luminate’s Charter subscription service, which includes enhanced features like Insights Activation, has been particularly beneficial for brands looking to optimize their digital advertising and in-store promotions.
While Walmart is setting new benchmarks with Scintilla, other retailers are also leveraging big data to refine their business strategies.
Rite Aid has emerged from bankruptcy with a renewed focus on data-centric decision-making. According to company leaders, data has become an integral part of the company’s strategy, allowing it to understand shifting consumer behaviors and optimize store operations accordingly.
One of Rite Aid’s key initiatives is its "Endless Aisle" program, which enables customers to scan QR codes to order products that are out of stock in-store.
This program, driven by insights into customer demand patterns, enhances the customer experience by providing greater convenience and accessibility. The company also uses data to tailor its marketing and loyalty programs, such as Rite Aid Rewards, which provides personalized offers based on customer purchasing habits.
By focusing on location-based trends and seasonal needs like flu season, Rite Aid has been able to deliver targeted campaigns that resonate with local customers.
Retailers like Walmart and Rite Aid are leveraging data not only for marketing purposes but also to improve operational efficiency.
Walmart, through Scintilla, offers insights that span the entire product journey, from sourcing to shelf. This holistic view allows Walmart and its suppliers to make data-informed decisions about product assortment, inventory management, and supply chain logistics. As a result, suppliers can better anticipate consumer needs, reducing instances of overstock or stockouts, which in turn leads to higher customer satisfaction.
Rite Aid has taken a similar approach, using data to refine its in-store layouts and adjust its product mix based on real-time analysis of customer behavior.
By tracking where certain allergies are prevalent, Rite Aid can adjust its product offerings to meet seasonal demand in different locations. This adaptability has been crucial in helping Rite Aid rebuild its business and maintain a competitive edge in a challenging retail environment.
Walmart's data strategy is not confined to the U.S.; international expansion is a critical part of its growth plans. Introducing Scintilla to Walmex in Mexico and Canada is the first step in a global rollout intended to provide the supplier network with tools that offer a consistent understanding of consumer behavior across different markets. T
his move is expected to support multinational brands by providing cross-border insights that help align product strategies with local market trends.
The expansion into international markets also enables Walmart to capture a broader range of data, enriching the insights available to its suppliers. This aspect is particularly significant as consumer behavior can vary widely across different regions, influenced by cultural, economic, and social factors.
By offering a unified platform that adapts to regional differences while providing a centralized view of data, Scintilla represents a move to solidify Walmart's retail analytics.
A challenge lies in integrating data from multiple sources into a cohesive platform. For Walmart, the transition from Luminate to Scintilla aims to address this by providing a unified view of customer insights across regions. However, for other retailers, achieving a seamless integration of online and offline data can be complex, requiring significant investment in technology and expertise.
Looking ahead, the future of data in retail will likely involve deeper integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate predictive insights. Retailers are already experimenting with AI-powered recommendations and personalized shopping experiences that adapt in real-time to customer preferences. As these technologies become more sophisticated, they will enable retailers to anticipate consumer needs even before they are fully expressed, further enhancing the customer experience.
The strategic use of big data has become a defining feature of modern retail, offering unprecedented opportunities to understand and serve customers better. Walmart's rebranding of Luminate to Scintilla marks a new chapter in the company's journey to harness data for competitive advantage, positioning it as a leader in global retail analytics. Meanwhile, Rite Aid’s data-centric transformation underscores the importance of agility and adaptation in a rapidly changing retail landscape.
