NEW YORK – The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has agreed to resume sharing consumer data with a major market research firm, a move that could help other retailers, as well as manufacturers, better understand how Americans shop and could influence what appears on store shelves.
Most U.S. food, drug, discount and convenience chains provide Nielsen Holdings N.V. with sales data, but Wal-Mart is considered the single most important bellwether of consumer spending because it accounts for nearly 10 percent of all nonautomotive retail dollars spent in the U.S.
About 100 million shoppers visit Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. each week. The company generated net revenue of $419 billion worldwide in its latest fiscal year.
The agreement it announced Thursday with Nielsen ends a decade-long break in their relationship.
Consumer product makers and retailers use Nielsen data in making all kinds of decisions, from figuring out what flavor cereal to carry to how to market and price a product. Economists, Wall Street analysts and others also use the data.
Under the agreement, Nielsen will get data from both Walmart and Sam’s Club stores and will provide Wal-Mart with training and information on consumer trends, the companies said in a joint press release.
“Nielsen is confident that both retailers and consumer goods manufacturers will benefit significantly from greater accuracy of information on what consumers buy,” John Lewis, president and CEO of Nielsen’s North America Consumer division, said in the statement.
Over the next several months, according to the statement, Nielsen plans to incorporate Wal-Mart information into all its data bases and its forecasts on overall consumer behavior. Jennifer Frighetto, a Nielsen spokeswoman, said she’s not sure how far back the historical data will go.
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