BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart is working on a new frontier in retail media: enabling consumers to shop directly from their Vizio TVs using their remote controls.
The initiative, revealed during the Cannes Lions 2025 festival in a Bloomberg interview with Walmart U.S. Chief Growth Officer Seth Dallaire, is part of the retailer’s broader strategy following its $2.3 billion acquisition of smart TV maker Vizio last year.
“You can imagine a world where you are sitting down with your family to watch a movie on your Vizio TV, and we’re able to then allow you to buy pizza,” Dallaire said in the interview, highlighting the immersive potential of the platform.
In addition to shoppable content, Walmart plans to expand its advertising reach through Vizio’s SmartCast operating system. The retailer is exploring ways to integrate the OS into its onn TV brand and offer it to third-party manufacturers, increasing its digital ad footprint.
Walmart completed the Vizio acquisition in December, emphasizing the move as a way to enhance customer experiences and strengthen its U.S. retail media business, Walmart Connect.
“The acquisition of Vizio and its SmartCast Operating System allows Walmart to serve its customers in new ways to enhance their shopping journeys,” the company said in a December statement. “It will also bring to market new and differentiated ways for advertisers to meaningfully connect with customers at scale and boost product discovery, helping brands achieve greater impact from their advertising investments with Walmart Connect — the company’s retail media business in the U.S.”
With over 18 million active accounts and a growing ad business, Vizio adds significant value to Walmart’s media ambitions, particularly as competitors like Disney, Amazon, and Roku continue advancing in the shoppable content space.
The concept of integrating product discovery and instant purchase through TV interfaces is rapidly gaining traction, with companies like Instacart and Roku already enabling shoppable ads for consumer packaged goods.
As Walmart moves to capitalize on the convergence of media and commerce, shoppable TVs could soon make impulse buying as simple as clicking the remote.
