Social media is emerging as a key growth channel for retail media networks (RMNs) as they expand beyond their owned properties.

• Nearly one-third (32%) of sell-side retail media leaders say emerging off-site capabilities, including social, will drive the most revenue growth over the next 12 months, according to August 2025 data from EMARKETER and Bain & Co.
• That momentum is reflected in spending, with US retail media social ad spend expected to grow 23.6% in 2026, reaching $1.26 billion, per EMARKETER’s March 2026 forecast.

Walmart Connect is leaning into this shift. Last week, it announced the expansion of its social capabilities to offer self-service access to full-funnel retail media campaigns on Meta, with TikTok to follow later this year.

It is also beta testing an “Add to Cart” feature for managed service clients across Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest, bringing the moment of inspiration and purchase closer together by allowing consumers to add up to 10 items directly to their Walmart cart from social ads.

“Even as Walmart continues to build on its owned media business, faster growth is shifting off-site, where revenue is set to grow at more than twice the pace of on-site,” said our analyst Sarah Marzano. “Social is a natural next step, but its share of retail media spend still trails its potential, and this announcement is clearly aimed at closing that gap by tightening the link between engagement and measurable sales.”

The strategy taps into rising social commerce usage, even if adoption has yet to reach the mainstream.

• Just 16.0% of US adults have made a purchase via a social platform, though adoption is higher (26.4%) among 18- to 34-year-olds, according to a December 2025 EMARKETER and Bizrate Insights survey.
• Instagram (37.2%) and TikTok (30.5%) lead as the platforms US adults are most likely to buy from, according to September 2025 data from Power Digital Marketing.

And early results are promising. Walmart Connect launched a beta test with Burt’s Bees that combined social “Add to Cart" with off-site display, and said it drove 42% of ad-attributed sales. Additionally, the network touted that 95% of users who added items to their cart completed a purchase within a week.

The announcement also underscores a push toward self-service, as advertisers seek greater control over their campaigns. Yet self-service capabilities remain underdeveloped across many RMNs.

• Only 40% of RMNs offer self-service sales data, according to Q2 2025 data from Mars United Commerce.
• The primary barrier appears to be technological: Some 41% of networks cite a lack of self-serve capabilities as their biggest tech-related limitation to scaling and operating their business, per EMARKETER and Bain & Co.

“With these social offerings, we’re giving more advertisers more opportunities to access our full-funnel capabilities via a self-service model and leverage them to grow their brands with us,” said Diana Finster, head of partnerships plus at Walmart Connect. “Display advertisers can now extend their onsite audiences into social environments on TikTok and Meta, for an easy on-ramp to off-site media and more control over their investments."

This was originally featured in the Commerce Media Weekly newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.