The Customer Advantage service, described as a web-based insights and planning platform, will be available from next month. It will mean that “Walmart and its supplier partners will share the same custom knowledge base about Walmart’s shoppers,” SymphonyIRI said.

The announcement comes a few days after Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer, revealed it would be sharing its point-of-sale data with SymphonyIRI’s rival Nielsen – the first time in ten years that the retailer has given a research company access to the data. SymphonyIRI has said it is in the process of finalising a similar agreement with the firm.

Walmart’s Cindy Davis said the Customer Advantage solution “identifies and sizes opportunities among shopper segments, trips and categories that will better enable Walmart and its supplier partners to grow their businesses”.