Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) have partnered for an agreement for Yahoo to sell display advertising on Wal-Mart's Web site, as well as work with the retail giant to work on improving their behavioral targeting strategy.
Behavioral targeting is the practice of offering ads based on past behavior of consumers.
As a result of the agreement, Wal-Mart will also be changing its Web design to work better with graphical advertising.
“This is a huge deal for both Yahoo and Wal-Mart,” said Anil Batra, director of analytics and strategy at ZeroDash1, a Web analytics and search company. “This will define how e-commerce will move forward. [Behavioral targeting] is nothing new, but [now] it's being done by two big players.”
A recent market survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), revealed that 40 percent of those that responded weren't using behavioral targeting at this time, although about 80 percent said they were willing to increase their advertising budgets in order to add the practice to their sales strategy.
For Yahoo this is a part of their continuing attempt to distinguish themselves as an advertising platform, while for Wal-Mart it shows they're definitely not conceding the online retail market to Amazon (AMZN), as they try to make their Web site more efficient and produce better marketing results.
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