Putting Your Heart Into The Holidays With Walmart and Yahoo

Holiday gift-giving is all about showering friends and family with love. And for the third straight year, Walmart and Yahoo are teaming up to inspire shoppers with great deals, engaging content, immersive games and exciting influencer partnerships. This year’s theme is “Holiday with Heart,” focusing on providing users with a seamless, joyful shopping experience packed with interactive content and cutting-edge capabilities like augmented reality (AR) and add-to-cart functionality. So far the engaging "Holiday with Heart" video programming is a hit with shoppers, with viewers spending 81% more time with the content, compared to expected benchmarks.

Here’s what’s new this year:

• “Play for Joy”: An innovative Instagram game created by Yahoo offering a fresh twist on an old classic. “Play for Joy” puts users at the controls of an AR version of the iconic claw machine arcade game. Users try to collect as many virtual Walmart gifts – wrapped up to keep them a surprise – as they can before time runs out.
• Add-to-cart functionality: With this frictionless interface, shoppers can add multiple Walmart products featured on Yahoo Life to their Walmart.com cart, providing a smooth journey from discovery to checkout.
• Interactive shoppable storytelling: Consumers can tune in to Yahoo Life and In The Know by Yahoo for a custom video series about the latest in holiday gift giving.
• In “Gifting to Win,” lifestyle influencer Taryn Newton shares her home and holiday décor picks via video AR, a companion augmented reality experience created by Yahoo. It enables users to see how 3D product images of Newton’s picks would look in their living spaces. It’s an entirely new and interactive way to shop.
• “We Heart the Holidays,” a shoppable video series from lifestyle blogger and entrepreneur Mattie James, covers fashion, home décor, the best kid-friendly gifts and easy DIY spins on favorite holiday recipes.

Consumers can also get a jump-start on their holiday shopping with a sneak peek at Walmart products across electronics, fashion, beauty, toys, appliances, and more. Custom gift guides offer unique ideas to help shoppers save time and money while selecting the best presents for the people who matter most in their lives.

Walmart’s “30 Days of Savings” program, which offers shoppers a first look at hundreds of Walmart products, also returns after two successful holiday seasons with Yahoo. Since launching in early November, Walmart’s “30 Days of Savings” program has already resulted in a +94% YoY increase in Gross Merchandise Value. The 2020 program drove a +239% increase in Gross Merchandise Value YoY (a leading indicator of e-commerce velocity).

This year, Walmart’s “30 Days of Savings” program includes new social media components, including a 30 Days tweet countdown featuring top Walmart products picked by Yahoo’s editors. A TikTok extension on Yahoo Life lets users test certain products featured in the program, giving viewers more of an inside look at their holiday shopping lists than ever before.

Check out the Walmart and Yahoo “Holiday with Heart” hub here.

Let’s connect today to learn how we can help your brand drive engagement with shoppers this holiday and beyond. And from everyone at Yahoo, happy holidays.