MiniMart 1/8: What Walmart's AI push means for brands

Plus: The retailers democratizing nutrition education

January 08, 2026

Happy 2026!! I’m so excited to kick off the year with not one, but two exciting announcements from our work with Instacart:

First, Instacart just released its 75 Fastest-Growing Emerging Brands list for 2025, and six (6!) Veriti brands made the cut! Seeing our clients recognized on this list is so validating - not only because it validates our work in helping them succeed on Instacart, but also because it demonstrates just how COOL our clients are!

Second, Instacart shared the amazing results from our work with Graza in its latest customer success story:

  • When we introduced Graza to the platform in September 2023, they had just two SKUs - limited shelf presence, big ambitions, and a competitive category dominated by household names.

  • Fast forward to today: 60%+ new-to-brand sales, double-digit ROAS, and over 100% year-over-year growth on the platform!

We’re constantly celebrating wins internally and with our clients. But it’s always extra exciting to see a retail partner recognize just how impactful our work has been.

Here’s to another year of big wins for our amazing Veriti brands!!

Now, onto this week in retail media and shopper marketing →

The snacks + sips hitting our grocery carts this week

MALK’s New Coconut Creamers

My fridge is forever stocked with MALK’s delicious, super clean-label dairy-free milks. So you can imagine how excited I was when I heard about this new line of organic, coconut-based creamers! Creamers are so often filled with gums, oils, and natural flavors - but these have a spotless ingredient list. So excited to pick them up at my next Target, Sprouts, or Whole Foods run! (Check out their other retailers here)

Seven Sundays Granola @ Walmart

So many granolas look better-for-you, but secretly hide a ton of sugar and artificial ingredients. I’ve been loving Seven Sundays’ new(ish) clean, gluten-free, refined sugar-free granola for a bit now, and I’m so thrilled to see 1) its beautiful new rebrand and 2) that it launched at Walmart! Huge win for accessible, clean breakfasts.

New at Whole Foods: Real Cereal, a brand I love and have previously featured in this section, is launching in Whole Foods Markets this month!! 🥳 

Featured retailer marketing updates, trends, tips, and more!

Walmart’s Sparky

🤖 Walmart Brings Ads to AI Shopping Assistant Sparky

Walmart officially launched ads within Sparky, its AI shopping assistant, after testing the format last fall. Sparky lives in Walmart's mobile app and aims to help shoppers find products via conversations - and now, brands can appear as sponsored recs when customers ask for product suggestions.

What it looks like:

  • According to Walmart, 81% of surveyed customers use Sparky to check product availability and specs before purchasing, treating Sparky like a conversational search engine

  • Ads appear as sponsored prompts when customers ask for product recommendations

  • This looks a lot like Amazon’s Rufus, which offers sponsored ads (in beta testing). It’s still early days, and brands are basically flying blind on how their sponsored products perform within Rufus conversations.

My thoughts: I’m still curious how shoppers will actually interact with sponsored content within chatbots. We're all trained to dismiss pop-ups instantly (or at least, I know I am!), so the real test is whether these AI-powered recommendations feel helpful/seamlessly integrated, or interruptive. Both Walmart and Amazon are betting that conversational context makes sponsored suggestions more relevant than traditional display ads - but shopper behavior will tell the real story.

For brands: If you're already running Sponsored Search on Walmart, you should naturally benefit as search behavior migrates to Sparky. The format is still early, which means there's room to test and learn before the space gets crowded. We’ll definitely be closely watching how engagement develops over the next few quarters.

Also from Walmart: They're rolling out Marty, an AI advertising assistant that analyzes Sponsored Search campaigns and suggests optimizations for bidding, keywords, and performance - particularly useful for emerging brands managing campaigns without large teams.

🥗 Hy-Vee Launches FoodHealth Scores, Democratizing Nutrition Education

Hy-Vee just became the latest retailer to integrate FoodHealth Scores into its mobile app and online shopping experience, bringing nutrition transparency directly to customers as they shop. Every product, from cereal to produce, now gets scored on a 1-100 scale based on nutrient density and ingredient quality.

How it works:

  • Scores reflect how closely foods align with dietary patterns proven to lower chronic disease risk

  • Shoppers also get FoodHealth Score Insights explaining why items score the way they do, plus better-for-you alternatives (this part is especially exciting to me!!)

  • It’s all available directly in the Hy-Vee app and on their website

Why this matters: 80 million people currently use the Yuka app (the independent barcode scanner that rates products on nutritional quality and additives). In other words, it’s clear that consumers are seeking out transparency and nutrition education. The difference here is that this is retailer-led, not a third-party app - meaning it’s actually democratized.

The bigger trend: Kroger already partners with FoodHealth Company for its OptUP program, which similarly scores products and provides personalized nutrition insights. It’s so cool to see multiple retailers building nutrition transparency directly into their shopping experience, making it accessible to everyone.

For better-for-you brands, this is good news! When retailers make nutrition information transparent and accessible, products with genuinely better ingredients and nutrient profiles have a clearer path to standing out on digital shelves - and that’s what Veriti is all about. 🙂 

Thanks for reading!

— Eleanor