The Trade Desk has added another partner to test its post-cookie identifier, signing a deal with Walmart’s media arm.

Walmart Connect will test integrating The Trade Desk’s UID2 in the Walmart DSP, which uses the retailer’s first-party data to target and measure off-site programmatic buys. Once integrated, the goal is to have UID2 allow clients to continue targeting Walmart’s audiences and inform decision-making after the sunsetting of third-party cookies.

The Trade Desk helped the retailer create and launch its DSP, which first came to market in 2021. Adding to the partnership is an effort by Walmart to “future proof” its retail media offering, in anticipation of both the deprecation of third-party cookies, as well as greater regulator scrutiny on consumer data privacy.

“With compliancy and customers’ privacy rights at the forefront, we are building privacy-safe identity solutions powered by the scale of Walmart’s first-party customer insights that enable advertisers to target, reach and measure our omnichannel audiences,” said Jeff Clark, VP of product at Walmart Connect. “The shopper journey is increasingly fragmented, and by partnering with various industry identity solutions such as UID2, we are working on ways for our advertisers to safely expand their reach of Walmart’s customers across the open internet without relying on third-party cookies.”

UID2 uses authenticated data to improve consumer privacy controls, while maintaining the value exchange of the open internet. The Trade Desk has been busy signing on partners to test and adopt the solution and get a leadership stake among the post-cookie options available to the industry. Canadian companies that are supporting UID2 include Environics Analytics, Optable and Drako, with Rogers, Comscore and Kijiji Canada also participating in testing phases. Globally, it has also received support from Amazon, Disney, P&G, Publicis, Omnicom and IPG.