Walmart Scintilla Explained: Retail Link’s New Reporting Platform

Who is this for?

Walmart suppliers who want to understand:

• What Scintilla is and why Walmart replaced DSS with it

• The difference between Basic and Charter, and what each tier gives you

• What Scintilla can and cannot do for your business

What Is Walmart Scintilla?

Walmart Scintilla is Walmart's first-party data and analytics platform for suppliers, designed to replace the Decision Support System (DSS) previously housed within Retail Link.

DSS's architecture dates back to the 90s, making it laggy, expensive, and somewhat inaccurate, especially for eCommerce numbers and their channel metrics. This mainly happened when e-commerce sales grew 30% for Walmart, and the necessary metrics were not being tracked through DSS.

There are two versions of Scintilla: Basic and Charter. But what is the difference between the two?

What Is the Difference Between Scintilla Basic and Charter?

Every Walmart supplier is on one of two tiers:

Scintilla Basic is the standard access level for most Walmart suppliers. There is no price that suppliers have to pay for access to Basic. It includes the Report Builder and access to core datasets covering store sales, inventory, DC performance and forecasting. Suppliers use this primarily for day-to-day reporting and deduction analysis.

Scintilla Charter is an enhanced tier that provides access to advanced analytical capabilities, meaning consumer insights and broadened datasets. optional and paid, adding Shopper Behavior, Customer Perception, Digital Landscapes, report sharing, data feeds, APIs, and Charter-exclusive datasets like Hourly Store Inventory, Omni Sales, and OMNI OTIF.

Note: Basic does not support bot access, meaning teams that previously automated report pulls in DSS will need to rebuild those workflows manually or upgrade to Charter for API access. It also doesn’t allow report sharing or data feeds. Basic also does not allow report sharing or data feeds.

How Do Suppliers Use Scintilla?

Different teams use Scintilla for different things:

Compliance and deduction teams cross-reference DC receipt quantities against shipment records to identify whether a shortage deduction is legitimate or worth disputing. The Store Sales & Inventory and DC Metrics datasets are the most relevant here.

Sales and account management teams use it for buyer meetings and joint business planning. The platform provides performance data for the entire category, not just an individual supplier.

Replenishment teams rely on Store Demand Forecast and Order Forecast datasets to get ahead of out-of-stock risks before they trigger OTIF & SQEP penalties.

Marketing teams use Shopper Behavior and Customer Perception data to understand purchase frequency, brand switching, and customer demographics.

A Closer Look: How to Use Scintilla Data to Dispute Shortages?

For suppliers dealing with a heap of shortage deductions from Walmart, the Store Sales and Inventory Dataset is most commonly used. Here’s how you can use this data:

• Receipt quantity columns: They allow you to cross-reference what Walmart’s system recorded against your ASN submission.

• Store inventory levels: Help you understand whether the claimed storage actually translates into an inventory gap at the store level. If this doesn’t correspond, it is a signal worth flagging in your dispute documentation.

• Time Period Filtering: This will isolate a specific receiving window associated with a Purchase Order (PO). This is essential to match a chargeback notice to a specific shipment.

Another dataset that adds value is the DC Metrics. How? It gives you visibility into in-stock rates and receipt quantities at the DC level. This will help you identify a pattern and do root cause analysis to support a dispute argument.

Practical Tips for Getting the Most Out of Scintilla

1. Use Store-Level Lost Sales Analysis, not just topline sales reports - Most suppliers open Scintilla, check weekly sales, and leave. That misses the real opportunity. Instead, compare stores with similar volume and demographics where one cluster is outperforming another. If Store Group A is selling 18 units/week and Store Group B is selling 9 with similar traffic, that usually points to in-stock issues, shelf execution or pricing gaps, and not demand. Those are fixable problems. Scintilla becomes far more valuable when used to identify where sales should have happened but didn’t.

2. Build a weekly recovery queue - Don’t let deductions sit in a large, unresolved backlog. Every week, use Scintilla to sort open deductions by dollar value, aging, reason code, and likelihood of recovery. This helps teams focus first on claims that are both high-value and still within dispute windows. A structured recovery plan improves team productivity and speeds cash recovery.

3. Segment by DC Before Disputing - Before filing a shortage dispute with Walmart, pull your DC Metrics data filtered by the specific distribution center associated with the PO in question. If you're seeing a disproportionate shortage rate from a single DC compared to others, that's relevant context for your dispute — and it changes how you frame the claim.

Getting hit with Walmart deductions tied to what you're seeing in Scintilla?

Receipt discrepancies and DC-level mismatches in Scintilla are often the first signal that a deduction is coming. iNymbus automates the dispute process for Walmart chargebacks, helping suppliers turn those data signals into recovered revenue faster and with less manual work. Schedule a demo with the iNymbus team to see how it works for your business.