When it all hit at once
Walmart Frozen Shrimp—A Scintilla story of leading through the storm
Scintilla turned a year that felt like chaos into a sequence of addressable facts.
During a difficult period for the Frozen Shrimp subcategory, C.P. Foods turned to Scintilla to decode complex market disruptions—from cost volatility to customer product swapping. With Scintilla insights, they provided their Walmart merchant with the clarity needed to stabilize performance and rebuild momentum.
The opportunity: Overcome a turbulent year for shrimp products
At first glance, the Frozen Seafood category appeared to be having a strong year with sales up 10.8%. But the customer story told something different. Starting in August 2025, sales began to slip, beginning with Cooked Shrimp, as shoppers tightened their budgets. Customer penetration fell 88 basis points, and units per transaction declined 2.5%.
The Shopper Behavior Performance in Detail report and Report Builder showed the shift clearly. Over the same 12 months that Frozen Shrimp units declined 14%, Frozen Fish grew nearly 6%. This let C.P. Foods know that demand for Frozen Seafood had not collapsed, but instead shoppers were choosing lower-cost proteins like chicken, pork, or ground beef instead of shrimp. Average unit retail also increased by 16.2%. Together, the findings pointed to a critical price threshold: Around the $10 price point, customers were becoming less willing to add shrimp to their baskets.
Sustained price increased drove doller growth, while declining customer penetration and lower units per transaction highlighted the impact on shoppers
As the largest subcategory in Frozen Seafood, the decline of Frozen Shrimp had an outsized impact on the total category. C.P. Foods needed to uncover what was driving those choices and rebuild demand for shrimp.
The approach: Make the value of shrimp visible everywhere shoppers buy
C.P. Foods used Customer Perception to hear directly from Walmart customers who had stopped buying shrimp. The team found that shoppers had not fallen out of love with shrimp; they had fallen out of budget. Many now saw shrimp as a luxury, chose a less expensive protein for their families, and noticed even $1 to $2 price changes.
The team also tested lower prices. After prices were lowered, 87% of surveyed customers who noticed the change said it influenced them to buy or buy more. But the recovery was fragile, with only 21% of shoppers saying they would keep buying at the same rate if prices returned to previous highs.
The team then turned to the Shopper Behavior Shop Across Time report. Only 16.6% of shrimp buyers remained in the category before, during, and after the disruption in sales, demonstrating that shoppers were moving in and out as conditions changed.
With this knowledge, C.P. Foods worked with Walmart and other suppliers on a coordinated plan called Shrimp Combat, focused on two actions:
- Make shrimp visible: C.P. Foods created a digital activation through Walmart Connect, using sponsored placements across Walmart.com and the Walmart mobile app to reach shoppers online.
- Bring shrimp back below the $10 ceiling: C.P. Foods presented a retail strategy to its merchant, recommending cross-category Rollbacks on Tempura, Value Bags, Salmon, Tilapia, and Crawfish to restore a price shoppers could afford. The merchant approved the plan, which launched in summer 2026.
The results: Shrimp is back on top of the customer’s mind
Shrimp Combat helped restore a price shoppers could afford and kept Frozen Shrimp visible as they planned their grocery trips.
Following the launch, early signals showed a projected 6.8%-unit growth in the first month. This is growth in actual bags of shrimp purchased by households, not growth driven by higher prices or product mix.
Additionally, Walmart Connect helped keep frozen Cooked Shrimp visible online, with digital gross merchandise value (GMV) growing at least 18% each week and peaking at 40.36%.
Scintilla helped C.P. Foods and their merchant see what was holding demand back, identify the $10 price ceiling, hear directly from shoppers who left, and measure the actions that brought them back. The result was more than a recovery plan for Frozen Shrimp: It created a repeatable playbook C.P. Foods can use to respond to the next category disruption.
