Omnichannel commerce has become a critical strategy for brands. It helps expand reach while offering an integrated shopping experience across multiple platforms, letting sellers meet customers where they’re at. This approach – which includes ecommerce marketplaces – can increase engagement, boost sales and help retailers stay competitive in a multichannel world.
Walmart.com gets millions of monthly visitors, making Walmart Marketplace an effective ecommerce channel for businesses of all sizes. And while Amazon dominates the marketplace space, Walmart remains a viable choice that offers some unique advantages. Like any channel, getting started and maximizing sales potential requires planning, a strategy and continuous improvement.
This comprehensive guide will help you navigate Walmart Marketplace and let you know what it takes to get started, sell and find success on the platform.
Walmart Marketplace, like Amazon, is an online platform for third-party sellers to list their inventory and reach millions of potential buyers. When people search Walmart.com for products, a third-party seller's products will appear in search results along with other items. However, the caveat is that brands must optimize their presence to gain visibility and engage shoppers.
Walmart is currently one of the fastest-growing ecommerce platforms in the U.S. It offers several advantages compared to other marketplace platforms.
Getting started on Walmart Marketplace opens up a world of opportunities for your brand. By understanding the setup process and best practices, you can quickly and effectively establish your presence on one of the largest retail marketplaces in the world. The process involves the following steps:
Applying to sell on Walmart Marketplace takes 10-15 minutes if you have the needed information ready. The requirements are:
By giving as much information upfront as possible, you'll save time later. If you have to correspond with Walmart Marketplace during their review, respond quickly to avoid delays in approval.
Once Walmart has approved you, the company will email you the link to finish registration.
Walmart's signup tool will guide you through the following steps:
As part of inputting your shipping information, you'll set up shipping rates and order fulfillment timeframes.
Next, you'll fill out your public-facing Seller Profile with the information below:
First, you’ll provide your tax nexus. Tax nexus is a business' physical presence that creates a tax obligation to a state. Warehouses, offices and call centers can determine nexus. The nexus page will show a list of states where you may have nexus. To choose the nexus for a state, select the state and then the “sub-state.” By “sub-state,” Walmart means localities within a state that issue taxes. Some states have no sub-states, while others have thousands.
Next, you’ll select shipping sales tax codes, which let Walmart know what to charge customers for shipping. Finally, you’ll provide details about your sales tax policies in under 4,000 characters. For example: "X% sales tax will be applied to all orders shipped to any [state] address."
In the shipping section, you’ll first choose your shipping model from one of the following options:
Once complete, you’ll choose your shipping methods. Walmart requires that you provide “standard” and “value” shipping, and you can offer expedited, two-day and next-day shipping options. After that, you’ll choose transit times, so customers have accurate expectations for delivery times. Walmart’s requirements are as follows:
You’ll also confirm shipping pricing based on which shipping model you chose, choose your processing schedule, choose your shipping time zones and add a brief explanation of your shipping policy for customers. There are ways to optimize your shipping costs, so consider these as you plan your Walmart operation.
Walmart uses Payoneer and Hyperwallet to disburse Marketplace partner payments, so you'll need to register with one of these services. However, you can only use Payoneer if you have a W-8ECI tax classification.
The last onboarding step is listing your catalog and testing orders before you go live to give customers a seamless checkout experience. Start with your top-selling products first, and remember that these items will go live once you’ve completed testing. Therefore, don't put "test" in the names or product descriptions — these are actual items for purchase. If you sell items in multiple categories, include a handful of items per category. Test a few orders by testing these processes: Order acknowledgment, cancellation, shipping and refund. You don't need to actually ship these orders.
Once the ordering process goes off without a hitch, you can submit a launch request. Walmart’s go-live criteria are as follows:
Click the “Ready to Launch” button,” and then Walmart will do a final review and launch your account for the public to access. Customers can buy your products within a few hours, but your products won't appear in their search results for 24-48 hours. Tip: Optimize your listings and other content to maximize visibility and engage customers. It's a vital component of marketplace success.
Using best practices is crucial to gaining approval to sell on Walmart Marketplace, as it ensures your application meets Walmart's high standards for quality and competitiveness. Adhering to these guidelines not only increases your chances of acceptance but also sets the foundation for a successful and profitable presence on the platform.
Ensuring none of your products fall into the list below will help you get approved:
Walmart doesn’t accept syringes with needles for subcutaneous injections, but it permits the following items:
Walmart is more likely to approve a seller with at least one year of selling history, positive reviews on other sites or proof that you’ve successfully fulfilled customer orders. Walmart will use metrics from other platforms you’re on to analyze your business's performance, including sales success and customer satisfaction.
If Walmart would be your first online marketplace, you may want to try eBay or Amazon or make sure you’re doing volume on your brand’s site. Walmart doesn’t have an exact business size it requires for approval, but anecdotally, it seems to approve sellers with at least six figures in annual sales.
Ensure your company's information, like address, name and phone number, is consistent across all forms of documentation. Discrepancies may lead to the rejection of your application. Additionally, don’t worry about going overboard in proving your track record as an ecommerce seller; it’s better for Walmart to have too much than too little.
Achieving success as a Walmart Marketplace seller requires strategic planning and a deep understanding of the platform's unique dynamics. By leveraging proven tips and best practices, you can enhance your visibility, boost sales and build a thriving online business.
Walmart's algorithm gives your product listings a score ranging from 0% to 99%. Your score considers product descriptions, product images, ratings and reviews, content and discoverability and post-purchase quality. Post-purchase quality includes criteria like cancellation and return rates. You can find your Listing Quality Score in your Seller Center dashboard, along with ideas on improving your listing quality. Optimizing your product listings with transparency, accuracy and ample information will help customer make sound purchasing decision and can help reduce returns. Optimized product listings also help with your score.
Walmart displays the Pro Seller Badge next to your business name. Sellers receive this badge by delivering consistent on-time delivery, excellent customer service and free returns. Listing Quality is also an important factor, and Walmart updates badges twice per month.
Here are the Pro Seller Badge criteria:
Walmart Marketplace automatically grants or revokes badges based on these criteria.
Walmart keeps a close eye on customer satisfaction, and you can keep yours high by doing the following:
A lot goes into Walmart Marketplace success, and our services and solutions can help increase your profits while giving you time back to focus on your core business. Our platform automates fulfillment, pricing and promotions across over 2,000 advertising channels and marketplaces, can assist customers in winning the Buy Box on Amazon and Walmart 72% of the time on average. Cart.con also offers managed services to help you execute day-to-day operations like onboarding teams and a category manager, setting up products on new marketplaces, auditing listings and optimizing advertising. Our Price Watch Tool will help you monitor your competition to maintain your pricing edge. To learn more about how Cart.com can help you achieve marketplace success, contact our team today.