How to Sell on Walmart Marketplace - Top Practices for Walmart Sellers

Introduction

So you’ve got your eCommerce store up and running and it’s been growing slowly for a few solid years. But what’s next? Do you stay stuck on the same platform forever? The quick answer is “No.”

With online platforms such as Walmart marketplace, third-party sellers can easily start listing products and scale their business higher than ever.

But what other benefits does Walmart provide? And how can online retailers make the most out of this platform?

That’s exactly what we’re going to answer in this article today. Keep reading to find out the 8 best benefits of the Walmart marketplace and the best practices to make your product(s) stand out. 

What is Walmart Marketplace?

Walmart marketplace is an eCommerce platform that allows businesses worldwide to sell their products online.

Similar to Amazon, the Walmart marketplace also hosts a variety of different items that customers can order.

Initially, in 2000, Walmart enabled its patrons to buy products online. However, this only included items that were available via Walmart.

In 2009, Walmart expanded its online service to allow other third-party brands to list their products.

Helping 240 million users shop weekly online, Walmart is only second to the eCommerce giant Amazon.

Currently, large brands such as Dell & Hasbro are partnered with Walmart and sell their products on the digital marketplace. 

Top 8 Key Benefits of Selling on Walmart for Online Brands

Now that we’ve got our basics covered, it’s time to check out why selling on the Walmart marketplace is beneficial for emerging online brands. We’ve hand-picked eight of the best advantages for all eCommerce companies.

1) No fixed fee structure

Many platforms that host products for online brands charge a fixed monthly fee. While this is a great option for established companies, it isn’t very feasible for small businesses.

Conversely, Walmart only charges its sellers for the amount of sales they make. There are also no set-up charges, allowing users to create an account for free and start selling instantly. Walmart profits from every sale you make.

This is done by taking a small commission for every product sold by your brand. Commission rates vary depending on the type of product and range from anywhere between 6-15%.

2) Provide customers with better services without subscriptions

Subscriptions on eCommerce marketplaces unlock multiple benefits for customers. From extra discounts to faster shipping, you can easily generate more revenue for an upgrade in service.

However, Walmart is able to do the same without charging any subscription costs. For instance, take Amazon’s Prime membership where you can start getting free one/two-day shipping.

The Walmart marketplace also provides two-day free shipping to all customers. When a brand has the TwoDay Shipping tag, they can ensure customers fulfill an order within two business days, without any surcharges.

3) Take advantage of Walmart’s name

Apart from its online marketplace, Walmart as a brand is trusted by a large number of U.S. consumers. This trust comes from years of great service and the availability of products at a reasonable price.

When you start selling at Walmart, you provide the same trust to your customers and help them make a safe choice when ordering any item. 

There’s also less competition in this marketplace compared to other platforms. This is because Walmart only allows verified merchants to become sellers. 

In fact, even customers who’ve never come across your brand (but use Walmart) can be exposed to your products.

Simply being on the marketplace can easily help you increase visibility while facing less competition simultaneously. 

4) Use smart tools for pricing and automation  

A common for eCommerce stores is getting the price right. With so many dynamic markets, you can’t expect to stay at the same price forever.

Here’s when eCommerce brands need the right tools to align their prices and meet customer expectations while ensuring their profit margin isn’t harmed. 

Walmart gives you access to a repricing tool that helps you automate the process of setting competitive prices daily.

Available at zero cost, the tool allows you to create your own strategy for changing costs or choose from any of the pre-built ones:

• External price: Sets price depending on what your competitors on different eCommerce marketplaces are listing their products for. 
• Buy box price: This strategy automatically changes your products’ prices depending on what the current price is set for the same product on Walmart.
• Competitive pricing: A combination of both external and buy box strategy that lets you beat the competition on any platform.

Apart from setting the price, Walmart also offers multiple solution providers to automate your inventory management, shipping, etc. 

5) Delegate your entire logistics 

Instead of using a separate 3PL partner, your business can easily start shipping any item using Walmart’s Fulfillment Service (WFS).

This service is a complete end-to-end solution that helps you ship any product that you’ve listed on the marketplace. 

From sending your goods to a nearby Walmart fulfillment center to making the final-mile delivery, Walmart takes care of all logistics procedures. All users have to do is prepare an inventory list and create an inbound shipment. 

This service is helpful for small businesses who don’t want to pay the upfront/monthly costs of dedicated third-party shipping software. However, it’s good to note that Walmart only ships within the U.S. and not internationally. 

Small businesses can further save on WFS costs by selecting a preferred carrier. Further, you can fulfill a product within one, two, or three business days without charging any extra shipping costs to your customers. 

In fact, Walmart also handles return orders for your brand and (usually) allows customers to return a product within 90 days from the purchase date. 

6) Make customer support easy 

A great feature of the platform is its customer service. Walmart takes complete responsibility for handling any customer complaints regarding the shipping process. This includes when a product isn’t delivered on time or if customers want to initiate a return order. 

Online store owners can leverage this service to help their customer support team focus on resolving more important questions/complaints regarding your brand such as product quality or feedback for improvement. 

Such complaints/feedback help your product management team and engineers work in sync to add/edit any features and build a product that meets all customer expectations. 

7) Build an online presence 

As mentioned above, Walmart is used by millions of people on a weekly basis. This means that every week, your brand is put in front of large groups of people who can either buy or refer your brand to someone else. 

Once you’re in the marketplace, you can easily build a solid online presence and prove to your customers that you’re a trustworthy source to buy products. 

Online stores can also make use of Walmart’s Sponsored Search service and enjoy pay-per-click ad benefits.

Products under this service are given more spotlight and listed above others along with your brand logo.

8) Get free strategic advisory services 

Apart from customer service, Walmart also provides free advisory services to all brands on its marketplace all seven days a week.

This can help you learn more about the platform itself and how you can ensure that your brand performs well.

5 Best Practices for All Walmart Sellers 

Now that you have a good idea of what the Walmart marketplace is all about, here are five of our best practices for every online merchant. 

1) Have a good sales history before joining Walmart 

Walmart has a rather strict way of selecting companies that can join and start listing their products. One of the criteria for being eligible to sell your products is having a successful background.

Before you join the marketplace, take a look at your past sales report. Check how your eCommerce store has done over the years.

If you’ve got a good record of success and can prove that you’re a genuine brand then Walmart will easily let you start selling items to customers via their platform. 

2) Go through Walmart’s prohibited product list once

Walmart cannot and does not endorse every type of business in the market. This is to ensure that their marketplace is entirely compliant with current federal and state laws.

Even if your business is legally compliant, there’s a chance that your product is not supported by Walmart. If you’re a retailer of items like vehicles, medical foods, software, tickets, jewelry, cosmetics, etc., then you won’t be able to sell on Walmart.

Businesses can also browse the prohibited items list on the seller help page to check all products that cannot be sold on Walmart. 

Also, certain regions like Iran and North Korea are also prohibited from selling here. In fact, even if a product is manufactured or sourced from any such country, it will fail to comply with Walmart’s standards. 

3) Check the listing quality dashboard daily 

When you become a seller at Walmart, ensure that you keep checking the listing quality dashboard every day.

This dashboard is a feedback tool that provides specific suggestions on how you can improve your listing and stay on top of competitors in the marketplace. 

A listing quality score is also provided here which provides feedback for each product that you’ve listed.

This score is derived by looking at all the things a customer considers before buying a product and analyzing if your listing matches all expectations. 

4) Conduct order tests

On the seller center, businesses can start testing orders to check whether their checkout is fast or not. You can also find out how return orders and refunds function on the same page as well.

Before you start marketing your products, ensure that you conduct order tests and keep the checkout process fast and hassle-free for all customers. 

5) Implement cross-selling

Once a customer selects your order, try cross-selling and giving them more recommendations to buy complementary products.

You can add discounts to such items and promote upselling where the overall cart value of your customer is higher than initially intended. Cross-selling items can include phone covers, accessories, laptop bags, chargers, etc. 

How to Become a Seller at Walmart?

Since you now know the best practices of selling on the Walmart marketplace, it’s time for you to learn how you can become a seller in the first place.

It’s not rocket science! Just follow our three-step guide to open a seller account today. 

1) Verify if your business is compliant with Walmart’s policies

Before creating an account, quickly go through Walmart’s policies and prohibited items list.

Check if there’s any policy that your business may not follow. Once you’ve cross-checked everything, head over to the official marketplace and create your account.   

2) Create an account on the Seller Center

After visiting the official marketplace site, choose the “Join Marketplace” option in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

If your company is based outside of the U.S., you’ll be prompted to submit a US Employer Identification Number (EIN). Click “Keep Going” if you have one.

Once done, you’ll be directed to a page where you can add details such as your name, your company’s (legal) name, email address, and phone number.

Tick the box at the bottom to agree to Walmart’s policies and you’ll create an account on the platform.

3) Add your inventory

Once you have an account in place, you can start creating an inbound shipment and send all your inventory to a local Walmart fulfillment center.

Start by creating an inventory list, print all your labels, and click on “Send inventory.” Once Walmart receives your goods, they’ll automatically start fulfilling orders on your behalf. 

Why Should Online Stores Choose Walmart Over Other Platforms?

Walmart as a standalone platform has made major success in the eCommerce industry, especially over the past few years. Its rise in growth is evident from providing high-quality services to online customers. 

Online merchants get the same benefits on Walmart as other eCommerce marketplaces at a lower price.

This, coupled with their fulfillment services and providing free 2-day shipping to all customers makes Walmart a much more suitable and profitable platform to sell on. 

All in all, Walmart is a great option for emerging eCommerce brands who are looking to scale their business and gain more exposure in the U.S.

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Conclusion

In a nutshell, there are several benefits of selling on the Walmart marketplace such as no fixed fee structure, access to a variety of listing tools, and more exposure in the market.

If your business implements the best practices of selling, you can easily scale higher and provide top-notch services at minimal cost to all customers.