When you think of online marketplaces, Amazon most likely pops into your mind first. What you may not be aware of is the power of its competitor, Walmart Marketplace. Walmart.com sees 100 million unique visitors each month.
With so many customers flocking to this marketplace, plenty of online brands and businesses are taking advantage. These merchants know that more eyeballs mean more business. However, knowing how to sell on Walmart.com will take some time, practice and effort.
To better your business, you’ll want to get your products on this platform. If you’re not sure where to begin, we’re here to help.
What Is Walmart Marketplace?
A good comparison for Walmart Marketplace is Amazon Seller Central. Walmart Marketplace allows for third-party sellers to place and sell products on its platform.
Store owners and brands can sign up enabling customers to browse categories and shop right on the online storefront.
Aside from Amazon, Walmart Marketplace is another avenue for stores and brands to take advantage with a large volume of shoppers (and is currently ranked at no. 3). Thus, making it a new audience to attract.
Walmart Marketplace is quickly catching up to its main competitor, Amazon.
Benefits of Selling Products on Walmart Marketplace
Now that you have an idea of what Walmart Marketplace is, why would you want to start selling products on Walmart.com? Let’s discuss some of the main benefits this marketplace has to offer.
No Registration Fees
No need to fuss over fees with Walmart Marketplace. If you’ve come from Amazon (which charges $39/month), you’ll be instantly attracted.
Instead, you’ll pay a referral fee (8% to 15% of your product fee).
Fulfillment
Walmart Marketplace makes fulfillment a breeze. Much like Amazon, you won’t have to hassle with managing the fulfillment of your orders. As a seller, you can send all of your products to a Walmart.com fulfillment warehouse for storage.
From there, the fulfillment center will process packaging, labeling and shipping.
Customer Support
Learning how Walmart Marketplace works is a lot easier with its customer support. From time to time you might run into issues, but with customer support readily available, you can handle more important aspects like marketing and sales.
This means a lot less headache on your end as the business owner.
Low Competition
There’s a lot of competition when placing your products on Amazon. While Walmart Marketplace gets plenty of traffic on its site, sellers don’t have to compete as much. This is especially true if you can carve out a niche for your brand or products.
If you become one of the first brands to sell a specific product, your reviews and sales will rank much higher. You’ll have a leg up on the competition.
Growing Marketplace With Potential
You can no longer afford to ignore Walmart Marketplace with its high sales volume.
Aside from its brick-and-mortar locations, Walmart.com is quickly gaining momentum. Sellers can gain a more successful multi-channel strategy by taking advantage of this growing platform.
Same Fees as Amazon Marketplace
If you’re adding the same products you have on Amazon, you won’t have to adjust prices, budgets or profits. That’s because, from each category, you’ll see the same fee percentages.
How to Sell on Walmart Marketplace
Registered US businesses in the United States and Canada can start selling products on Walmart Marketplace right away. These businesses won’t have to worry about paying an ongoing subscription fee. The way it works is that the business will pay Walmart.com a percentage of the sale for each product.
Once you sign up for a seller’s account, you’ll just need to wait through the manual review process (which doesn’t take long). From there, you can start listing and selling products on Walmart Marketplace right away.
Requirements
How can you meet the “selling on Walmart” requirements?
The first thing you’ll notice is that the requirements are much stricter than Walmart’s affiliate program. This is because you’ll be selling physical products which come with some risk as opposed to just straight advertising.
Application
To complete a Walmart Marketplace seller application, you’ll need to submit a request first. You can be approved in as little as 10 to 15 minutes with proper documentation.
You’ll also need to provide documentation that you have a legitimate registered US-based business.
The EIN verification is how the Department of Treasury can verify your business and location. If you don’t have one, head to the IRS website, however this can delay the signup process.
Registration
Once you have the Walmart Marketplace seller application completed, you can move forward on registration of your Walmart Marketplace account. Check your inbox and look for the registration link.
1. Create an Account
A username and password are needed to create a Walmart Marketplace seller account. This is what you’ll use to log in to the Seller Center. Be sure to keep this information stored securely.
2. Accept the Walmart Retailer Agreement
The Walmart retailer agreement is a legal agreement you’re required to accept. Read through it thoroughly before you do.
3. Register Your Company
The next thing you’ll need to do is register your company name and corporate address. Be aware that this will be your “display name” so choose wisely. When customers search and shop on Walmart.com, this is what they’ll see.
Don’t worry; your corporate address won’t be published as it is only for internal purposes. This means a confirmed US Business address with a W9, W8, or EIN letter.
4. Complete Tax Forms
You will need more than just a private SSN to get started. You’ll be required to submit a unique US business tax ID (TIN)
5. Add Payment Information
Once you start selling products on Walmart.com, you’ll want a way of receiving payments. Walmart Marketplace has partnered with Payoneer and Hyperwallet. Sign up for either of these series before you select one on Walmart’s side.
6. Enter Shipping Information
Next, you’ll select your shipping pricing model and shipping methods (value, expedited, next day, etc.). You’ll also decide which shipping regions you are able to fulfill.
In addition, there are shipping templates (which we’ll cover more in-depth later), so you can devise a shipping strategy for your company or brand.
Listing Products
Learning how to sell on Walmart Marketplace can be a methodical process. Before you start listing products on Walmart Marketplace, we recommend uploading and testing them first.
Completing this step will allow you to notice any issues up front. This will lower the risk of running into problems with customers once you are out of the test phase.
When listing products on Walmart Marketplace, you’ll also want accurate product information and pricing. Even though this is the test phase, the product information will be the same once your products are live, so it’s important to get this right from the get-go.
Once completed, your test products will now be granted “stage” status. You will then need to place a couple of orders and complete them.
Make sure you add categories and link them to the right products as well.
Once you’re out of the test phase, Walmart Marketplace will do a final review before fully activating your seller account. This will generally take 24 to 48 hours to complete.
Select an Integration Method
When learning how to sell on Walmart Marketplace, you’ll also need to select an integration method. This is all about managing your inventory as a business. This entails things like product listings, pricing, adding images, managing orders, fulfillment, and so on.
With Walmart’s API, Bulk Upload, this is all possible.
If you’re wondering, “how can I sell on Walmart Marketplace all on my own?”, do not fret. Working with an integration partner can make the process run much more smoothly.
Thankfully, Walmart Marketplace has plenty of integration solution specialists to work with.
How to Succeed as a Walmart Marketplace Seller
Becoming a Walmart Marketplace seller will come with its ups and downs, but there are certain things you can do to set yourself up for success:
1. Perform Regular Health Checks
We recommend familiarizing yourself with the Unpublished Items Dashboard. From the Unpublished Items Dashboard, you can perform regular health checks on your product listings. This will allow you to identify any listings that become unpublished for whatever reason.
2. Improve Your Listings
From Walmart’s Listing Quality Dashboard, you can improve your product listings substantially. You’ll get a better understanding of how customers are experiencing your products and receive information on how to fully optimize your listings.
Be sure to check analytics, reports, and any growth opportunities. You can also filter products that are currently trending.
Keep an eye on your Listing Quality Score. With this score, you’ll be able to see how discoverable your listings are as well as the quality of your offers. Be sure to search by title, SKU, item ID, or score ranges.
Take a look at the ratings and reviews as well.
Once you start to sell some products on Walmart Marketplace, you can see your post-purchase quality. This will tell you a percentage of issues with your products and the number of products sold.
3. Work With Integration Solution Providers
An integration solutions provider will help you run your business more smoothly. While they take care of specific aspects of your business, you can hone in on your strengths.
4. Attract More Customers With Expedited Shipping
When selling products on Walmart Marketplace, have your customers’ best interests at heart. This means paying attention to your shipping and handling efficiency.
One sure-fire way to attract more customers is by offering free shipping. Walmart.com has done a great job offering this service. No longer do you have to concern yourself with finding the cheapest provider; Walmart Marketplace does much of the legwork on your behalf.
5. Optimize Deliveries With Shipping Templates
You don’t have to start from scratch when learning how to ship products on Walmart.com. With shipping templates, your operation will be streamlined.
This basic framework will allow you to optimize the entire process for your deliveries. You will no longer have to worry about getting your products shipped on time to your customers.
You can use different templates depending on your needs and wants. For example, they can be specific to the shipping times you provide (expedited, two-day, three-day) and the products you sell.
6. Offer Enhanced Returns
From the customers’ perspective, returns are almost always an inconvenient process. This is why Walmart offers Enhanced Returns. This will satisfy the customer and serve more customers in general.
Customers can return for free or head to a location near them.
7. Pro Seller Badge
Having a Pro seller Badge on your page will establish trust with the customer. It will also set your brand apart from the competition. Customers will know that you provide excellent service and on-time deliveries and that your products are of high quality.
Become a Walmart Marketplace Wizard
Now that you know how to sell on Walmart Marketplace, there’s no time like the present. The sooner you apply to sell on Walmart.com, the better.
When you need a refresher, you can always come back to this guide. As you list more of your products, you will begin to understand the platform even better.
As you begin to learn the ropes, you’ll want to level up. The good news is you’re not alone in the process. Take advantage of our market and product research by trying Algopix for free today.
