Walmart marketplace serves around 120 million online shoppers every month. If you are looking to expand your eCommerce business, this is a platform you would want to explore.
Walmart.com offers excellent features to help sellers establish their presence on the platform. However, getting started with Walmart is not as simple as going into Amazon.
In this blog, we will discuss how you can apply to get invited on Walmart and start selling on the platform. If you read till the end, you’ll also find a bunch of tips to help you grow into a successful Walmart seller.
Why Should You Consider Expanding Into Walmart Marketplace?
Before we talk about how you can become a Walmart seller, let’s take a moment to revisit why it is a good idea to expand into Walmart Marketplace.
Walmart allows all sellers, whether big or small, a level playing field. Regardless of how small your business is, if you meet Walmart’s requirements and can optimize your listings well, Walmart will empower your brand and take it to the right customers.
A brand selling automotive parts used Walmart Marketplace and its proprietary solutions to optimize its pre and post-purchase customer experience.
As a result of this collaboration, the company experienced a 98% boost in its delivery quality and 3x increase in its average daily sales.
The brand also earned a Pro Seller Badge, which helps sellers gain visibility, trust, and attention on the platform.
Okay. This brand experienced a handful of Walmart benefits. But what do you get from selling on the marketplace?
Diversified Sales Channels
Amazon and Walmart have a distinct audiences. When you expand and establish across both marketplaces, you empower your business to reach and engage unique customers on both platforms. This increases your sales channels, reduces reliance on any platform, and improves your business’s bottom line.
2 Day Shipping
Similar to Amazon Prime, Walmart offers its sellers a “2-day shipping” tag that helps them gain visibility and sales within the platform. The only difference between Amazon Prime and the “2-day shipping tag” is that the 2 day tag is free on Walmart. You just have to qualify for it.
Customers love expedited delivery. This is why, once your products earn the “2-day shipping” tag, they are expected to sell faster. And that’s not just an assumption. Products with these tags tend to have 30-50% higher conversions.
A consumer goods brand activated the “2-day shipping” tag for 33% of the products in their catalog. These items had a 90% higher conversion rate and accounted for 60% of the brand’s Gross Merchandise Value or GMV.
So, when you become a Walmart seller, you get access to features like these for free to grow and strengthen your marketplace presence.
Pay Only When You Make A Sale
Walmart offers exposure, optimization tools, and a powerful platform, all for free. You don’t have to pay anything to exist on the platform.
Walmart only charges its sellers when they make a sale. And then, too, the referral fee is only a small percentage of the product’s price.
This makes Walmart an affordable platform for small businesses with limited budgets.
Low Competition
Walmart Marketplace is still in its early stages. It is far from being as big as Amazon. Additionally, it has a strictly regulated seller entry process. Therefore, there are relatively fewer sellers on the platform right now.
Walmart offers much smaller competition than Amazon, while the exposure and customer base are still significant enough. This makes it easy for new sellers to crack their way into the platform and find visibility without elbowing too many businesses as they work their way to the top.
Check out the massive difference in number of results between Amazon and Walmart:
Walmart Marketplace Seller Requirements
Walmart is keen on maintaining its brand image and reputation. This is why the company is very particular about who it shares the platform with.
Walmart Marketplace has strict requirements. You have to meet these requirements before Walmart can accept your seller application and invite you to join the platform.
Here is a list of requirements you have to satisfy before you can enter Walmart as a seller:
US Business Tax ID or a valid business license.
W9 or W8 and an EIN verification letter that verifies your US business address or place of physical operations.
US business address.
Address or place of physical operations.
A plan of how you will integrate your product catalog.
Your primary product categories, product catalog size, and other relevant information.
Proven history of marketplace or eCommerce success.
A guarantee that none of your products appear in Walmart Marketplace’s Prohibited Products Policy
Walmart recently opened up for non-US sellers. But the marketplace requirements are more stringent for foreign sellers. So, if you are based out of the US, you may have to bear with Walmart, as it thoroughly vets your authenticity and reliability before letting you in.
In any case, Walmart may take a couple of weeks to review your application. If you meet their criteria, you will receive a green signal, after which you can proceed with the registration process.
Registering As a Walmart Marketplace Seller
Once your application is approved, you will have to register yourself on Walmart as a seller. This process will include:
Seller account creation
Signing the Walmart seller agreement
Company registration
Entering your tax, payment, and shipment details. You can choose to get your payments transferred directly to your bank account or use a third-party payment system like Payoneer or Hyperwallet.
Uploading your listing, testing orders, and going live. You will be testing order placement, cancellation, shipping, and refund. Once you are sure everything works as expected, Walmart will take your store live, and you will be able to start selling within a few hours.
As far as uploading your product catalog is concerned, Walmart gives you two options. You can upload each item individually, which is better for small catalogs, or put up the entire catalog in one go through the platform’s Bulk Upload tool, in case you have a vast product catalog.
Tips for Becoming Successful on Walmart Marketplace
Now that you are almost ready to jump into Walmart Marketplace, here are a few tips to help you start your journey off on the right foot and become successful on Walmart:
Optimize Your Product Listing
Yes, Walmart has fewer sellers. But your products will still have to compete with hundreds of SKUs. And they won’t be able to find visibility with a sub-optimal listing.
Therefore, perform keyword research and optimize your product listings with the right search terms.
Apart from that, select the right categories for your products and write concise but elaborate product titles along with detailed and sales-focused product descriptions.
Make sure to include high-resolution product images and get as many customer reviews as possible.
Finally, use Walmart’s Listing Quality Dashboard to identify areas of improvement within your listing and work on them.
Get Approved for Walmart 2-day Shipping Tag
You know from above how helpful the “2-day shipping” tag can be for brands on Walmart. Apply for it and make sure at least some of your products get the tag.
Walmart gives you two fulfillment options as you apply for the “2-day shipping” tag. You can either go for the seller-fulfilled option. In this case, you will have to satisfy Walmart’s criteria for your application to be accepted and fulfill the orders yourself.
Or you can choose Walmart’s partners like Deliverr or ShipBob for your order fulfillment. You get pre-approved for a “2-day shipping” tag if you go this route.
Invest in Walmart Ads
Walmart has a powerful, data-based, and technologically sound advertising ecosystem. You can invest in it and take your business to a wider audience.
You don’t necessarily need a huge budget to use Walmart ads.
Walmart sponsored product ads are similar to Amazon’s PPC ads. And if you are just starting out on Walmart, investing in them can get you good exposure and traction.
Provide Impeccable Customer Service
Fostering a solid brand presence when the competition is as fierce as it is today demands uncompromising customer service.
95% of customers consider customer service necessary for brand loyalty, while 81% believe positive customer experience increases the chances of return purchases.
Therefore, invest all your resources into delivering excellent customer service. Consistently deliver all your products on time. Ensure good product quality. And assist the customers in every way possible.
Final Words
As Walmart grows into the second biggest marketplace after Amazon, expanding into it seems like the best way forward for eCommerce sellers who wish to grow their online business.
However, joining Walmart as a seller is not as straightforward as selling on Amazon. Walmart has a stringent application process, and you are only invited to sell once the company approves your application.
At Accrue, we help businesses choose the right marketplaces to grow their business and empower them with tailored eCommerce strategies to strengthen their presence across these platforms.
Discuss your Walmart plans with us. Let us share what we think would be the best step forward for your brand.