Getting Started Selling on Walmart in 2019: An Insider’s Guide To Success

Walmart describes itself as the largest multi-channel retailer and provides sellers with an opportunity to get their products in front of millions of customers. And the landscape for what Walmart sells online has changed in recent years.

With Marc Lore convincing the Walmart board to shift their focus from books, electronics, and toys to product areas that are becoming popular now: apparel, fresh food and “everyday essentials” like drugstore items, the turn around for Walmart ecommerce marketplace began.

Currently, Walmart allows third-party sellers in 35+ product categories to offer their products on its Marketplace.

From apparel and accessories to gourmet food and from health and personal care products to jewelry and computers and sporting goods, almost everything can be found on the ecommerce Walmart Marketplace.

The change of guard at the top triggered several changes which have started to yield the desired results.

Walmart’s ecommerce sales grew at 43% in Q3, 2018 which is the sign of all things positive happening for Walmart.

Walmart is changing

So, what all has changed over at Walmart since Lore’s arrival?

• A more user-friendly site design.
• Free delivery on orders of more than $35, incentivizing consumers to build bigger baskets, resulting in an increased AOV.
• The option to save additional money by adding BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In-Store).

But, why these changes? Well, it has to do with millennial buying behavior.

Millennials are the drivers of legacy brand change (including Walmart)

There are 83.1 million millennials which forms a quarter of U.S. population. 88% of the millennials live in metropolitan areas.

Over 40% of them are parents, therefore, invariably they end up spending more on everyday essentials.

Together they spent $600 billion each year and make 54% of their purchases online.

Combining all the aforementioned factors, Walmart adopted a new strategy by opening its doors to third-party sellers with excellent products, great customer service and a history of quick delivery. Walmart also started to acquire excellent brands within their product categories.

All the effort put in by the Walmart team has started to show positive results. Walmart’s U.S. ecommerce sales grew 40% in the 2nd quarter of 2018, up from 33% growth in Q1.

At the end of 2018, Walmart overtook Apple.com as the third largest online retailer. Their total revenue stood at $128.03 billion.

Contrary to Amazon, Walmart doesn’t seem to be replicating the products of those successful on its platform. The company isn’t white labeling; it is acquiring or expanding additional services to third parties.

Given the brand’s rise over the last couple of years, now is the best time to begin to invest in getting your products on the Walmart Marketplace. So let’s gets started with all you need to know to get started and succeed at Walmart in 2019.

Table of Contents:

1. Pros of selling on the Walmart Marketplace.
2. Cons of selling on the Walmart Marketplace.
3. Eligibility criterion for the Walmart Marketplace.
4. How to sell on Walmart Marketplace.
5. [DOs] Practices that make products upload faster.
6. [DOs] Practices that make your listing stand out.
7. [Don’ts] Practices that can get your Walmart Seller Account suspended.
8. [Don’ts] Practices that push your products off of the Walmart Marketplace.
9. [BONUS] Walmart U.S. third-party sellers can list on Walmart Canada: Everything you need to know.
10. Executive Summary.

Pros of selling on the Walmart Marketplace

1. No monthly or initial setup fees.

Different marketplaces charge several types of fees ranging from monthly account fees (by Sears and Amazon) to listing individual items (Etsy) in addition to the category wise commission fee, or the combination of all of the fees mentioned.

Refer to this page to obtain the commission fee applicable as per the category.

2. A wider customer base.

This State of the Inbound 2018 study found out that 61% of marketers consider attracting relevant audiences to their websites to still be the biggest challenge.

Therefore, getting access to the 440 million+ customers who visit Walmart, gives your products an unprecedented exposure which otherwise is difficult to achieve.

3. Lower competition.

The Walmart Marketplace, though burgeoning, still lags behind Amazon’s marketplace which has well over 2 million sellers.

Therefore, competing at Walmart for a product space is still easier than Amazon or eBay.

4. List on Walmart affiliate websites.

Not only does Walmart provide you with an opportunity to list your products on their ecommerce marketplace — you also gain access to their affiliate websites:

• Jet.com
• Shoes.com
• Moosejaw.com
• and others.

5. Authoritative and credible.

New customers are more comfortable buying from an established name like Walmart, rather than visiting a new website.

6. Effortless transactions.

25% of US customers abandon their carts because their preferred payment option was not present.

Walmart ensures visitors experience faster page checkouts and have all their preferred payment options such as credit cards, gift cards, Paypal, Visa Checkout, Cash, Chase Pay, Amex Pay and more.

Furthermore, Walmart extends the same comfort to online sellers as well.

They’ve partnered with Payoneer to offer weekly paychecks to their Marketplace merchants.

7. Mobile presence.

Since Walmart has a great mobile app with an optimized buying journey, your potential customers can find your products when searching from their mobile/tablet.

Image Source: Walmart app | Google Play Store

Information Source: Nielsen.com

Apart from the aforementioned reasons, some of the sellers reported a hike in their website traffic by virtue of their brand name appearing along with their products.

Cons of selling on the Walmart Marketplace

1. Lower profit margins.

Walmart’s entire philosophy revolves around customers saving more.

With several merchants competing for similar products as well as category wise commission fees, your margins may take a hit.

2. Shipment and support.

Walmart.com expects sellers to provide all the post-sales operations, from shipping and handling to customer service, exchanges, and returns.

Tracking information, if available, can be accessed through your Walmart.com “Your Account”.

Add to this, it expects merchants to deliver the product in non-branded packaging and prevents them from putting any brand related promotional material in the package.

3. Potential listing issues.

When more than one seller offers the same product at the same price, Walmart automatically promotes the item that was listed first.

Consider the example of Nike Air Huarache Men’s Shoes Black/White shoes and assume that JMS listed the product first before anyone else, (for the time being forget about the product prices).

Now that this product will have the same UPC/GTIN, JMS will be given preference first on the first-come-first-serve basis and all the other sellers will be in the lower-visibility list below.

The only way to beat the first seller’s item is by lowering the cost of your item.

4. Strict pricing rules.

Walmart expects its sellers to offer the same products at the lowest point on its ecommerce marketplace.

If it finds out that a particular seller is offering the same product at a lower price point somewhere else, (even if another seller is doing it), it will de-list your item.

Eligibility criterion for Walmart Marketplace: Non- US sellers too can apply

Since Walmart is an invitation-only marketplace, you first need to apply to sell on Walmart.

Now even, the non-US seller can apply to sell on Walmart ecommerce marketplace. Approval largely depends on the following:

1. Mandatory conditions.

For those outside the US, you need a DUNS number – a worldwide standard that assigns a unique numeric identifier to a single business entity.

Read here the details of DUNS. Also, for international sellers, it it required for them to provide their international headquarters address.

2. Category specialist.

Conspicuous for its acquisition of Bonobos, Modcloth, Moosejaw, and others, your business offering can be highly niche-based, catering to a section of buyers.

Your business can specialize in any of the categories Walmart sells.

3. Great ratings.

Your business should have positive reviews elsewhere on the internet where you’re already selling.

How to sell on Walmart Marketplace?

Once you’re approved to sell on Walmart, you’ll receive an email that contains the link to register your business.

Here, you need to register by following the link provided to you in this email.

The entire process of registration is categorized in 5 steps:

1. Account creation.
2. Company registration.
3. Taxes (W-9).
4. Payment info.
5. Shipping info.

1. Account creation.

This step requires you to provide the username and password for your account.

The username profile is auto-filled (taken from your application).

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

2. Company registration.

This step requires filling out all of the information required regarding your business.

Walmart uses this information to create a partner account.

• Display Name: The name you want customers to see on Walmart.com.
• Corporate Address: The complete address of your company including the ZIP Code and phone number.

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

After filling out the details, click “Save and Continue.” With the completion of this step, your Partner Account is officially created.

3. Taxes (W-9).

This step consists of filling out a W-9 form for tax purposes.

The required fields include your name, address, and TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number).

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

4. Payment info.

Walmart has partnered with Payoneer.com to process the payments of Marketplace partners. To receive your payments from Walmart, you must register with Payoneer.

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

Upon finishing with this step, click “Continue to Next Step.”

5. Shipping info.

This section represents your default shipping price models for all of your items on Walmart.com.

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

• Select Your Pricing Model
• Select Your Shipping Methods and Regions

Once you have set up your shipping settings, review your selections and then click on “Submit.”

These settings can be changed later on if needed.

With this step, you’ll be logged in to your Seller Center, wherein you will need to complete the Launch Checklist items.

This completes your Registration for Partner panel on Walmart.

[DOs] Practices that make products upload faster

Now you’re done with the initial registration steps, and it’s time to launch your account using the “Launch Checklist.”

Launch Checklist

These steps are necessary to complete in order to make your product appear on Walmart Marketplace. It is highly recommended to complete these steps early, so you can get started with a healthy revenue stream.

1. Complete your partner profile.

This includes the Signup Wizard and Seller profile. The aim is to make consumers familiar with your business.

The main steps of this checklist are:

• Company Info.
• Customer Service.
• Shipping.
• Return Policy.
• Privacy Policy.
• Tax Info.

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

Once you complete all steps, the checklist items will be marked as complete.

2. Verify bank deposit.

Log in to the bank account that you used during your Walmart registration. Check your transactions for a deposit of $0.01 from Walmart.com with the description “WM Marketplace Penny Test.”

To confirm your Penny Testing as complete, click on “Mark as Done” in the Launch Checklist.

Note: The penny deposit typically takes 1-2 business days to appear in your account, but sometimes it may take up to 4 days. If you still don’t see the deposit after 4 days, go back and double check that your account information, business name, etc. were entered correctly.

3. Complete item & order testing.

This is the most important part of your Walmart account creation and onboarding process.

This is where you put in the item information such as images, title, long and short descriptions, attributes, etc.

Steps to Complete Item Setup:

1. Identify the right category and subcategory for your items.
2. Have your image URLs or files ready.
3. Prepare the Item Setup Feed with all of the item details.
4. Ingest/upload your Item Feed files.
5. Preview your items on Walmart.com and Complete Item & Order Testing.

Once you upload your Item Feed into the Walmart Seller Center, it will be moved to Staged Status.

Here’s how to do that.

In the Seller Center, select “Preview Item” to verify the item information and pricing in Staged Status.

The same info is shown to your customers once the account is live. This is the page that appears:

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

To perform a Test Order, update your item inventory status as 1.

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

After updating your inventory, click on “Update Inventory.” Now, click on “Publish Item.”

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

Once you click on Publish Item, that item becomes available to Walmart customers. After your item is published, click on “Purchase Item.”

Image Source: Walmart Seller Help Guide

As soon as you click on Purchase Item, you’ll be redirected to the live item page where you can purchase your item on Walmart.com. But before that, you’ll have to create your customer account on Walmart.

You also need to perform the following testing:

• Order Cancellation testing.
• Order Shipping testing.
• Order Refund testing.

4. Launch your account.

When all the items in the Launch Checklist are marked as complete, a popup message appears to confirm if you’re ready to launch.

Once you select “confirm,” a launch request will be triggered. The Walmart Marketplace Integration team will review your profile, and if everything seems fine, your products will be live within 24 hours.

[DOs] Practices that make your listing stand out

Great product listings have the power to convert casual browsers into buyers.

This includes organic and paid methods.

Organic methods consists of writing appropriate product titles, descriptions, images and pricing. Also, make sure to update your listings periodically.

Paid methods include using Walmart’s advertising mechanism to boost your product’s visibility.

Standard Walmart Listing

1. Category & attribute mapping.

This action is imperative. Category mapping decides where your product appears.

Attributes help to define the make of a product. Walmart has defined categories and corresponding attributes. Correct mapping helps when visitors use a combination of Walmart’s filters to directly arrive at their result.

2. Title.

The product title reflects the product’s type. It must be unique (not used by you anywhere else), user-friendly (include keywords, generic terms, or any specific attribute) that customers can easily search and find your product.

3. Description.

The product description (or, “About this item”) section is where you put complete information about the item.

From its user base to occasions, from its makers to materials and everything else (also, Walmart Attributes), you should include every piece of information necessary for a potential buyer.

As a result, the listing’s conversion rate increases.

4. Images.

An image can be a make-or-break point when it comes to getting sales. There are certain guidelines laid out by Walmart that need to be followed.

• The images should be in focus, well lit and centrally-placed with a white background.
• The images should not include accessories that are not part of the product.
• The images should follow Trust and Safety standards; they should not be obscene.
• Do not include watermarks, logos, graphics, illustrations or text on the images.

5. Meta keywords.

Meta keywords are additional information a potential customer may put in search to arrive at the results.

Meta keywords help increase your item’s visibility and help any customer to reach your store’s products.

Consider the following image for example: Its title contains information – “High Top Lace-Up” – keywords which a user may enter to look for their desired product. Therefore, use meta keywords strategically in the item’s Title and Description.

6. Join the Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping program.

The faster delivery promise is responsible for the massive success of Amazon Prime.

In addition to millennial shoppers, 2-Day shipping appeals to procrastinators who always shop at the last minute and buyers who have sudden or surprise needs.

Therefore, joining Walmart’s 2-Day Shipping program boosts the visibility of your listings.

7. Win the buy box.

Winning the Buy Box implies that your listing will be the first choice for a customer.

Walmart uses this concept to encourage competition between sellers when many of them offer the same item.

To win the Buy Box, a seller should offer the same product at the lowest price. This includes the shipping price as well.

8. Paid options.

Walmart offers its customers various ad options as well.

They’re basically CPC (Cost Per Click) ads which can be used for different purposes – Brand Lift, Product View Lift, Percent of Exposed Shoppers, Add to Cart, Search Lift, and ROAS.

Since they’re performance (CPC) ads, sellers are charged only when a customer clicks on the ad to arrive at the desired page. The ads appear at several locations – among product search grids, banner ads and native banners.

1. A) Native banner ads on category home page:
   
   
   Here is an example of a native banner ad from Jetstream promoting its routers on the electronic category home page. The purpose of this ad could be Brand Lift, Product View Lift, and Percent of Exposed Shoppers.
2. B) Landing page ads under a particular product category:
   
   

   Brinley Co. is promoting its shoes in a product category landing page ad. The purpose of these ads again is to increase Brand Lift, Product View Lift, and Percent of Exposed Shoppers.

3. C) Sponsored ads in product grid:
   
   This is the example of sponsored ads (performance ads). The purpose of this ad could be to increase Add to Cart, Search Lift, and ROAS (return on ad spend).

[Don’ts] Practices that can get your Walmart Seller Account suspended

Walmart offers great assistance to sellers through executives, content, advertising, and analytics of products.

Therefore, it expects its sellers to adhere to guidelines and any infringement of its guidelines will result in suspension of your Walmart Seller Account.

Reasons for account suspension:

1. Seller Performance Standard Infringement.
2. Marketplace Retailer Agreement Violation.
3. Operational Standard Infringement.
4. Trust and Safety Guidelines Infringement.

1. Seller Performance Standard Infringement.

This metric is based on ODR (Order Defect Rate) which is calculated over a period of 90 days by dividing the number of orders with at least one defect by the total number of orders within that duration.

It is counted for a 90-day period from 120 days ago to 30 days ago. The 30 days ago starting point is to account for the items that are under the return date.

Note: Multiple defects on one order are considered as one. When the ODR is between 2%-6%, you need to proactively work to get issues addressed. An ODR higher than 6% is cause for Walmart Seller Account suspension.

2. Marketplace Retailer Agreement Violation.

Sellers on Walmart are required to sign a contract agreeing to several measures and policies.

Violation of any of these policies may get your Walmart Seller Account suspended.

Some of them are as follows:

1. The sellers should abide by the law of the land.
2. The products offered should be available for sale only on U.S. soil.
3. You should possess legal rights to sell the products.
4. You should not sell counterfeit, illegal or misbranded products.
5. You should not sell prohibited products.
6. Don’t provide unlicensed content to Walmart.

For more information, refer to the Marketplace Seller Agreement.

3. Operational Standard Infringement.

Sellers on Walmart are expected to maintain excellent operational standards, which includes on-time shipping, on-time delivery, and exceptional customer service.

The on-time shipping and on-time delivery standards have already been explained above.

• Accurate tracking information> 95%.
• Top Sellers on Walmart ship products within 5 business days.
• On-Time Shipment Rate >99%.

4. Trust and Safety Guidelines Infringement.

Your Walmart Seller Account can also be terminated/suspended due to failing to adhere to the Trust and Safety guidelines in the Walmart Marketplace Seller Program.

Besides suspending the seller account, Walmart reserves the right to remove a particular listing that violates these guidelines.

The primary reason for this is the higher pricing point of an item whose equivalent is available at lower pricing. There are two pricing rules:

• Price Parity Rule: This rule automatically unpublishes items from Walmart Marketplace if a customer saves more by purchasing the same item from the same seller on a competitor’s website (i.e. other marketplace websites). The pricing also includes shipping cost.
• Price Leadership Rule / Reasonable Price Not Satisfied: This rule also automatically unpublishes items from Walmart Marketplace if a customer saves drastically by purchasing the same item on a competing website, regardless of the seller. This calculation also considers the cost of shipping.

Therefore, sellers need to be mindful of all these factors in order to continue selling on Walmart Marketplace.

However, there are some other factors at the product level which can be responsible for products failing to appear on Walmart Marketplace.

[Don’ts] Practices that push your products off of the Walmart Marketplace

Sometimes sellers have followed all the guidelines; their pricing points are perfect and still, their product isn’t available at Walmart for sale.

Several minor issues or missing information could be the reason.

1. Missing SKU.

This is the most common mistake made by online sellers. If you haven’t defined the SKU for the product at your online store, the particular product won’t be available for sale on Walmart Marketplace.

SKUs are the unique identifiers which help Walmart to award you orders.

2. Missing product type.

Another common mistake is missing the Product Type.

3. Missing category mapping.

Mapping the product category of items helps Walmart understand where to display the products.

Not only is it essential to do category mapping, but it is also essential to do it the right way.

Imagine a shoe showing up in the appliance category. Is anyone going to purchase it?

4. Invalid product name/title.

Walmart has a set of standards and restrictions for the product name which you need to keep in mind.

You can refer to the Walmart Product Content Policy for more information.

5. Avoid using watermarked images.

Walmart.com discourages sellers from using watermarked images for their products.

Thus, if your images have a watermark on them, it could be the reason your product is not appearing for sale.

You can refer to the Walmart Product Content Policy for more information on Image Quality Standards.

6. Missing/invalid/duplicate barcode.

A barcode is another important aspect of a product and serves as a unique identifier for that product.

If the barcode is missing, invalid, or aduplicate, the product will not be accepted by Walmart.

The table below indicates the four types of Product IDs accepted by Walmart.

[BONUS] Walmart U.S. third-party sellers can list on Walmart Canada: Everything you need to know

Walmart Canada ranks among the top 10 influential brands in Canada and oversees the influx of 600,000 customers daily, and 1 out 3 Canadians is a visitor to their website.

These conditions make it beneficial to sell on Walmart Canada.

Walmart Canada gives no preference to sellers of Canada over US.

However, the sellers should be Custom Self-Assessment program (CSA), pre-approved importer.

For more information refer to Canada Border Services Agency.

All Walmart Sellers (U.S.) need to know:

• Every product shipped in Canada must comply with DPP which means their custom duty must be paid before shipment.
• There is equal preference to Canadian and U.S.-based businesses.
• All the sellers require an Canadian Business Number from the Revenue Canada Agency.

Eligibility for CSA:

Online sellers wanting to list their products on Walmart Canada must meet the following criteria to be able to apply to the CSA program.

• They must have a history of actively importing for at least 90 days prior to their application.
• They are residents of Canada or the United States.
• They do not have a history of contraband or major commercial infractions.
• They are prepared to make an investment in business systems.
• Authorize senior management to audit their records, commercial business processes, customs interfaces and internal control procedures.

Returns:

Customer can return the products in-store at 400 locations at Walmart Canada, or they can return directly to sellers.

In-store return updates required at Seller Level:

• Return address.
• Contact information.
• Return permissions.
• Preferred carrier accounts.
• Customs broker (for international sellers only).
• Return authorization number.

At-item Level:

• Country of origin.
• HS codes.
• Hazardous product alert.

Perks and Cost Savings:

• Walmart covers customer transaction fees at checkout and cost of fraud verification.
• Walmart MasterCard cardholders purchasing Marketplace products through Walmart.ca will earn 1.25% rewards just like our core business.

Targeted Buyer Persona:

Online sellers wishing to list on Walmart Canada should consider this to better target their listings: 56% of all the customers are new parents or those purchasing products when they expand their houses.

Recent graduates and soon-to-be-married Canadians are the fastest growing customer segments. (Statistics from Walmart Canada.)

Major eShopper Profiles:

The following illustration is the demographic representation of people purchasing from Walmart Canada:

Information Source: Walmart Canada

With high average income households, high familiarity and popularity of the platform and the ease of cross-border trade between the U.S. and Canada, sellers have a great opportunity to gain additional visibility for their products with Canadian audiences.

Executive Summary

It remains to be seen whether Walmart will make their online marketplace universal.

Until then, only a chosen few can sell on Walmart Marketplace.

While Walmart will still need a long time to catch up with Amazon, it has presented itself as great alternative for independent brand labels to connect with their potential customers through adopting a multichannel strategy.