A Complete Guide for Selling on Walmart Marketplace in 2022

Have you thought about selling on Walmart Marketplace as a secondary online sales channel? With this ultimate guide, you’ll learn how to get started in 2022.

Walmart exists to make customers’ lives easier. Everything from their logo to the construction of their real stores illustrates this – it’s a one-stop shop; it’s the most affordable things all in one place; it’s trusted, known brands on which consumers know and can rely on.

Walmart’s rapidly expanding online marketplace provides company owners and entrepreneurs with the option to combine the benefits of having their items in a department store with the convenience and greater reach of eCommerce. 

If you aren’t currently selling on Walmart’s Marketplace, you should think about it. 

We know you have any questions, so we put up an essential guide for everyone to help you get started and understand how to sell on Walmart online.

What exactly is Walmart Marketplace?

You’d have to be living under a rock not to be aware of Walmart, the worldwide retail juggernaut – but more on that later. The online marketplace at Walmart is the retailer’s response to rising eCommerce marketing and demand. It’s a curated online market with over 33,000 merchants and more than 50 million product listings – and it’s rapidly growing.

Why should you sell on Walmart Marketplace?

E-commerce is a significant industry in 2022. Entrepreneurs must keep up with the exponential improvements in technology and digitization to remain competitive.

But why is Walmart in business? Why not simply start your eCommerce firm or sell on Amazon?

The advantages of Walmart Marketplace are mentioned below:

Buyer Behavior:

Customers have faith in Walmart. Their company structure has always been one that minimizes barriers to purchase. They have great customer satisfaction and return policies, so purchasers regard it as a low-risk location to shop: they know that if they are dissatisfied, it will be resolved.

Brand Equity:

Walmart is a well-known company with strong brand awareness. Because of the strength of their brand equity, they are typically the first thing that springs to mind when a customer is thinking about making a purchase. 

Visibility and Reach:

With over 100 million monthly visitors, Walmart’s online marketplace echoes the convenience of its physical locations — 90 percent of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Walmart store. They are just unrivaled in the world of brick-and-mortar retail.

Simplicity:

It’s simple to keep track of your listings on Walmart Marketplace. Once you’ve been accepted as a selling partner, you’ll have complete control over your offers, including the ability to manage price, inventory, fulfillment, and customer service.

What Steps Are Involved in Creating an Account on Walmart Marketplace?

You might be asking how to apply to sell on Walmart Marketplace after getting a taste of what it’s like to sell on Walmart.com. Consider this checklist.

1. The procedure for applying

Filling out an application to sell on Walmart Marketplace takes about 10-15 minutes, assuming you have all the essential information on hand. These requirements are as follows:

• A US Business Tax Identification Number (SSN not accepted)
• A W9 or W8 form and an EIN verification letter from the Department of Treasury establish the actual location of your US corporation.
• A way for integrating your product catalog has been planned (bulk upload, API, solution provider)
• Primary product categories, catalog size, and related data. 
• No goods from Walmart’s Prohibited Products Policy may be included in the catalog.
• A track record of marketplace or eCommerce success.

Giving as much information about your company as possible upfront can save you time afterward. If you need to contact Walmart Marketplace to complete any gaps in your application, you should do it as soon as possible to minimize any delays in the evaluation process.

2. Signing up

Once you’ve been accepted to sell on Walmart.com, you’ll need to follow the next steps. You’ll first receive an email with a link to register your business, and the full procedure is divided into 6 parts, which are outlined below.

The Walmart Marketplace registration procedure is as follows:

1. Account opening.
2. Walmart Retailer Agreement.
3. Company registration.
4. Tax forms.
5. Payment information.
6. Shipping information.

• Account Creation

To begin, you’ll create a username and password to administer your Walmart Marketplace seller account. Your username will be auto-filled based on the information you provided in your application.

These credentials will be needed to log in to Seller Center, Walmart Marketplace’s seller account management site.

• Retailer arrangement with Walmart

Then you’ll go through the Walmart retainer agreement, a legal document that all Marketplace merchants must sign. This paper lays out the terms and conditions that sellers must accept before proceeding.

Registration of a business As you get closer to being a legal organization, you’ll register your business by providing a display name and a corporate address.

• Display Name: The name that shoppers see when they visit Walmart.com.
• Corporate Address: This is the address that is utilized internally.

• Forms of taxation

This stage requires you to fill out a W-9 form for tax purposes. Name, address, and TIN are required fields (Taxpayer Identification Number).

• Payment information

To handle Marketplace partner payments, Walmart has collaborated with Payoneer (Payoneer.com) and Hyperwallet (Hyperwallet.com), and you must register with Payoneer or Hyperwallet to collect your Walmart payments. Please keep in mind that only Payoneer is an option for sellers having a W-8ECI tax classification.

• Shipping information

This is where you’ll choose your shipping price model, shipment methods, and delivery destinations. Value, Standard, Expedited, and Next Day are the default delivery options.

After you’ve completed the fundamentals, you’ll be able to go deeper into your shipping plan by utilizing Walmart Marketplace’s configurable Shipping Templates.

3. Create a list, test it, and go live

The last step in becoming a Walmart Marketplace dealer is to publish your catalog and test orders before going live. This strategy will provide a pleasant experience when customers are ready to add your goods to their carts.

Set up your best-selling items first, and remember that your items will go live when this testing is completed. Consequently, genuine items with detailed information and no indication that they are “test” objects should be utilized. If you have a lot of product categories, provide a few things from each one for the first round of item setup.

All successfully submitted items will be placed in the stage state, which means they will not be visible on Walmart.com until you go live.

Then, publish 2-3 things and place your test orders to test a few orders. Run the order acknowledgment, order cancellation, order shipment, and order refund scenarios using the Seller Center.

You are ready to go live on Walmart Marketplace once everything has been authorized and is working correctly. Walmart will do the last check before enabling your account to become active. Once you’re online, your items are published on Walmart.com, where they may be transacted and searched within a few hours.

What are Walmart Marketplace Fees?

Walmart keeps things simple, and so will we. There are no startup fees, membership fees, credit card fees, or monthly fees.

All you’ll have to pay us is a referral fee. This proportion varies according to the product type of the item sold. You will never pay more than the referral fee because credit card fees are covered.

Referral Fee

Referral commissions range from 6% to 20%.

Some more-priced products, such as jewelry and watches, decrease the referral rate in exchange for higher sales prices. For example, watches are taxed at 15% on the first $1500 of the sale and then at 3% on sums.

Fulfillment Fees

You are responsible for order fulfillment and refunds, but you may have Walmart handle your storage, packaging, and shipping through their Walmart Fulfillment Services. Of course, this benefits both vendors and purchasers by speeding up and lowering the transaction cost.

However, how much does it cost? There will be a monthly storage cost and a fulfillment fee dependent on the weight of the item.

Returns Fee

If you opt to use Walmart’s fulfillment service, Walmart will only pass on shipping costs for returns if the return is your fault. This might be attributed to a variety of circumstances, such as:

• Defective product.
• Improper product.
• product missing parts
• The product was not as described.

How Will You Be Compensated?

Every two weeks, payments from US Sellers will be deposited into your US bank account.

Sellers from countries other than the United States can now engage in Walmart’s Marketplace thanks to International Merchants Software integrations. This is discussed in further depth in the section of this page devoted to advantageous integrations.

Seller Success: Investigate Innovative Solutions Designed to Assist Sellers in Thriving 

Walmart Marketplace has developed a variety of innovative goods and programmes targeted at enhancing seller success over the previous few years.

Once your things are available for purchase, you may continue to improve your catalogue and performance to enhance sales. We recommend concentrating on the following tools and programmes:

1. Use the Unpublished Items Dashboard to assess the health of your listings.
2. Use the Listing Quality Dashboard to optimize your listings.
3. Increase your consumer base by offering Expedited Shipping programs and services.
4. With Enhanced Returns, you may relax about your returns.
5. Use the Pro Seller Badge to distinguish yourself from competitors. 
6. Promote sponsored items. 

1. Use the unpublished items dashboard to check the status of your listings

The Unpublished Products Dashboard is a unique tool in the Seller Center that allows sellers to examine and act on unpublished items. The dashboard gives specific insights on unpublished items, the proper reason code for each, and step-by-step instructions for republishing them. The dashboard provides simple remedies for common causes for articles being unpublished, such as “Primary Image Missing” or an inaccurate “End Date.” 

2. Use the listing quality dashboard to optimize your listings

For every online vendor on any platform, having good listings is the game’s name. But how can you know for certain how effective your postings are? The Listing Quality function on Walmart Marketplace takes the guesswork out of this situation.

Walmart Marketplace developed a complex algorithm based on a multifactor approach to listing analysis, which resulted in a numerical Listing Quality Score. This value, which is presented as a percentage and can vary from 0-to 99, appears at each seller’s item and catalog levels. It is divided into four sections: content and discoverability, offer, ratings and reviews, and post-purchase quality.

Go to the Seller Center’s Listing Quality Dashboard at any moment to check and track your Listing Quality Score.

You can check your item and overall catalog ratings here, but you will also receive precise recommendations on how to enhance your listings and attract more customers.

3. Increase your consumer base by offering faster delivery programs and services.

Shipping that is gratifying and competitive is critical to any online business’s success. The variety of expedited delivery options available on Walmart Marketplace makes it straightforward for sellers to handle. When it comes to shipping settings, you may try out a few different alternatives before settling on the best one for your business.

The two-day program will benefit both you and your clients. Items in your catalog that can take two-day shipping will benefit from Walmart. Com’s eye-catching ‘free two-day delivery’ branding.

These pique people’s curiosity, boost Buy Box triumphs, and drive more purchases.

Another fantastic option is the three-day routine. If you can’t afford free two-day delivery on every order, three-day shipping is the next best option.

According to Walmart research, sellers enjoy a 30 percent organic bump in conversion for products with a three-day delivery guarantee.

1. Templates for Shipping: 

Shipping templates are the best way to manage shipping to several locations around the country, no matter how you wish to ship. This new Seller Center tool enables merchants to develop custom templates to improve their delivery strategy.

Sellers may create a selection of basic Shipping Templates with custom parameters, variable travel times, specific delivery zones across the United States, and reports.

For “standard” delivery, one template can have two shipping rules: one with a three-day transit time in designated places close to your warehouse and another with a five-day transit time in areas further away.

This template procedure is a fantastic way to get an overview of your shipping requirements for your whole catalog, which may need a variety of settings. Download reports quickly to check which SKUs are associated with each template. 

1. Fulfillment solutions: Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) and Delivery          

In 2020, Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) debuted as a low-cost fulfillment alternative for Marketplace vendors. WFS enables businesses to use Walmart’s exceptional supply chain capabilities while outsourcing all picking, packaging, and shipping to Walmart.

When an order is placed, approved sellers ship their goods to a WFS fulfillment center, where it is properly kept and prepped for dispatch.

Delivery is another fulfillment option for merchants that integrates directly with the Two-day program to ensure quick dispatch and greater item visibility. Delivery keeps your products close to your customers, allowing you to offer quick shipping at a cheap cost, and you pay a fixed fulfillment fee.

4. Reduce the tension of returns by increasing them

Walmart is uniquely positioned to allow shoppers to return items both in-store and online. This flexibility, known as the Enhanced Returns program for Walmart Marketplace vendors, has the potential to boost consumer happiness while simultaneously lowering sellers’ expenses.

When you use Walmart’s Returns Shipping Service (RSS) for label printing, you can lower your return-processing expenses. This in-store solution offers lower rates and the opportunity to save money on customer service and return charges.

5. Use the Pro Seller Badge to set yourself apart from the competitors

Another new Walmart Marketplace feature is the addition of the Pro Seller Badge.

While all Walmart Marketplace sellers must go through a thorough vetting process and meet stringent requirements to sell on Walmart.com, the Pro Seller Badge draws attention to the site’s best of the best goods.

Products with the Pro Seller Badge provide outstanding customer service, prompt shipping, and free online and in-store returns.

Customers may hover over the emblem to view a small pop-up description of the criteria next to the “Sold & delivered by [Seller Name]” on Walmart.com.

Criteria are updated twice a month, and eligibility is connected to Listing Quality — scores must be at least 50% for at least 60% of sellers’ trending goods. Walmart Marketplace assigns (and removes) badges based on the criteria, always accessible on the Listing Quality Dashboard.

6. Promote sponsored items

Walmart Marketplace offers its cost-per-click (CPC) advertising platform where suppliers may manage their campaigns and budgets. The Sponsored Products feature increases visibility by presenting advertisements to customers throughout their shopping experience on Walmart.com, from search to checkout.

Sellers can utilize this service at any time, whether to accomplish seasonal targets or promote sales of certain items.

Campaigns are classified into two types: automatic and manual. Automated campaigns enable Walmart’s algorithm to offer advertising in response to relevant search searches. Manual campaigns let the seller handpick keywords and bid on search queries used by buyers to find items on Walmart.com. Both strategies are excellent in increasing impressions and sales.

Customer Service and Support

• Providing Customer Support 

Customer service and support are essential to selling on Walmart Marketplace. After all, a positive customer experience can mean the difference between a customer returning or not. Here are some tips for providing on Walmart Marketplace: 

• Create a page on your store and it should include contact information, order status information, and refund/return policies.
• Offer customer support via phone and email. Be sure to make contact information easy to find. 
• Utilize software to streamline inquiries and it will help you respond to customer emails, track orders, and more efficiently manage customer inquiries. 
• Create a FAQ page to help customers find answers to common questions. 

• Resolving Customer Issues 

When an issue arises, responding quickly and efficiently is important. Here are some tips for resolving customer issues on Walmart Marketplace: 

• Always be polite and professional when responding to customer issues. 
• Offer solutions and options to customers. 
• Listen to the customer and try to understand their point of view. 
• Apologize and offer a resolution, such as a refund or replacement product. 
• Follow up with customers to ensure they are satisfied with the resolution.