Walmart being a vast marketplace has emerged as one of the largest online shopping destinations all over the world. With over 344 million visits of customers, selling your products on Walmart can directly lead you to higher sales. Although Walmart began accepting third-party eCommerce sellers back in 2016, still it’s a dream for many sellers to list their products on Walmart. So, if you are unaware of the procedure of selling products on Walmart, this guide will make you walk through each step starting from application till launch.
Getting a shelf to showcase your products at Walmart is a huge opportunity for your business. Just behind Amazon, Walmart has established itself as the second largest online retail destination in the U.S.A.
So, now let’s start exploring each step one by one on how to sell your products on this renowned marketplace. The steps are listed below:
Step 1: Apply online to be a Walmart seller!
To become a Walmart seller, visit marketplace.walmart.com and click on the “Apply Now” button and fill all the required fields in the form. This process will take approximately 10 minutes to be complete if all the information is available with you.
Once you have shared the required information, click on the “Save” button, if you want to complete the process after some time or click on the “Apply Now” button to continue. Be sure to recheck all the given information thoroughly before moving further.
Sellers should prepare themselves to wait for 2-3 weeks for their response. You will receive an email invite to set up a Walmart seller account.
Step 2: Complete the Registration process!
Once you have received the invite mail and created your account, upload all your relevant certificates including your bank account information to meet the minimum requirements to be a vendor. Sellers have to provide information related to taxes, payment, shipping, etc. You can also be asked to share some more information about your company and products. This is done with the motive to increase the trust level of your business brand name. Once you are done with the process, you are finally ready to list your products on Walmart.
Step 3: Complete your Partner Profile:
After creating your profile, sellers have to access the seller account. Sellers will get a “Launch Checklist” option which basically contains the requirements needed to launch an account. Partner Profile is a public page through which the customers are able to know more about the seller i.e.
- Company Info
- Customer Service
- Shipping
- Returns
- Privacy Policy
- Tax Info
After you complete your partner profile, the success bar will reach 100% and the account would be ready for launch.
Step 4: Verify the Bank Deposit:
Before moving further, verify your bank deposit by logging in to your bank account that you used in the registration process and check the transaction which states a deposit of 0.01$ from the “Walmart Marketplace Penny Test”. Click on “Mark as Done” in your checklist table for deposit confirmation.
The bank deposit nearly takes 2-3 business days to appear in the account. However, if you still can’t see the deposit, check your account details and enter them correctly.
Step 5: List and preview your items on the Walmart marketplace!
Walmart lets sellers manually list the products in Walmart’s product catalog. It also lets you upload the products in bulk quantity via bulk upload or product feed option.
You can upload or list your products in 3 ways:
1. Create CSV File:
Sellers can create a CSV file upload by using an Excel or Google Sheet spreadsheet, following Walmart’s file upload guidelines. This mainly helps sellers to upload a small collection of products to the Walmart Marketplace. But, if sellers have to upload large collections, the other 2 methods would be a better choice.
2. API Connection:
If you know how to manage an API connection, You can connect Walmart’s marketplace to your eCommerce platform or inventory database for free via Walmart API. This method requires some technical knowledge but is the best way for uploading products on Walmart Marketplace.
3. Integration Partner:
If you are already a store owner on an eCommerce platform like PrestaShop, Magento, OpenCart and Shopify, and others, an integration partner can link your products in your existing catalog directly to Walmart. It is one of the easiest ways to list or can say import your products to the Walmart marketplace. However, this integration could be costly for you. The integration cost starts around $30/month and reaches up to $500/month depending upon your product and sales volume.
After listing all your products, click on the “Preview Item” button for any of your products you listed. This step will show you how exactly your product will look to customers on the front-end of the Walmart Marketplace. If you are not satisfied with the look, you can modify it accordingly and resubmit it.
Step 6: Test your product feed and order management functions:
Walmart even provides you the facility to set up and test your order management connection and other features. You are just required to send your products to feed for testing either in bulk or under any specific products and categorization.
Once you have sent the products for testing, a seller needs to keep an eye on all order processing, shipping, exchanges, returns, and customer services. You need to keep track of the order status as well.
Step 7: Launch your request and start selling:
After testing all the management functions check off from the seller setup list. Click Yes on the confirmation pop-up and you are ready to launch. The Walmart team will review all your account setup, products, and settings and will finally make them live.
Congratulations! You are now an official Walmart Marketplace Seller.
In order to be an established marketplace seller, it’s important that your Walmart Marketplace orders should fall into your normal workflow and for that, you have to always keep a check on these points mentioned below:
- Keep a check that product price is on target to win the Walmart buy box.
- Product description should be relevant, clean and error free.
- Ensure that all orders are updated and retrieved accordingly.
How to work with Walmart?
As the buyer places the order on Walmart.com, it pays sellers after the goods are shipped. Walmart does not provide an in-house order shipping program, so sellers have to handle the shipping process for the products. Unfortunately, sellers might face loss due to less efficiency and scalability. However, there are many shipping companies that can save your profits. Sellers can work with them in their initial phase of business without killing their profit margins.
Cost to Sell on Walmart:
Although selling on Walmart Marketplace could make you earn a huge chunk of profits but Walmart also takes advantage of the same. Walmart charges sellers a referral fee ranging from 6% to 20% of the product’s selling price, depending on the category. Walmart charges a very less referral fee as compared to Amazon. So, being a seller on Walmart can make you a billionaire one day.
Conclusion:
The Walmart marketplace is a huge and fast-growing marketplace every day by day. There are numerous third-party sellers who want to register themselves as Walmart marketplace sellers. With the growing competition, becoming a third party seller on Walmart is definitely not a cakewalk. The seller’s market does not entertain the sellers who are not meeting up the parameters set by them. So, keep a check on the requirements and there’s a quite good chance that Walmart will accept you as a marketplace seller. Hopefully, you will witness the increased number of orders and sales for your business.
With the help of Walmart Integrator by Knowband, you can now sell and manage the inventories at the Walmart Marketplace from the backend of your store. Walmart integrator is available for various CMS platforms like Prestashop, Magento, OpenCart, and Shopify.