Walmart Marketplace isn’t a brand-new eCommerce platform. It has existed since 2009. However, it did not have the same level of popularity as Amazon, eBay, and other sites. That is until Marc Lore took over as CEO of the platform.
Walmart has made some significant strategic acquisitions and altered its eCommerce policy in recent years, all of which appear to be putting pressure on Amazon’s share of the online retail market. And it appears that their efforts are paying off, as sales growth reached US$100 Billion.
The marketplace is now comprised of thousands of sellers and it’s still growing. Walmart Marketplace is a successful sales platform for both major and small businesses in the United States, with dozens of categories ranging from fashion to electronics and much more.
So, many online sellers are asking themselves, “Should I start selling on Walmart?” The answer is a big fat YES.
Walmart Marketplace has emerged as another great option for reaching more customers. Plus, owing to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the shift in how purchases are made has been so drastic that experts believe there is no coming back from it. Walmart has been welcoming worldwide retailers and approving more seller applications since the outbreak of the pandemic and its new partnership with Shopify.
If you’re not convinced yet, in this post, we’ll shed more light on why you should start selling on Walmart Marketplace.
8 Reasons Why You Should Sell on Walmart Marketplace
1. Walmart Currently Has Less Competition Than Amazon
Competition is inevitable when you offer your products on an Internet marketplace. If you want people to buy your stuff, you have to compete with the site that hosts it, such as Amazon or Walmart, or with other third-party sellers. Amazon has over 8 million sellers all over the world. When a customer logs on to shop, there is a lot of competition for their attention. But it’s a different story with Walmart.
Walmart is a mere speck in comparison to Amazon. The number of sellers on the newer marketplace recently surpassed 50,000. Because there are fewer sellers, there is a lot more freedom to sell on Walmart.com without having to devote a lot of strategies or ad spend to dealing with competition.
In addition, Walmart is very picky about which businesses they allow to sell on their platform. Acceptance to sell on Walmart is a difficult process, but the long process is worthwhile in the end.
2. Greater Exposure to New Audiences
According to ComScore, Walmart has become one of the most trafficked marketplaces in the United States. Every month, the site receives over 100 million unique visits from online users. Selling on the marketplace will, without a doubt, broaden your reach and digital footprint. Walmart’s customer base is similar to, but not identical to, Amazon’s. Joining the marketplace allows you to reach out to new audiences.
Walmart’s demographics for its online customers are compelling. More than half of Walmart customers are homeowners with a moderately high household income. Over a third of Walmart’s online customers are millennials (people aged 23 to 38), and not to mention, the marketplace is extremely popular with families. More than half are married or in a relationship, and nearly as many have children.
People frequently come to Walmart looking for a deal because Walmart has built its brand around saving money for its customers. You have an especially good chance of gaining net new customers and increasing your profit if you offer competitively priced products.
3. Free 2-Day Shipping
When Walmart Marketplace introduced its 2-Day Free Shipping program, it made it clear that it was preparing to compete with Amazon. Customers appreciate free shipping, and they appreciate it, even more, when it is expedited. That is what you get when you begin selling on Walmart. This option is popular among customers who make a last-minute purchase and those looking for a product that must be delivered as soon as possible.
Customers are more likely to buy products with free 2-day shipping. They are highlighted in green, making them stand out from the crowd. As with any other service, Walmart has strict guidelines for sellers who want to participate in the 2-Day Free Shipping program. But the efforts you would need to get qualified for it will pay off. Here are some obvious benefits:
- Improved search ranking, because products from the 2-Day Free Shipping program are always displayed higher in search results.
- Customers can use a dedicated filter to filter products based on free shipping criteria, which brings such products to their attention right away.
- Gaining Walmart Buy Box prominence since Buy Box prefers items with a 2-Day Free Shipping tag, which leads to higher sales, even if the products are listed at a higher price than competitors.
4. You Don’t Have to Pay a Subscription Fee
One of the most significant advantages of selling on Walmart Marketplace is that there is no subscription or monthly fee.
Unlike Amazon and other marketplaces charge sellers a monthly or annual listing fee, Walmart only charges you a referral fee for each sale you make. The referral fee itself ranges from 6 to 15% depending on the type of product you sell. This fee is determined by the category in which your product is listed. So, if you’re not making any sales, you won’t have to worry about spending money.
5. Simple Pricing Structure
Following the point above, it is important to stress out that one of the most significant advantages of selling on Walmart is that there are no hidden fees – and that the pricing structure is pretty straightforward. Every marketplace seller knows that the major downside of selling on Amazon is the super complicated fees that heavily affect sellers’ profitability. Unlike Amazon, Walmart Marketplace has the upper hand in this case. There is no yearly fee. There is also no product listing fee. Instead, Walmart simply charges a referral fee to suppliers for each item sold.
Once again, the Walmart Marketplace referral fee is only applied to the individual item after it sells. A jewellery supplier, for example, might list a $100 ring. Following the sale of the ring, Walmart would charge the supplier a $20 referral fee based on the 20% category rate.
You don’t have to worry about any hidden costs when selling on Walmart Marketplace, although you should still calculate the referral fees ahead of time.
6. Easy Checkout Process
Most buyers despise wasting time on a complicated checkout process that includes multiple steps or necessitates the loading of a new page. This checkout process frequently results in shoppers abandoning their purchases and go elsewhere. Fortunately, Walmart has an efficient purchasing system that allows leads to easily purchase products.
Walmart has improved their checkout process to make it more efficient and quick for customers. Furthermore, their checkout process is secure. Walmart’s transactions are encrypted, which gives customers more confidence in their purchases.
When you sell your products on Walmart Marketplace, your customers have a secure checkout experience. They feel safe entering their credit card information, so they are more likely to complete a purchase. It results in more conversions for your company.
7. Availability of Automation and Integrations
The ease of integration is probably one of the best reasons to sell on Walmart Marketplace online. When you sell on Walmart, you are not alone in dealing with any issues or difficulties that may arise. Walmart Marketplace wants to entice sellers by providing some of the best e-commerce analytics and inventory management tools available.
Walmart has partnered with over fifty Solution providers to ensure you get the assistance you require, whether it is for Order Fulfillment, Listing, Content Development, or something else. For example, Walmart’s recent partnerships with companies like Shopify and Payoneer have made tools such as Shopify’s inventory and order management system and bulk listing editing available for sellers to use.
Other integration software and tools can even assist you with a variety of minor operations such as cross-platform inventory tracking, order auto-acknowledgement, delisting when the stock falls below five units, and so on.
8. Walmart Marketplace is Continuously Growing
According to Marketplace Pulse, as of May 2020, the Walmart Marketplace outperformed both eBay and Amazon.
In 2020, the marketplace’s GMV increased by more than 100%. Despite being significantly smaller than eBay, Walmart has become the second most important marketplace for many sellers despite not disclosing the marketplace GMV in dollars.
In a year, Walmart’s marketplace has more than doubled in size, reaching 100,000 third-party sellers. For the second year in a row, it has more than doubled. After reaching 50,000 sellers in July 2020, the marketplace is now adding nearly 5,000 new sellers per month.
An increasing number of sellers are from other countries. Walmart expanded the marketplace in March, removing the previous US-only restriction. China accounted for 15% of new sellers in July. The figure is growing month by month, and it will soon include 1,000 Chinese sellers monthly.
Start Selling on the Walmart Marketplace Today
Walmart is indeed an exclusive seller community. It will take a lot of effort and time to become a seller there but at the same time, the benefits outweigh the downsides. Walmart places a premium on the quality of its services and only works with reputable sellers. However, in exchange, the marketplace will ensure that their sellers have the best-selling experience possible on the platform.
