What are the requirements to sell on Walmart's marketplace? 

Amazon Marketplace is an eCommerce paradise, with 113 million unique visitors per month and only 80,000 sellers. You will have to prove your worthiness to gain entry, or you risk permanent exclusion. You can sell on the Walmart marketplace if you follow this guide.

How to get approved to sell on Walmart Marketplace in 6 steps

• Build a real business around eCommerce

Amazon and eBay are good places to start selling before entering Walmart Marketplace; it is a requirement. If you apply to Walmart, you need to mention your experience on Amazon and eBay. Amazon and eBay are ideal eCommerce experiences, but any eCommerce experience might suffice. Your ability to follow the rules in a significant market shows that you can keep your customers happy. Walmart's feedback system is one of the most reliable on the internet.

We recommend that you start selling on eBay if you have no experience on either side. As Amazon has the lowest barriers to entry, learning how to sell will be easier. Nevertheless, there will be no replacement for years of successful sales on both marketplaces. For instance, most marketplaces require you to provide just your social security number to sell, and they will allow you to start.

As Walmart is not like most online marketplaces, you will have to provide your business tax information to apply for US and Canadian marketplaces, such as your EIN for a US business. A business address and other documents are also necessary to prove your legitimacy.

• Meet the requirements of a demanding customer service team

Walmart requires anyone planning to sell on their site to deliver "first-class customer service." How can Walmart check whether the service you're offering is first-class? Walmart will review your feedback score on eBay and your Amazon seller rating. Customers should be able to tell from these that you've made them happy in the past.

If you succeed on both eBay and Amazon, you will also demonstrate your ability to meet Amazon's 48-hour response time requirement. Walmart has a similar policy, but it's easiest to follow.

Walmart Marketplace requires the following customer service requirements:

• Send an email response within 48 hours deemed "high quality" and written by a human.
• Contacts from the Better Business Bureau or Attorney General should be returned within one hour. You are unlikely ever to need an emergency notification system, but it is a good idea to have one just in case!
• Call support in English and set up voicemail if agents cannot be reached.
• Respond to any voicemail left by customers within 48 hours.
• If you are providing your phone number for a cell phone, residential telephone, internet telephone service, or an international number, do not include the number.
• According to Walmart, you require an actual physical address in the country where you sell your products.

 

• Sell Stuff Walmart Needs

Walmart demands a more "compelling" selection of products from its sellers; our interpretation of this is that Walmart only wants products that are commonly available and easy to sell. Underperforming items are regularly removed from the Walmart website. New sellers whose entire product line will disappear have no interest in adding to the platform.

Before applying, consider the following two questions:

1. Can I offer something unique, or at least something better than Walmart?
2. What are the sales of my items?

Please do not apply if you answered "no" to either of these questions. If you are rejected that fast, you might not be considered again once you have been denied once. What if you sell seasonally? You needn't worry about seasonality; Walmart's evaluation system takes care of it for you. Also, Walmart Marketplace prohibits the sale of several items sold at Walmart stores, including firearms and fresh food.

4. Price your products competitively with Walmart

Walmart's motto is "Save Money, Live Better." They uphold that slogan on their marketplace and remove any item with an excessive price tag. When you apply, they will reject you if your items are overpriced when you use them, saving them the trouble of removing them later.

Why are some prices too high? For example, Walmart previously provided a listing of an item priced at $10. Walmart then removed the $10 listing after an adjacent site listed the same thing for $8.

Although there isn't a detailed explanation of the rules, the following can be deduced:

• While you do not need to be the cheapest on the web, you must be close.
• There is a good chance that Walmart runs price checks on competing sites like Amazon, eBay, Target, and others.
• You should check your price if it's more than 25% higher than the lowest price online; it's still wrong if the price difference is less than 25%.
• Almost certainly, Walmart's algorithm identifies whether something is brand new, used, or refurbished; the cheapest used listing on eBay does not have to undercut your brand-new item.
• Is it possible that no one else sells the same products as you? When reviewing your application, Walmart will almost certainly compare your pricing to that of similar items.

5. Excel at Fulfillment

Walmart requires you to provide a fast and reliable fulfilment service if you take care of your shipping. If your warehouse is your own or contract with a good, independent fulfilment company, you should have no problem getting accepted. However, you might have problems if you rely on Amazon FBA. Walmart asks how many of your orders are fulfilled by Amazon; it also asks if you can accept orders from the US without using FBA.

Exactly why do they ask? Due to Walmart's policy on Amazon FBA, heavy reliance on Amazon's fulfilment services may lead to Walmart being less interested in your business, as you might not be able to deliver orders on your own.

Walmart began offering Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) in 2020, much to the relief of many sellers. Exactly like Amazon FBA, this service covers fulfilment and customer service and lets you automatically qualify for Two-Day Delivery. Walmart Seller Services are available to Walmart Sellers only after they are approved.

6. 6. Organize Your Inventory

Suppose you plan on integrating Walmart's inventory. Walmart expects that you upload your items as soon as they have been approved. In that case, you'll be asked how you'll do it on the application, so learn about Walmart's inventory integration options and select the one that best suits your needs.

Several questions will pertain to your inventory. For example:

• How does your business fit into Walmart's categories?
• Where does the bulk of your business come from? 
• How much do you earn in each class?
• What is the number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) in each class?
• What number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) are you planning to upload to Walmart in each category?

What happens next now 

There is a possibility that Walmart will not contact you for several days or weeks. You shouldn't worry if you don't hear back from them after a month. It takes time, and Walmart is a popular selling destination! Keep your head down and work to make your eCommerce business better. If you need some expert guidance on the Walmart marketplace management, check out Urtasker and their services on Walmart workplace management and get help from their Walmart consultants in this regard.