Now is the Time to Start Selling on Walmart.com

Walmart: An Emerging E-Commerce Force

Walmart.com is developing into a formidable online marketplace, with U.S. ecommerce sales growing 44% in 2018. What’s more, Walmart seems fully committed to its ecommerce endeavor, reporting in its 2018 Annual Report that, “We’re focused on our most productive and profitable growth opportunities by prioritizing growth from comp sales and eCommerce versus opening new stores.”

Their dedication to continued development (and the fact they have the capital to make good on that commitment) is good reason to consider joining the marketplace now, if you haven’t already.

Benefits of Starting Late

While Amazon certainly represents the platform’s greatest challenge, Walmart has the benefit of learning from Amazon’s successes and failures. One of those lessons is seller saturation. Amazon allows anyone and everyone to sell on their platform, while Walmart is more selective, curating a marketplace of reputable sellers offering high-quality products. In addition to creating a reputation for quality products, Walmart’s seller authorization process nearly negates the risk of rogue sellers.

Walmart is Accelerating Marketplace Expansion

However, this difference in seller policy has led to a widespread misconception that Walmart.com is a slowly growing, low-competition market. The seller saturation and competition is considerably lower on Walmart.com than on Amazon, but you’d be mistaken to think that Walmart’s seller selectivity means it’s growing slowly. In truth, Walmart is aggressively reaching out to brands and inviting them to join the platform. In just the last year, Walmart doubled its total catalog offerings. If your brand is well positioned, there’s a good chance that you’ve already been contacted.

Online Sellers Can Claim First Movers Advantage

With the rapid and consistent growth in sales and sellers, now is the time to join Walmart.com. More than that, now is the time to establish strong foundations on the platform.

Today, your sales on Walmart are likely to be a fraction of your Amazon sales, and that fact has resulted in many brands taking a cavalier approach to managing their Walmart listings. With low seller competition, that approach is functional, but it’s fatally shortsighted.

As the marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, those who put in the legwork early will be the best positioned for long-term, sustainable success.

We can help with that.

Sell on Walmart with Kaspien

Kaspien provides several competitive advantages for brands interested in selling on Walmart.com, including ten years of ecommerce experience, a long-standing partnership with Walmart’s preferred delivery partner Deliverr, and transparency.

Proven Marketplace Expertise

In 2016, Walmart invited a select group of Amazon sellers to bring their expertise to the platform. Kaspien was among those sellers. We’ve spent the last ten years growing with and mastering Amazon. We’re now directing our years of expertise and proprietary technologies to mastering Walmart.

When we began selling on Walmart, we were able to transfer over many of the services that contributed to our success on Amazon, including:

• Dedicated account management
• Sales and inventory forecasting
• Marketplace compliance team
• In-house customer service
• Marketplace SEO expertise
• Inbound marketing services

Our long record of quality service on Amazon also provides Kaspien access to exclusive programs on Walmart.com, including:

• Early access to marketplace beta programs
• Access to Sponsored Products campaigns
• Access to Walmart Performance Ads
• Free 2-Day Shipping

These programs are limited to a small group of sellers. Having access to these programs offers a competitive edge that can set your brand apart from the competition, securing an early and stable foothold on the marketplace and positioning your brand to increase its market share.

Fulfillment Support

Unlike Amazon, Walmart does not own its fulfillment centers. Instead, it outsources fulfillment to Deliverr. Walmart’s preferred fulfillment partner is a company called Deliverr, who provides free 2-day delivery and allows sellers to feature the 2-Day Shipping listing badge on their listings.

However, the service is still very limited because Walmart has not yet automated communication between Walmart.com sales and Deliverr. Instead, brands partnered with Deliverr must monitor their Walmart sales daily, notifying Deliverr when and how much product to ship. Without active management, online sales go unfulfilled or delayed, creating a poor customer experience and damaging your brand’s reputation.

Kaspien has a long-standing partnership with Deliverr, and we’ve taken the headache out of the process.

• We coordinate the logistics, ensuring that orders are received and go out on time.
• Our partners enjoy the free 2-day shipping badge on their listings, which incentivizes shoppers to pick your brand over competitors and improves organic search ranking.
• In these early days, attracting shoppers with the 2-day shipping badge and accumulating positive reviews is a fantastic way to secure a strong foundation for your brand on Walmart.

As an added bonus, our partnership with Deliverr also allows us to provide partners free expedited shipping for eBay and Google Express.

Transparency

When we partner with you, it’s not a one-way mirror. For those who want it, we augment our channel management services with coaching and education, equipping you with the insights needed to make calculated decisions and prosper.

Why? Because our success on Amazon is rooted in our spirit of innovation, and innovation thrives through transparency. Ten years ago, Kaspien was an unknown startup founded by two college graduates and their professor. Today, we’re a leading FBA retailer driving sales for some of the world’s biggest brands. That wouldn’t have happened without collaboration fueling creative solutions. Now, we aim to do the same with Walmart, and we invite you to grow with us.

Want to learn about selling on Walmart.com? Check out our free eBook!

Download the eBook

WFS: Walmart’s Gamble to Challenge Amazon FBA