While Walmart dominated retail locations and watched ecommerce marketplaces explode with Amazon and eBay, they decided over the last ten years to really invest in ecommerce and launched their own walmart seller central. Walmart Seller Central is the hub for online sellers to create their catalogue, manage their products, orders and shipments for the customers who make purchases from Walmart.com. If you are a Walmart Seller, you probably noticed an increase in sales over the last ten years as the Walmartmarketplace has increased year over year since launch and in one year saw an 80% increase in overall traffic.
How to Win as a Walmart Seller on Walmart Seller Central
- To become a walmart seller the first thing you need to do is get approved on Walmart.com. In order to keep the marketplace at a high level of customer service, not everyone who wants to sell on Walmart is allowed. To get approved as a Walmart Seller you need to have your company registration information, your business tax documents, shipping information and payment information. The process to get approved as a seller on walmartmarketplace can take a while and have seen sellers wait upwards of a few months before being approved. As a result, you should start the process early to ensure you are approved, setup and ready before the holiday season.
- To win on Walmart Seller Central and as a Walmart Seller takes the same best practices that you would be doing at other popular marketplaces. You need to really understand and complete keyword research to ensure as you create your listings you are describing them in a way that a customer or shopper will actually find them. Be sure to do the research because as the Walmartmarketplace has grown, so has the competition and you need to ensure you stand out in a crowded space with good SEO practices on your products.
- Complete Product Research. While you may have had success selling a specific product on Amazon this would not guarantee you that the same success exists when moving to Walmart Seller Central. The Walmarmarketplace attracts a different audience, has different sellers and therefore you need to approach being a Walmart Seller with fresh start to make sure you find the right products to sell on the marketplace. Don’t assume the same products you sell somewhere else will work.
- Pricing is always key. How you price something when selling on eBay or Amazon is very different than Walmart. You need to approach your pricing strategy for selling on the Walmartmarketplace with fresh eyes. Remember your audience. The Walmart.com marketplace like the physical stores focuses on low prices and value. As a result, you are going to be finding buyers and customers who expect to pay less than perhaps at other marketplaces based on the just the marketing and branding around Walmart. As a Walmart seller you need to anticipate this and add that into your profitability planning that your pricing may need to come down.
- Reviews and Customer Service will matter. Walmart really encourages customers to leave reviews. As a result, when you sell on Walmart Seller Central you need to really bring your customer service game up. This means quick responses to questions, refunds and returns to keep customers happy to ensure they leave the good reviews. Nothing will ruin your experience as a Walmart seller quicker than having a negative review. To make the most of your walmartmarketplace experience is just ensuring you keep customers happy so that they leave you happy with a positive review.
The key to being successful as an online seller is to sell in many places. The Walmartmarketplace provides a great opportunity for you to expand but like any new selling channel you need to do the work to succeed. This involves getting approved, doing research for products and pricing, and ensuring you bring your best for customer service. If you can do these things you will make selling with Walmart Seller Central easy.
