Walmart brings back incentives for new third-party sellers

Once again, Walmart is providing a discount plan and pricing tool for new sellers on Walmart Marketplace.

Initially launched on a limited-time basis in January 2023, Walmart New-Seller Savings offers benefits including up to 50% off referral fees for the first 90 days, consisting of:

• 10% off sign up and go live.
• 15% off shipping with Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), a fee-based program provides a wide array of services, including storing, picking, packing and shipping, along with the handling of returns and customer service. 
• 15% off advertising with Walmart Connect, the discounter’s retail media network that delivers sponsored search ads.  
• 10% off commission rates for Walmart Marketplace Repricer, a tool that helps sellers automatically manage and adjust their pricing in response to price activity both on Walmart and on other e-commerce sites. 

In addition, new third-party sellers can save up to 50% on Walmart Fulfillment Services for 90 days including 50% off prep services, 50% off storage fees and 25% off fulfillment if their first shipment is received by July 31, 2024. 

During the past year, Walmart says it has more than doubled the number of items for sale on Walmart Marketplace and that its third-party sales platform had its best ever Black Friday and Cyber Monday results during the 2023 holiday season.

In August 2023, the retailer kicked off its first-ever Walmart Marketplace Seller Summit, a two-day event attended by a group of third-party sellers that do business on the site. At that time, Walmart also unveiled several new online fulfillment and marketing capabilities designed to not only attract new sellers but retain existing ones.

And in June 2023, the retailer added Austin, Texas-based e-commerce funding specialist Onramp to Walmart Marketplace. As a result, independent sellers and small retailers on Walmart Marketplace now have access to flexible funding packages designed to help drive scale.

During 2023, Walmart also unveiled several other new online fulfillment and marketing capabilities it is providing to not only attract new sellers to Walmart Marketplace but to retain existing ones. These included local pickup and delivery, dedicated digital storefronts and curated digital shelves, and more fulfillment options for sellers who list big and bulky items.

Walmart is trying to provide third-party retailers more reasons to participate in Walmart Marketplace as chief rival Amazon actively assists third-party retailers (primarily small-to-medium-sized businesses) to sell on its Amazon Marketplace e-commerce platform with at least 150 tools and services. 

Headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart Inc. operates approximately 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries.