Walmart opens hosted U.S. fulfillment to Chinese goods
Third-party sellers of Chinese products have a new avenue to sell directly to Walmart customers.
The discount giant has updated its Walmart Cross Border ocean shipping solution to provide seaborne transportation from select ports of loading in China to hosted Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) facilities in the U.S. WFS is 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
In a LinkedIn post, Scott Humanek, senior director, global inbound program, Walmart, said Walmart Marketplace sellers can ship to the U.S. WFS network, starting with eligible shipments from China.
"We became discoverable and generally available to all WFS sellers," Humanek said in the post. "We couldn’t be more excited to help drive value, convenience, speed, and reliability for ocean transportation.”
Humanek also said a pilot of the new service exceeded expectations in terms of feedback and volumes.
How it works
To use the cross-border solution, which offers a port-to-door import service, sellers must be a WFS seller that sources or manufactures goods in China, ships their goods from the Chinese ports of Yantian, Shanghai or Ningbo, and ship enough inbound inventory to fill a full shipping container.
After determining they are eligible for the service, sellers can then submit their information for review on the cross-border imports page in the Walmart seller center. After an enrollment is submitted, reviewed and approved, sellers can begin booking inbound shipments, selecting shipments and then sending inventory.
A box will pop up asking sellers to choose their port of origin. From here, they can add information about the number and size of their containers and automatically calculate the price. A price calculator will provide an initial estimate of what they will likely pay for a full container mode shipment.
Sellers can then proceed with booking their shipment, which is when they add items to the shipment’s containers. Once they have booked and agree to the negotiated rate arrangement for a shipment, they will pack and label the items in the shipment so a full container is ready to ship.
Once a shipment clears import customs, the retailer receives items and begins distributing the inventory across its network. Once items are available to sell, customers can begin ordering them online.
Walmart Marketplace takes global outlook
Walmart began inviting select Indian sellers to apply to join Walmart Marketplace in January 2022, started reaching out to select U.K sellers to apply to join Walmart Marketplace in June 2022.
And in August 2022, leveraging the Canada-United States-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA), Walmart opened its U.S. supply chain services and infrastructure to offer participating Canadian sellers delivery across the contiguous U.S. in as fast as one to two days.
Walmart is also planning to open up its marketplace in Chile to eligible cross-border sellers.
[READ MORE: Walmart offers new fulfillment, e-commerce features to sellers]
Walmart is giving 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.
Based in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart Inc. operates more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries.
