Walmart ups Amazon contest with incentive for new marketplace sellers
Walmart is launching a promotion to encourage new sellers to join its third-party Walmart Marketplace e-commerce platform – quickly.
The discount giant is launching “New-Seller Savings,” a limited-time Walmart Marketplace promotion exclusive to new participants on the platform. Sellers who join Walmart Marketplace by May 31, 2022, and start selling on Walmart.com by June 30, 2022, will receive a 50% discount on commission rates for the first 90 days.
Walmart is giving third-party retailers new reason 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.
Walmart has also extended an introductory incentive for sellers to participate in its low-cost Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) fulfillment option. Approved sellers that enroll in WFS and complete the setup process and inbound one item to a Walmart fulfillment center by June 30, 2022 can earn 90 days of free storage and a 10% discount on fulfillment fees.
Items that ship via WFS arrive in a Walmart box and are categorized as “fulfilled by Walmart.” If a customer has any issues with an item, they have access to Walmart customer service or can return the item at their local Walmart store.
Walmart Marketplace sellers can also participate in its Walmart Connect platform, which enables advertisers and selling partners to directly engage with its customers.
[Read more: Walmart has big plans for its Walmart Connect ad platform]
Walmart bolsters Marketplace features, reach
Walmart has been increasing the benefits and global reach of Walmart Marketplace over the past year. In 2021, Walmart began enabling eligible retailers on the BigCommerce platform to sell products directly on Walmart Marketplace. Walmart entered a similar partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify in June 2020.
This arrangement makes Walmart Marketplace available as a new channel on BigCommerce. By activating the Walmart Marketplace channel, U.S. retailers will be able to track products, orders, inventory and fulfillment from one central location; as well as gain access to a curated network of complementary partners.
In January 2022, Walmart began inviting select Indian sellers to apply to join Walmart Marketplace. Walmart says it will appropriately share U.S. customer insights and global supply chain best practices and business planning strategies with its Indian marketplace sellers. The company led a $1.2 billion financing round in July 2020 to obtain a 77% majority share in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart and made a strategic joint investment with Flipkart into Indian agricultural supply chain technology platform Ninjacart in December 2021,
And in May 2021, Walmart integrated with supply chain and fulfillment platform ShipBob to provide two-day shipping for small-to-medium-sized retailers within the continental U.S. ShipBob also supports fulfillment for Walmart Marketplace orders outside of the two-day delivery program.
In addition, ShipBob provides Walmart Marketplace sellers a single view of their inventory, orders and shipments across all sales channels and locations. Leveraging the solution, sellers can obtain advanced analytics that provides insights into shipping performance, inventory allocation and fulfillment costs.
“With unbelievable deals for new Marketplace sellers, offers for new WFS sellers and brand advantages such as Walmart Connect, there has never been a better time to join,” Walmart said in a corporate blog post announcing the new incentive program.