Harris KhanToday’s consumers prefer to shop around for the items they want or need online. With the current health situation in mind, shoppers find it safer and more convenient to check out online stores and have goods delivered directly to them. Businesses can’t afford to ignore the big shift to online shopping, so they must invest in building their presence on online marketplaces.
The best platform to get started is Walmart Marketplace. Like its main competitors, Walmart offers a listing solution for brands that want to sell their products online. With over 120 million unique monthly visitors, the platform is a powerhouse for online sellers who want to leverage Walmart’s popularity.
While other e-commerce platforms require setup costs and monthly fees, Walmart Marketplace only gets a fair commission for every product that’s sold. There are also other features that can help you reach out to a wider audience and generate more revenue.
If you are new to Walmart Marketplace, follow these tips and get your brand the exposure it deserves.
Submit an application and wait for approval
Before anything else, you need to go through a simple and straightforward application process. You just need to provide information about your business. These include your business tax ID, address, W9, W8, as well as the appropriate category for the products you are selling.
It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes to fill out the online application form, but expect to wait weeks or even months to find out if you are cleared to sell. Walmart is meticulous when it comes to inviting sellers, so make sure you provide accurate details in your application so you are more likely to get approval.
Create an account and review your order process
After signing Walmart’s Retailer Agreement, you can proceed to create a seller account on the Marketplace platform. There, you can start to upload your product listings and set up the systems you need to manage transactions. At this stage, you will also need to identify your preferred integration method, whether it’s an API or Bulk Upload. It helps a lot to use an e-commerce platform that integrates seamlessly with Walmart Marketplace. You can look towards solutions providers like Magento or WooCommerce that make bulk uploads easier.
Make sure to test your checkout process as well. Customers are less likely to abandon their carts if you provide them with a seamless way of checking out items. Ideally, the process shouldn’t go beyond three or four steps. You also need to know how to deal with refund requests and cancellations. You can always refer to the Walmart Marketplace Knowledge Base for information on these scenarios.
Build a solid product catalog
Listing your products on Walmart Marketplace isn’t just a matter of uploading items and waiting for shoppers to find them. There’s a lot of time and effort that goes towards building a catalog that gets a ton of exposure through the platform. A good rule is to upload your best-selling products first so you can get an idea of how to manage sales transactions.
As your profile gains traction, you can gradually upload other products to your catalog. Make sure to provide complete information. Apart from an enticing product title, you should also write helpful and entertaining descriptions so long as they aren’t hard selling. High-quality product images can also boost conversion rates, so use a professional camera to take shots of each item from multiple angles.
Learn how to promote your products
Marketing and advertising your products is crucial to your brand’s success in Walmart Marketplace. The best way to get started with this is through Walmart’s Sponsored Product feature. Designed to help you build visibility and drive brand awareness, the Sponsored Products feature enables you to run optimized ad campaigns through an ad partner.
Ads for your products will appear on search results and category pages where shoppers can instantly see them. This helps drive more traffic to your listings and increases your brand’s selling potential. However, you will need to be a top seller in order to qualify for the Sponsored Products feature. Fortunately, there are other Walmart advertisement strategies you can check out. For one, you can start promoting your products on Prime Day and other seasons where there is heightened consumer activity.
Walmart Marketplace is a powerful platform that can give your business a sales boost. By applying the right steps, you can build a solid online presence and find new opportunities for growing your business.
