Walmart Marketplace, the world’s second-largest online marketplace, is closing in on Amazon, with a 79% increase in e-commerce sales last year.
You must learn the guidelines if you want to dropship with Walmart. It’s difficult to keep track of what’s allowed and what isn’t with all the policy changes and new programs, let alone what some less-than-trustworthy sources claim.
To help you find your niche, we’ve broken down everything you need to know about dropshipping with Walmart Marketplace in this guide.
Why Dropship on Walmart?
Walmart is especially beneficial to online businesses. You receive access to a well-known, dependable environment consisting of high-quality products, quick delivery times, and exceptional customer service when you shop at Walmart.
The following are the key benefits of dropshipping on Walmart:
- Sell a wide range of goods: You can sell in over 35 different product categories at Walmart. All you have to do now is make sure your product isn’t on the company’s Prohibited Products list.
- Fast shipping: With a next-day delivery option, Walmart’s logistics partners may ship products to customers right away. Faster delivery means happier consumers, which increases the likelihood of repeat purchases.
- Low overhead: There is no charge to open a store or register to sell on Walmart’s platform. When you make a sale, you only have to pay a referral fee. On this page, you can learn more about their referral fees.
- Launch quickly: Walmart dropshipping relieves you of time-consuming tasks such as shop creation and branding, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business.
Of course, dropshipping on Walmart isn’t without its drawbacks. To begin, you must outperform a slew of competitors in order to gain client loyalty. Furthermore, you must follow certain pricing guidelines because Walmart strives to provide the best value to its customers.
Nevertheless, the problems faced by first-time entrepreneurs and small enterprises are compensated for by a huge consumer base and inexpensive overheads.
Walmart Dropshipping Options
Let’s take a deeper look at each of these possibilities:
1. Establishing Yourself as a Drop Ship Vendor (DSV)
Walmart Marketplace offers a platform that allows entrepreneurs to become Walmart suppliers. In this example, you play the role of a manufacturer or wholesaler supplying Walmart with goods. You can either send things to a Walmart warehouse or use the DSV program to distribute directly to the client.
2. Reselling Walmart Products
Unlike regular dropshipping, reselling Walmart products necessitates purchasing items and having them shipped to you so that you may subsequently distribute them to your clients. You won’t profit from the streamlined approach of a conventional dropshipping plan if you use this way.
3. Using Walmart’s Platform for Dropshipping
You can sell dropshipped products straight to Walmart customers by using dropshipping vendors. Although dropshipping products directly from Walmart to your consumers is not permitted, dropshipping on the Walmart marketplace is.
How to Dropship on Walmart?
1. Find Suppliers for Your Business
Finding suppliers for the things you wish to sell is the first step. Suppliers for women’s apparel, jewelry, home and garden, toys and games, and a variety of other specializations can be found.
Walmart dropshipping works well with suppliers who have warehouses and fulfillment centers in the United States since they can send products faster.
Pay attention to their customer service and expertise of the things they sell when determining which suppliers to work with. Suppliers with a high level of customer satisfaction and a long history of selling on the platform are a safer bet. Also, inquire if they’ll provide you a sample so you can assess the quality of the products you’ll be dropshipping.
2. Register to Sell on Walmart
You must still apply to start selling on Walmart, regardless of which Walmart dropshipping option you choose.
To begin your application, go to the Walmart Marketplace page. You’ll see a form to fill out if you choose the “Request to Sell” option.
3. Complete the Onboarding Process
Walmart will send you an email with a registration link once your application has been approved. This link will take you to the onboarding page. You’ll need to do the following to finish the onboarding process:
- Create an account by providing information about your firm, your business address, and your bank account information.
- Accept the terms of Walmart’s retailer agreement.
- Fill out all of the tax forms.
- Fill in the shipping and payment details. Hyperwallet and Payoneer are the two payment options offered.
- Create a list of items and add them to your inventory.
- Fill out the Walmart Partner Profile form. This section contains all of the information that your buyers will see, such as your company’s name, description, logo, and policies.
4. Fulfill Orders
To assist vendors in improving their customer experience, Walmart offers a 2-day shipping program.
However, because dropshipping delivery timeframes can vary, you may not be able to take advantage. It’s recommended to stay with standard delivery unless you’re working with US-based suppliers who offer speedy nationwide shipping.
You can also use Deliverr to fulfill your orders.
Deliverr ensures speedy shipment and increased store visibility as an official partner of Walmart’s TwoDay fulfillment program. They’ll choose products from your suppliers and store them near your clients so you can provide speedy shipping across the country.
3 Walmart Dropshipping Tips
While selling on Walmart may give you with a larger customer base and less competition than other platforms, success does not come easily. To make your Walmart dropshipping experience easier, follow the advice below.
1. Meet Walmart’s Standards for Customer Service
Walmart uses a set of metrics to monitor seller performance on its platform. These are some examples of service quality indicators:
- More than 95% of shipments arrive on time
- More than 99 percent valid tracking rate
- Less than 2% order defect rate after 90 days
Keeping up with these procedures entails promptly responding to all client inquiries and completing purchases. It also entails ensuring that cancellations and refunds are minimized and properly managed. To keep track of your performance as a Walmart seller, follow these steps:
Ensure that your order fulfillment procedure corresponds to the delivery times you provide to clients. Don’t mislead the customer that shipment will only take two days if your supplier can’t deliver the products in two days.
Make sure your return policies are clear and thorough. In the Partner Profile, Walmart gives a return policy section with up to 4,000 characters. You can include all of the information about returns that your customers need to know in this section. In the event of a disagreement, this can assist you in defending yourself.
Set up a method to keep track of your inventory. Walmart-specific listing software is available from Sellbrite, which can assist merchants in keeping track of their inventory.
Provide shipping information to customers. Sellers can include this information in their Partner Profile as well. Get your supplier’s delivery details.
Walmart delists sellers for a variety of reasons, including rule violations and dissatisfied customers. Even if difficulties are handled, returns, cancellations, and complaints can have an impact on your seller success. Minimize difficulties by connecting with your supplier on a regular basis to keep client unhappiness to a minimum.
2. Keep a Close Eye on Your Stats
It’s tough to know whether your dropshipping on Walmart is doing well without reporting. Track metrics to assess your performance and discover what works and what doesn’t. Walmart’s reporting aids merchants in assessing their:
- Ratings and reviews. Customers can give merchants feedback in the form of reviews and ratings. Keep an eye on your reviews and the quality of your service because they can have an impact on seller performance.
- Seller ranking. Walmart offers a variety of analytics statistics to vendors that illustrate how well they are doing. They also provide vendors with a Seller Scorecard, which they may use to track their progress.
- Buy Box placement. Other merchants selling the same or comparable products to yours will undoubtedly appear. As a result, aiming for the Buy Box is vital because it goes to the seller with the best qualification criteria. If your selling history isn’t up to Walmart’s standards, you’ll most likely lose the transaction.
3. Optimize Your Product Listings
If you position your product listings effectively, they can perform a lot of work for you. More buyers will find you if you strategically create your listings, which will help you sell more products.
List features in your product titles to make them stand out. Sony Bluetooth headphones are an example of this. You might want to use a simple title. A title like “Sony Bluetooth Headphones Noise Canceling,” on the other hand, will attract a consumer who would otherwise have to browse through multiple descriptions to obtain that information.
Make use of clear, high-resolution product photos. Include several photographs of the product, both alone and in usage.
Make your listing titles as brief as possible. Customers can simply identify and understand whether your product is what they are seeking if you keep your listing titles concise.
In the description, include a list of the product’s advantages. You can more easily persuade a buyer to buy your product by listing the characteristics and benefits of your product.
Wrapping Up
Walmart provides a variety of advantages to dropshippers, but it isn’t without flaws. The marketplace has a lot of power over merchants’ stores, and a single offense can result in your products being removed. Consider selling on platforms other than Walmart to expand your business.
List your products on other eCommerce sites like Amazon or eBay, or construct an online store with WooCommerce or Shopify to diversify your sales. On these sites, though, there can’t be too much of a pricing difference between your products. Otherwise, your account will be deactivated by Walmart.
