Walmart Marketplace has been a burgeoning marketplace for years, but it saw significant growth in the past three years and has now become a top-three platform priority for most serious eCommerce businesses. Just last year, it grew to have over 150,000 sellers, and online sales topped $62 billion.
These large numbers are enough of a reason for eCommerce businesses to join the marketplace—going where customers and sellers already are removes the uncertainty of a potential new market, even if you have to compete for sales.
But Walmart Marketplace offers more than just activity. Its platform gives eCommerce sellers of all sizes and niches a lot of resources that push sales even further, and many of these resources aren't available through other sales and marketplace platforms.
Learn more about what participating in the Walmart Marketplace can offer your business, our top reasons why you should prioritize growth on the platform in 2023, and how to make sure you're prioritizing business growth without becoming top-heavy or jeopardizing your cash flow for the sake of long-term growth.
Why Walmart Marketplace Should Be on Every eCommerce Business' To-Do List
Walmart Marketplace is an eCommerce giant, powering billions of dollars of sales within an already surging eCommerce market. If you own an eCommerce business, knowing the details of this platform is vital to your long-term success.
Related: eCommerce Loans: Scale Up in 2023 With a Cash Advance for Your Business
If you successfully join the program, you gain access to a major channel with hundreds of millions of monthly visitors, and you can scale your business through their in-platform resources. Even if you don't join, or don't currently qualify, researching Walmart Marketplace is essential to learn:
- What draws consumers to the platform over other platforms like Amazon or Shopify; stores
- The norms for online orders that should shape your off-platform sales tactics—like fees, shipping times, sales offers, and marketing tactics.
- Any changes to business eligibility requirements that may make the platform a better fit for your business
- How your competitors are benefiting
Whether your main focus is researching, joining, or competing outside the platform, keep it on your radar and regularly investigate promotions, programs, and seller perks so you aren't operating in the dark.
6 Benefits of Selling Through the Walmart Marketplace
Of course, eCommerce businesses benefit the most when they can join Walmart Marketplace instead of simply learning from it. But if you've been prioritizing other channels and haven't taken steps to join the marketplace, make it part of your 2023 strategy (especially before the holiday retail rush). Consider these key benefits of selling through the Walmart Marketplace:
1. Market Access
The biggest and most obvious benefit is the open door. When you're a seller on Walmart Marketplace, you can reach prospective buyers through a platform that you may not have otherwise encountered. While Amazon is larger than Walmart in the online space, different subsets of the market prefer each platform, and you may find that some shoppers prefer one platform over another depending on the product they’re looking for.
Walmart's various seller services, such as managed fulfillment options and sponsored ad programs, give you even faster access to consumers that may skip other online sales platforms.
2. Diversified Revenue Streams
Businesses stabilize when they have more revenue streams. Relying solely on one platform—just like relying on one merchant services provider or one supplier—can jeopardize your business because you don't have backup plans or multiple sources of revenue. If you're already selling on Amazon, social media, Etsy, or a website with Shopify; integrations, adding Walmart Marketplace to your sales platform options is just one more revenue stream you can keep open in the event another one unexpectedly closes.
Diversified revenue streams also help counterbalance potential off-peak, on-peak seasons. Every platform has unique business cycles with different peaks and troughs. So having as many streams as you can handle means those troughs are less impactful.
3. Walmart Marketplace Doesn't Require a High Up-Front Investment
The transitional period for adopting a new sales channel is often the most expensive and uncertain. Devoting hours to building up your product catalog, learning new workflows, and integrating your systems is already a heavy investment. Some channels also require up-front monetary expenses and fees.
Walmart Marketplace charges referral fees of approximately 6-20% (depending on your product niche), which is relatively low in the eCommerce world. It also doesn't charge you any platform usage fees, so you only pay when you make a sale. Not only does this make Walmart Marketplace a very affordable option, but it also is structured so payment doesn't outrun the pace of revenue.
4. More Touchpoints
Another advantage of selling across multiple channels is that your target market encounters your brand more often. As online shoppers move through the funnel, they move from browsing and researching to comparing to buying. The more visible and accessible your brand is, the more likely your product is to be in front of them as they move from stage to stage.
Your brand also benefits from more touchpoints, as customers become more familiar with your brand—and thereby more likely to trust it.
5. Work Within an Established Infrastructure With the Right Tools
Walmart Marketplace gives sellers the tools needed to thrive. After all, the marketplace is structured so Walmart receives a referral percentage of what you sell, so your success is also in their best interest.
Once you're in the program, you can use their fulfillment tools with warehouse management, inventory tracking, the ability to provide customers with free two-day shipping, and more. They also provide powerful analytics and inventory management tools, whether you want to work mostly within its platform or integrate it with your other channels.
6. Walmart Marketplace Offers Advances for Strong Sellers
To really grow your business at a rapid pace, you need cash. While great marketing and selling the right products for emerging eCommerce trends matters, eCommerce businesses can't grow at scale without the financing to move fast and sell at a higher volume. Walmart knows that, so they offer merchant advances to qualified sellers through their Walmart Marketplace Capital program.
Eligible sellers receive an offer based on their sales volume. If you accept the offer, you can use the cash to grow your business by avenues such as buying more Sponsored Ad space in the platform, switching to their fulfillment services, ordering more inventory, or other tactics.
Related: Is Merchant Cash Advance Financing the Right One for Your Online Store?
Then, as you sell more products, Walmart will take a portion of the sales revenue as repayment until the advance has been paid back. While strict repayment terms apply (such as having your connected bank account charged if your sales revenue can't cover the repayment amount), sellers can use this cash to grow their business faster than through organic sales methods.
Requirements for Joining Walmart Marketplace
Not every eCommerce business can join Walmart Marketplace. To get in the door, your business needs to meet a few important requirements:
- You need to have an established business with a name, address and Business License Number or Tax ID.
- You can only sell items with GTIN/UPC GS1 Company Prefix Numbers, which aren't on its list of prohibited products.
- Your business must have a fulfillment services provider that can manage returns. If you don't have a qualifying service, you can use Walmart Fulfillment Services.
- You must include your shipping methods and cost details, payment account preferences, and any other details about your business.
Once you submit your application, the Walmart Marketplace team will assess your business and determine whether you fit the program's requirements. After you're approved, you can sign the retailer agreement, register your account, set up all of your selling systems, and go live.
How to Scale Your Business Across Multiple Marketplaces
Joining multiple eCommerce platforms is a strong strategy for building a robust online business that doesn't rely on a single channel or distributor. But just like growing your business on Walmart Marketplace requires funding (either through your own savings or with a financing program), you also need capital to streamline growth across each channel.
Some of these other platforms also offer financing options through their in-house processes; however, most don't take a holistic view of your business. Walmart considers sales volume through Walmart's platforms, just like Amazon looks at sales through its platform. This platform-by-platform funding doesn't give your business a fair assessment, and piecemeal funding can cut into your business's growth. Instead, start looking for financing providers that consider all of your sales across multiple platforms. If you sell on both Amazon and Walmart, then find merchant advances and financing partners that look at both revenue streams, not just one.
Get the Right Funding the Right Way for All of Your Sales and Marketing Platforms
Find financing that powers growth across all of your channels, not just one channel at a time. At Onramp, we provide eCommerce businesses with quick access to cash so they can flourish, and we only take 1% of sales as repayment. Each advance amount is calculated based on sales activity, and we can integrate our calculator with both Amazon and Walmart to get a true reflection of your business's potential. Create your account and integrate your store today to pre-qualify for an advance.
