Are you an established dropshipper with a bit of experience under your belt? If so, it’s high time to expand your dropshipping business to new online marketplaces.
As long as you have a proven track record as a dropshipper, Walmart Marketplace will open a lot of doors for your business.
If you play your cards right, your third-party seller products will display next to Walmart products on the Walmart eCommerce site.
Sure, platforms like Amazon and eBay have their perks, but Walmart’s growing customer base is nothing to sneeze at.
In fact, Walmart’s 2023 eCommerce business has already added up to $53.4 billion—a 12% increase over 2022.
We've got you covered if it’s time to grow your online business by selling Walmart products.
In this guide, we’ll explain why selling on Walmart is so beneficial, show you how to set up your Walmart store and share a few expert tips for dropshipping Walmart products.
Why Dropship on Walmart’s Marketplace?
Selling your products on another platform might sound more complex, but with the right selling tools, Walmart dropshipping is a no-brainer.
More dropshippers are selling on the Walmart Marketplace for the following reasons.
There’s Less Competition From Other Sellers
Unlike Amazon or eBay, Walmart is picky about who qualifies as a drop ship vendor. You’ll need to jump through more hoops for the Walmart Marketplace seller onboarding process, but that also means you won’t have to compete with nearly as many sellers.
It Integrates With Nearly Everything
It’s tough selling products manually, which is why so many Walmart dropshipping companies use third-party tools, like Spark Shipping, to manage their businesses.
Walmart is a great choice for dropshippers because it easily integrates with tools to streamline listings, orders, pricing, inventory, and much more.
Plenty of People Shop on Walmart.com
If you aren’t already selling your products on Walmart Marketplace, you’re missing out on a big slice of the market, as it has more than 120 million monthly visitors looking for products like yours!
Plus, Walmart now offers two-day shipping, so as long as you can meet Walmart’s delivery and pricing rules, you’ll score way more shoppers eager for a solid alternative to Amazon Prime.
Shoppers Trust It
Shoppers are becoming more wary of platforms like Amazon. But, because Walmart is so careful about its vendor selections, shoppers tend to trust this platform more, which means they trust your dropshipping products, too.
Walmart Dropshipping Has a Simple Fee Structure
Unlike other dropshipping platforms, Walmart Marketplace’s fee structure is simple and straightforward.
You just pay a referral fee based on product categories, and that’s it (unless you pay for fulfillment, which we’ll cover in a bit).
How Walmart Dropshipping Works
Walmart only wants to work with established dropshippers who have a solid reputation, so you can only dropship from Walmart if you've been around for a while.
If you’re accepted as a seller on Walmart’s platform, Walmart Marketplace will display your products alongside Walmart’s products in relevant searches.
When shoppers purchase items from your store, you route that order either through Walmart (if you’re using Walmart Fulfillment Services) or a third-party fulfillment company to handle the drop shipping.
In exchange for using the platform, Walmart will charge you a single fee. The referral fees cover all costs associated with the Walmart drop ship program, minus WFS fees if you use Walmart for fulfillment.
The fee is percentage-based per order, simplifying Walmart dropshipping fees.
However, these referral fees differ by product category and can get a little pricey. For example, jewelry has a 20% fee, while video games have a 15% fee.
Although these might seem more expensive than other platforms, Walmart doesn’t nickel-and-dime you like other dropshipping platforms, so most sellers appreciate the simplicity.
Walmart will pay you every two weeks, although your first payment will take longer to clear as Walmart vets you.
From there, it’s just lather, rinse, and repeat. Walmart will continue monitoring your performance metrics through a Seller Scorecard, which assesses your quality in terms of reviews, returns, and other metrics.
If it notices a dip in your quality, Walmart could revoke your selling privileges.
This isn’t the end of the world, though, because the Walmart seller dashboard will tell you exactly what you need to do to fix the situation.
How To Become a Walmart Drop Ship Vendor
One of the biggest hurdles to Walmart dropshipping is becoming an approved vendor.
Remember, Walmart is picky about who sells on its platform, so not just any dropshipper can join.
This used to be a long, convoluted process. Thankfully, Walmart recently simplified the seller onboarding process, so you only need to follow three steps to apply.
1. Verify Your Business
First, set up a Seller Profile and add your business details. You’ll manage your Partner Account within the Walmart Seller Center.
Walmart will need a lot of information for this, so we recommend gathering all your details before applying as a seller.
To sell products on Walmart, you’ll need:
- Your legal business name
- A valid business address
- A W-8 or W-9
- Your business tax ID, also known as your Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- Valid contact information, like an email and phone number
- Documented history of eCommerce success
- An existing product catalog (it can’t contain any prohibited items)
After submitting this information, you’ll need to wait for Walmart to verify you.
It could take up to a week to be verified, especially during busy times of the year.
2. Add Your Bank Account Details
Once Walmart verifies your business details, it will ask you to set up payment information. Walmart requires you to register with Payoneer to receive payments.
The good news is that Walmart will guide you through the registration process through your Seller Center account, which will take you over to Payoneer.
Pro tip: Registering through your seller account is important because it exempts you from Payoneer’s $1.50 withdrawal fee.
3. Set Up Your Product Catalog and Shipping Details
Once you’ve set up payments, it’s time to tell Walmart your:
- Primary product categories: Walmart will ask you to submit your eCommerce product catalog for review.
- Shipping information: Choose between value, standard, next-day, and expedited shipping. You also need to specify which regions you ship to, shipping costs, and average transit times.
It can take Walmart anywhere from three business days to three weeks to review your application.
It isn’t unusual to receive a rejection your first time around, usually for documentation issues.
Don’t let that deter you! Take Walmart’s feedback, rework your application, and apply again.
As long as you’re a valid business with a proven dropshipping track record, you stand a good chance of dropshipping on Walmart.
Make Walmart Dropshipping Work: 6 Tips for Growing Your Walmart Dropshipping Business
Selling on Walmart is a great way to boost dropshipping sales, but even then, your business will need constant optimization to come out on top. Follow these best practices for competitive, profitable Walmart dropshipping.
1. Use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
WFS is Walmart’s version of Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA). If you don’t already have dropshipping suppliers, this is a great way to save hours of hassle every week managing your dropshipping business.
Of course, you’re paying WFS fees on every transaction, but many Walmart dropshippers think the cost of WFS is worth the quality service and time savings.
With WFS, you ship all of your inventory to the Walmart warehouse. When shoppers order your products, Walmart picks, packs, and ships the order for you. It also offers nice perks like:
- Two-day shipping
- Higher search rankings and Buy Box features
- Daily seller support options
- Free shipping for shoppers
WFS pricing depends on your product dimensions and pricing. Use the WFS fee calculator for a rough idea of your WFS fees. They generally range from $3.45 to $17.55, although items retailing for over $10 and oversized items have more fees.
2. Offer Fast Shipping
Online shoppers are anything but patient. In fact, 41% of global shoppers expect to receive their orders within 24 hours!
Clearly, standard shipping isn't going to cut it.
To build a following of loyal shoppers, you need to offer cheap, speedy shipping. Signing up for WFS is the best way to do this, but the fees don’t always make sense, especially if your dropshipping business is still small.
Fortunately, you can sign up to offer two-day or three-day shipping through Walmart. Sellers who qualify for these shipping options see as much as a 50% boost in conversions, so it’s definitely worth considering.
You need to meet these shipping rules to qualify for expedited shipping:
- 90 days as a seller on Walmart Marketplace, or at least 100 fulfilled orders
- 95% on-time shipping and delivery rate or higher
- 95% valid tracking rate or higher
- 1.5% cancellation rate or lower
- Offer free returns
3. Use an Inventory Tracking System
Walmart encourages dropshippers to invest in some kind of inventory management and automation solution. Solutions like Spark Shipping are able to:
- Give you an accurate view of all inventory levels across Walmart Marketplace, as well as your other selling channels
- Bulk-import product catalog details to Walmart Marketplace
- Forecast Walmart dropshipping demand
- Sync inventory in real-time
- Automatically send tracking details to the customer
Instead of spending hours every day updating inventory figures and tracking numbers—and wondering if the information is even correct—automate everything with Spark Shipping. It’s the best way to save time and scale your Walmart dropshipping business with zero added effort.
4. Try the Retail Arbitrage Method
Most sellers source products through manufacturers or dropshipping suppliers. But if you want to squeeze more value out of your margins, consider the retail arbitrage method.
With retail arbitrage, you buy products from another seller or location at the lowest price and then resell them to buyers on platforms like Walmart Marketplace.
It’s a little tricky with Walmart, though. Walmart wants to work with high-volume suppliers, so if you’re doing arbitrage, you need a way to source hundreds of low-cost products at once. You won’t find these deals on Facebook Marketplace: you’ll probably need to import products from overseas.
For example, maybe you realize sneakers are way cheaper in Malaysia than they are in the United States. It might require jumping through some hoops, but if you can find a way to import plenty of lower-cost products, you can sell them for a healthy profit on Walmart.
5. Offer Excellent Customer Service
Walmart cares about quality, so it’s no surprise that it places a lot of emphasis on the customer experience. If you want to retain your good standing as a seller, it isn’t enough to do the bare minimum. You have to actively foster good relationships with Walmart customers.
Plus, customer service also factors into your Seller Scorecard, so this can have a big impact on your ability to dropship from Walmart.
Follow these basics to offer high-quality customer experiences at scale:
- Set up customer service information in Seller Central. You should provide an email, phone number, escalation email (for Walmart use only), and a 4,000-character customer service policy.
- Communicate clearly and professionally with your customers.
- Respond to shopper questions and negative reviews ASAP.
- Do whatever you can to stay in stock. Solutions like Spark Shipping help you source inventory from multiple suppliers at the best prices, so you never need to worry about stocking out.
6. Optimize for Walmart SEO
Just like Google and Amazon, Walmart uses an algorithm to suggest products based on shoppers’ search queries. It won’t happen overnight, but making a few changes to your seller account and product listings could help you stand out from the competition in Walmart search.
Follow these quick tips to master Walmart search engine optimization (SEO):
- Sign up for two- or three-day shipping or WFS. This can significantly increase your chances of winning the featured Buy Box.
- Upload at least four images for all of your products. The more, the better!
- Create a follow-up email campaign asking customers to submit feedback and reviews. Collect as many five-star reviews as you can to see your rankings improve over time.
- Write incredibly descriptive, helpful product listings. Use lots of bullets to break up the text and make it easy to read.
Remember, SEO doesn’t happen overnight. This is something you’ll need to work on regularly to steadily improve your rankings.
Run a Better Walmart Store With Spark Shipping
Selling on Walmart is like the dropshipping Olympics. You’ve definitely risen to the top of the crowd, but now you’re competing in the big leagues.
Getting into Walmart’s third-party seller program is the first big hurdle, but staying in it is just as challenging.
The tips in this guide will boost your reputation on Walmart Marketplace, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
You need help executing all of these big ideas, and that’s where Spark Shipping comes in. We help Walmart dropshippers:
- Integrate vendor inventory information
- Automatically manage inventory
- Conduct product management
- Automate pricing
- Map products to multiple vendors
- Port over fitment data
- Fulfill orders
- Send tracking updates to shoppers
Spend your time where it matters most. Outsource finicky tasks to Spark Shipping while you focus on serving customers and growing your Walmart dropshipping business.
See the difference firsthand: Schedule your Spark Shipping demo now.