There’s no denying that Amazon is a major marketplace for UK sellers, and Walmart is attempting to shake up the ecommerce landscape by opening its doors for UK sellers to be able to access their significant US customer base. This is likely to make an impact too, with 45% of Amazon sellers believing that Walmart’s online business will be strong competition for Amazon in 2022.
From modest beginnings in 1962, Walmart now serves an extraordinary 120m customers in the US with 58% of Americans having shopped at Walmart.com in the past year. In Q1 this year, group sales exceeded $231 billion with Walmart U.S eCommerce sales growing 90% from two years ago.
To learn more about the opportunities for UK brands in working with Walmart, we decided to visit the recent Global Seller Summit UK in London and here are our key takeaways:
Walmart Marketplace allows you to remain in control through the use of pricing solution tools and catalogue management. In addition, Walmart Fulfilment Services (WFS) looks to be a cost-effective solution for sellers needing end-to-end fulfilment. As one of the world’s largest supply chains, WFS can help brands to create a seamless experience for customers. Offering a two-day shipping service across the contiguous U.S combined with customer service, returns and replacements handling. Sellers also have the ability to earn ‘Fulfilled by Walmart’ tags on their products, which further increases visibility.
Unlike Amazon, Walmart only charges for product listings when a sale is made. There are no account fees either, whereas Amazon charge sellers a monthly fee.
Walmart has a Brand Portal to help sellers keep track of brands, authorised representatives and property claims in one place. Similar to Amazon Brand Registry, the portal allows businesses to manage their property rights on products and protect themselves from improper representation.
Walmart has invested in technology to support their large fashion business. For branda seeking to enlarge their presence in the US fashion market, Walmart boasts a range of impressive statistics that will be very compelling for a lot of businesses:
Walmart presents a compelling opportunity to sellers wanting to expand internationally but who have yet to do so. Equally, for those already in the US, Walmart could easily be complementary to presences on other marketplaces.
For any advice about launching a Walmart marketplace presence, please get in touch and we’d be happy to have a no obligation chat about the opportunity for your business.