Advertising on Walmart Marketplace: Ultimate Guide

Walmart is one of the world's largest retailers that continues to upgrade its ad tech and is experiencing tremendous growth. Although Amazon is the unchallenged eCommerce leader, Walmart has various advantages that make it a viable investment for retailers trying to expand and diversify their businesses.

Here is why you need to make Walmart advertising part of your growth strategy.

1. Boost organic presence - Walmart has stated that investing in Sponsored Products ads can help increase organic ranking. You can also use Sponsored Products advertisements to get a head start on gathering data and enhancing visibility in the Walmart search engine results pages for new product listings.
2. Improve the performance of new items - Walmart sponsored ads can help your products gain much-needed exposure, especially new products or low-performing SKUs. Effective, targeted advertising can help you promote your lesser-known products to a larger audience across the site.
3. Determine the effectiveness of your performance ads - Walmart's self-serve advertising portal, which was launched in January 2020, allows sellers to target the right customers and evaluate the impact of their Walmart ads.

You'll be able to accurately measure your digital campaign’s effectiveness on its site, mobile apps, and in-store.

How Can You Get Started on Walmart?

The procedure is straightforward and requires minimal steps. There are no fees associated with signing up or having your products on the Walmart platform. Rather, the company takes a referral fee on sales, depending on the category of the product.

Step 1 – Initiate the Request

To get your business up and running on Walmart, you'll need to fill out the Marketplace Application but first, acquire the necessary documents. You'll need:

• Your US business tax ID

• EIN Verification letter and W9 or W8

• How do you plan to upload your catalog (API, bulk, service provider)

• Product Information such as major category, catalog size, etc

Keep in mind that once you start the application, you'll have to finish it because your progress will be lost if you close the browser tab. The application should take no more than 15-20 minutes to complete, and Walmart suggests using Google Chrome as the preferred browser.

Step 2 – Approval and Agreement

Walmart reviews applications in about two weeks. A Business Development Manager will be assigned to you to assist with the verification process, and if approved, you will be required to sign the Retailer Agreement and begin onboarding.

Step 3 – Registration

You'll receive an email inviting you to set up your account once Walmart has approved you as a seller and you've signed the Retailer Agreement. This email will direct you to the Seller Center, where you can add products and fill out fulfillment details. However, you must first create an account. You'll need the following:

• Your company address

• Details of your bank account

• Information necessary to complete the Form W-9

Create a display name (the name that customers will see on Walmart) and an address Walmart will use for internal records. Proceed to the payment information section after filling out the tax information.

Since Walmart has partnered with Payoneer for processing payments to sellers on the Walmart marketplace, you will have to register for your Payoneer account in Seller Center, but you’ll complete it on Payoneer’s website.

Shortly after that, you'll receive an email stating that your Payoneer account has been set up and is ready to receive and withdraw funds.

After entering your shipping information, pricing model, shipping method, and location, it's time to add your products. You can do this yourself, via bulk upload, or with the help of a third-party service like Shopify.

How Does Walmart Advertising Work?

Walmart advertising has a lot in common with Amazon advertising, but there are several key differences to be aware of if you want to be a successful Walmart seller.

Generally, the most common advertising type for Walmart sellers is a pay-per-click (PPC) ad known as Sponsored Products. This ad type allows you to promote your products on Walmart's search results page. You're competing against other sellers who are bidding on the same search because it's a PPC auction. You will only be charged if a shopper clicks on your advertisement. Advertisements can appear in search results, product detail pages, topic pages, as well as category pages. With a maximum of six advertisements per page, search in-grid ads can appear anywhere on the first three pages of search results. Lastly, the carousel ads can show your ads on browse, category, and product detail pages where buyers can scroll through identical products.

Final Thoughts

If you are having trouble ramping up on Walmart or simply have a larger, more complex product catalog, you can get in touch with a trusted Walmart advertising agency that can set you up for success by making Walmart Advertising an integral part of your eCommerce growth strategy.

This blog focuses on the significance of Walmart advertising in the eCommerce industry, how it works and how to get started with it.