Boxes at a Walmart.com fulfillment center. The retailer’s online marketplace is aggressively looking … [+]
Walmart
WMT
WMT
WMT
WMT
WMT
WMT
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
AMZN
It’s no surprise that the retailer is pursuing an aggressive strategy for marketplace since Walmart U.S. e-commerce posted a 69% increase in the recent fourth quarter, compared to total sales, which grew 7.3%.
“Our goal is to bring Walmart shoppers the very best brands online and in store,” said Jeff Clemenz, vice president of Walmart marketplace. “We’re reaching out to sellers directly and through partnerships such as BigCommerce. Those brands are selling on their own web sites and on other marketplaces, and our customers are demanding those products.”
While Walmart’s onboarding process had been seen as cumbersome, Clemenz said the goal is to make it more seamless for sellers. “Once they’re approved by Walmart, their listings and catalogs will flow through to marketplace. Our commission rates are on par with the industry and we aim to be competitive. What’s different is we don’t have insertion fees, so there’s no fee to list your items. You only pay when you’re item sells.”
For the first time, Walmart is eliminating commissions for new sellers through the end of March, Clemenz said.
Walmart in June announced a similar partnership with Shopify, which it said would bring 1,200 new sellers to the platform. The effort was focused on small and medium-sized businesses that complemented the existing assortment. Clemenz said the BigCommerce sellers represent products across a variety of categories, including apparel, home goods, consumables and hardlines.
“We’re encouraging sellers to come and bring their full catalog and understand the power of our marketplace,” Clemenz said. “Walmart drives a significant amount of traffic for free. On other platforms, you have to pay to get traffic. We have 120 million visitors to marketplace each month.”
Carol Spieckerman, president of Spieckerman Retail, said the potential to access millions of Walmart shoppers could be hard for brands to resist, particularly, given the toll of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses.
“The deal with BigCommerce could open the floodgates,” she said. “Brands that sell discretionary categories such as apparel, accessories and jewelry have taken a major hit. Even though brick and mortar might be spring loaded for a post-pandemic rebound, brands that sell these categories are eager to make up for lost business and margin.
“Walmart could accelerate that goal, particularly since Walmart’s online shopper demographics can be viewed as more desirable than its traditional store shoppers,” Spieckerman added. “Amazon and Walmart have already primed shoppers for e-commerce across all kinds of categories. Through the BigCommerce deal, Walmart gains a rush of new brands and products that are easily integrated into the Walmart.com
WMT
Some of the brands are no doubt already harnessing BigCommerce’s social selling capabilities, further increasing visibility and viability for the brands, Spieckerman said. “All of it bolsters Walmart’s platform power, search strength and potential to build bridges to its ever-growing ecosystem of products, services, and solutions,” she added. “It’s a power play for both companies.”
Walmart’s rollout of Walmart Fulfillment Services, including warehousing and shipping products, will appeal to sellers who aren’t keen on using outside fulfillment options. “We’re excited about various capabilities,” Clemenz said. “Fulfillment services is one of the most demanded services, given our long history of being a leader in supply chain. One of the top investment areas for Walmart is to build a suite of services to help our sellers be successful.”
Leave a Reply