If you’re used to selling on Amazon or eBay and want to branch out, Walmart Marketplace can be an excellent option. However, the same rules don’t apply to each marketplace, so you’ll need a separate list of selling strategies. Here’s where Repricer.com comes into play that can develop out your Walmart selling strategy to skyrocket your sales and profit. So make sure to read carefully and bookmark the page for future use.
1. Focus on the Lowest, Most Competitive Price
If you’re at all familiar with Amazon’s Buy Box, you know that price is a big factor, but not necessarily the most important one.
That’s totally different with Walmart Marketplace, as having the lowest price puts you in the best position to win a Buy Box. But when you’re setting your pricing rules, remember these two tips:
- Don’t engage in a race to the bottom (your overall profit margin will end up hurting in the long run).
- Consider both the product price and shipping costs when going after the lowest price.
2. Don’t Run Low on Inventory
This selling strategy is closely related to the above one, as it’s integral to winning the Buy Box on Walmart Marketplace (and helps boost your overall sales, too). You might very well have the lowest price among your competitors, but if they have more of the same item in stock, they’ve just upped their chances of taking the Buy Box away from you.
3. Fill Customers’ Needs with Otherwise Unavailable Products
Walmart has a huge variety of products, many of which shoppers can find on other sites as well. But what those other sites and stores can’t always compete with is breadth and depth of inventory.
For example, if Bob’s Best Gadgets and Fred’s Fantastic Emporium usually both sell Fizzy-Whizzees but are out, this can represent a good opportunity for you to cash in. Take your time to research what’s unavailable elsewhere and see if it can fit in with your business plan.
4. Maintain Excellent Customer Support
Let’s face it: customer support in-store at a Walmart isn’t always the best. And when compared with Amazon’s adherence to the highest levels of customer support, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
If “excellent customer support” is a bit ambiguous to you, here are the metrics to focus on.
- Shipping standard rate should be 99% or higher to ensure you continue to rank in organic rankings.
- Product shipped rate needs to be at least 99.5%.
- Product cancel rate has to be under 1.5%.
- While returns because of damage or defects may be unavoidable, keep this rate under 3% and process all refund requests within one day of receipt from buyers.
- Your 90-Day Seller Rating metric should be less than or equal to 90%.
- Customer service escalation rate needs to be less than or equal to 0.5% on all
- Answer at least 60% of customer calls (getting below 4% is the bad magic number) and 90% of customer emails within one day.
- Each order file should be confirmed and received by Walmart within one hour of receipt, and electronic notice of shipment confirmation has a four-hour window.
5. Get the Word Out About Your Great Products and Service
Reviews matter a lot online, as they’re one of the top ways to build trust with future buyers in a forum where you can’t do so face-to-face. The more (positive) customer reviews you have, the better you increase your chances of ranking higher in searches. And because buyers almost never have the patience to scroll through 10 pages of product searches, ranking high vastly increases your chances of a sale.
6. Leverage Walmart’s Lack of Fees
On Amazon, it seems like you’re paying fees for just about everything: account subscription, FBA, shipping, storage, seller referral fees and more. But with Walmart, you’re only responsible for paying referral fees, which are based on the product’s category.
Given this, use those savings to boost areas elsewhere, like adding in free shipping (if possible), expanding your inventory, running promotions, or anything else that can help you.
7. Run Strategic Promotions
One of the strongest ways you can draw attention to your listings and increase sales is by running promotions. You can choose from one of two banners, depending on your needs.
- Clearance: Choosing this promotion will display a “CLEARANCE” badge above the product, indicating customers are getting a better-than-average deal. Use this promotion when trying to move slow-moving stock, excess inventory, or seasonal items at the end of a season.
- Reduced: This promotion shows a “REDUCED PRICE” badge with products that have more than $5 off on items more than $100 or 5% on items under $100. Pick this one when you’re looking for a quick boost.
Final Thoughts
Increasing your sales on Walmart Marketplace requires different selling strategies than with Amazon or eBay, but they’ll become muscle memory in no time.
Repricer.com offers speedy repricing in under 90 seconds, is available on all Amazon marketplaces, and is easy and straightforward to set up. You can experience the magic by booking a demo or starting your free trial right now.
