5 Reasons the Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping Program is a Game-changer for Your Marketplace ListingsÂ
Walmart’s fast shipping program, Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping, guarantees fast and free shipping with no membership needed. As of October 2018, the program has been extended to eligible Marketplace sellers’ listings, with the added benefit of no minimum order requirement. This means that all Walmart.com sellers can benefit from offering fast, free shipping, which customers love.
To stay competitive, marketplaces across the board are raising the stakes when it comes to delighting shoppers.
This is a guest post from the Deliverr team, and we have extensive experience as Walmart’s official 2-day fulfillment partner. Read on as we delve into why Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping is so important, and explain how to enroll in the program.
Why free 2-day shipping is so important
1. Rank higher in search results
Shoppers can filter for fast shipping in their search results, which is a great way to reduce your competition as well as get more visibility for your listings.
In addition to buyers filtering for 2-day shipping, Walmart’s fast shipping tags are prominently displayed across the search results, highlighting listings that offer this type of fulfillment.
2. Win the buy box
Having free 2-day shipping enabled on your listing boosts your chances of winning the Walmart buy box. In order to qualify for the program, sellers must maintain high account metrics and stay on top of their service level agreements, which is great for overall account health. These factors combined give you a higher chance of winning the buy box, and eliminating your competition in search results.
One eCommerce seller who fulfills with Deliverr won the buy box after enabling 2-day shipping tags. Taking a look at the image above, you may notice that several different products have been displayed, even though the search term is very exact. To improve the customer experience, Walmart combines all offers, including sellers’ and their own, into one listing per item. Shoppers then click the item and from the item page expand the option to see the other sellers offering the same product. One offer wins the buy box and is the default option for shoppers unless they click and choose an offer from a different seller.Â
3. Compete on service, instead of price
Fast shipping programs naturally require high levels of service, which means that price isn’t everything when it comes to making customers happy.
The Deliverr seller mentioned above won the buy box even though their product was slightly more expensive than the next competing listing. The only difference? Free 2-day shipping.
4. Eliminate cart abandonment
58% of consumers abandon their carts due to high shipping costs, and 56% abandon carts due to unexpected shipping costs. Offering free shipping is key to keeping those shoppers all the way through to purchase.
5. Boost overall sales and conversions
A study from Deloitte shows that shoppers, holiday shoppers especially, are hooked on fast and free shipping. Thanks to a boost in search results, higher overall account metrics, and the chance at winning the buy box, sellers enjoy generous jumps in sales after enabling 2-day shipping.
We’ve seen these results firsthand, with sales tripling and more after enabling Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping. Art supplies sales rose 92%, makeup items sold 190%, board-game sales rose 200%, and shampoo items saw a huge increase of 500% in sales.
Now that it’s clear you’ll want to add fast shipping tags to your listings, here’s how to make it happen.
How to enable Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping
There are two options for enabling the Free 2-day shipping tags on your marketplace listings: seller-fulfilled and third-party fulfilled.
Seller-fulfilled
To be eligible for the program, you must offer a generous returns policy, have fulfilled at least 100 orders in the previous 30 days, and have been a Walmart Marketplace seller for more than 90 days.
You must also have met the following delivery performance criteria, and maintain it to stay in the program:
- On-Time Shipping: >95%
- On-Time Delivery: >95%
- Valid Tracking Rate: >95%
- Cancellation Rate: <1.5%
After reviewing your Fulfillment Insights metrics in Seller Center to confirm your eligibility, go to the Shipping settings section of your Partner Profile in Seller Center to request approval to join the program. You’ll find out if you’re approved within 48 hours.
Note: Approved sellers have the option to set regional shipping settings, so you can specify which regions and states should be enabled if you can’t cover the entire 48-state region. Read more about the seller-fulfilled option on Seller Help.
Third-party-fulfilled
If you don’t have fulfillment centers that can meet the 2-day promise for the regions you want to sell to, you’ll be happy to know that Walmart has partnered with Deliverr, an outsourced fulfillment solution that’s focused on fast delivery with simple, transparent pricing. Deliverr sellers are automatically pre-approved for Walmart’s Free 2-Day Shipping program with nationwide delivery.
Deliverr’s pricing is all-inclusive and transparent, with only two fees for sellers: Fulfillment and Storage. Even better, we have special rates exclusively for Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping. Visit our cost calculator to find out how much it would cost you to fulfill with Deliverr.
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Provider Spotlight
This is a guest post from Michael Krakaris, one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and co-founder of Deliverr, which provides fast and affordable multi-channel fulfillment for eCommerce sellers with clear pricing, easy on-boarding, and hassle-free experience.
