Walmart Marketplace continues to make exciting developments based on sellers’ needs, and we’re happy to introduce the latest: Shipping Templates.

The all-new Shipping Templates for Marketplace sellers simplify shipping settings setup and make customized delivery options easy for both Seller Center and API users. You can optimize your shipping settings and increase sales with 15+ easy-to-use templates that include custom configurations, flexible transit times, granular delivery regions, and reports.

So, how can you get the most out of this new shipping setup system? Read on for ideas on how you can strategize your entire catalog around Shipping Templates and win more customers with fast and precise delivery.

The strategy is in your hands

How to customize Shipping Templates for your catalog

Now’s your chance to maximize the performance of your catalog by configuring a more accurate delivery promise time based on your fulfillment operations, carrier transit times, or programs in which you choose to participate. Based on your company’s size, warehouse location, and category, there may be different shipping strategies that work best. We’ve put together a few ideas to help you get started.

Create templates based on TwoDay and ThreeDay expedited shipping programs

It’s no secret that customers have come to expect instant gratification when online shopping. With Shipping Templates, we encourage everyone to participate in the TwoDay and ThreeDay programs since many of your items are likely already within those time frames. It’s a great idea to look at your entire catalog and see how you can optimize your shipping by program to boost your conversion. For example, you may not be able to offer free TwoDay shipping for your whole assortment, but you could offer it for your best sellers, smaller items, or ones that are guaranteed to ship quickly from your warehouse.

Setting that up is easy with Shipping Templates:

Create a template called TwoDay Nationwide and assign only the SKUs you’re ready to offer. You could then customize the rest of your catalog with different templates such as ThreeDay Nationwide, TwoDay regional, or Standard Shipping for other items across the country.

Organizing Shipping Templates by shipping programs is the best way to maximize your TwoDay and ThreeDay coverage. With a ‘fast delivery’ tag, items on Walmart.com are better suited for filter inclusion, improved search rankings, and Buy Box prominence. Essentially, the faster you ship, the more you sell. And did you know that a large number of Walmart Marketplace orders are already delivered within two or three days? You have a lot to gain even if you only add your local region deliveries to TwoDay.

Now, if there comes a time when you want to remove just one or a handful of items in your TwoDay or ThreeDay template, it’s easy: simply reassign them to a different template using the same Bulk Update process.

quotation marks

Essentially, the faster you ship, the more you sell.

Create templates based on
shipping carriers

Another option is to create Shipping Templates based on the type of shipping carriers you use, such as FedEx, UPS, or USPS. For example, if you use FedEx to ship heavy-weight orders, such as furniture, and USPS for low-weight orders, such as décor, you could create Shipping Templates for each one and assign those items to respective templates. When deciding on transit times for specific regions, please use carrier service delivery maps (e.g. FedEx Ground Service Map, UPS Ground Map, and USPS Priority Delivery Map). These service delivery maps are based on your zip code and will be different for different fulfilment centers you may have.

Once you identify the regional delivery maps for each transit time, you could set up your templates accordingly. For example, if you’re based in California and ship orders via FedEx Ground, your shipping template could include two-, three-, four-, and five-day regions to offer a more precise shipping time based on customer location. As a result, you’ll benefit from a higher conversion in areas where you’re already delivering faster instead of having a flat five-day transit time to the entire country.

Create templates based on fulfillment centers

Have multiple fulfillment centers? No problem! Shipping Templates will work great for you, too. This is where shipping nodes come into play. First, set up all your fulfillment centers (nodes) in Seller Center, then assign the inventory to each respective node. Next, create a Shipping Template for each fulfillment center based on transit times for each, as mentioned in the above examples. The last step is to assign it to SKUs that are fulfilled from that node.

Fulfillment center ID and Template ID create a unique combination that allows you to assign multiple Shipping Templates to the same SKU up to the number of different nodes you have defined in Seller Center.

By leveraging granular regions for multiple transit times, you can better optimize your shipping configurations for these regions and offer a faster and more precise shipping time. These improvements help your items rank better in search results, drive conversion, and ultimately boost sales. Granular regions were previously only available for TwoDay delivery, but now 140+ granular regions are available for all transit times.

While Shipping Templates don’t officially launch until October, existing sellers can take advantage of the templates now and start configuring their shipping settings before activating them once live. Find the templates in Seller Center here and start setting up in time for holiday sales.

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