Marketplace Newsletter

August 2022 | View All

News & Announcements

Leverage recommendations driven by data and technology to help grow your business

Introducing our new Assortment Growth tool, now available in Seller Center. This feature was thoughtfully designed to help you expand your assortment on Walmart Marketplace. Using customer demand signals, category data, and more, this tool recommends best-selling items to add to your catalog.

Utilize next-level insight, including product prices on other platforms and the Buy Box winning price on Walmart.com. Get started today to set your items up for success and help boost your growth!

 

Try it now

Help customers find your products and the right parts for their vehicle

Calling all automotive sellers! The Auto Parts Fitment widget on Walmart.com was created with you in mind. It helps make it simple for customers to navigate millions of products and find those that fit their vehicle. Make sure your listings appear in search results when a shopper uses the Auto Parts Fitment tool, and our widget appears on your product pages. All youĀ need to do is have complete and up-to-date attributes!

Get started using Walmartā€™s Auto Parts Fitment widget:

  • Sellers must add three key attributes: Part Terminology ID, AAIA Brand ID, and Manufacturer Part Number. This information can be added upon item setup or through item maintenance.
  • Submit an ACES and PIES file to WalmartMPFitment@wal-mart.com. After Catalog Exchange Standard (ACES) and Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) are the industry data standard for the management and connection of Fitment data and information.
  • If you donā€™t have an ACES file available, please complete this sheet and email it to us at WalmartMPFitment@wal-mart.com. You can send an email to the above address for any Fitment-related questions or to set up an ACES transfer.

 

Learn more

Important update to your seller terms and conditions

To help streamline your seller experience, weā€™ve updated the Marketplace Program Retailer Agreement, now called the Comprehensive Walmart Marketplace Retailer Agreement. This supersedes previous agreements youā€™ve signed with Walmart and contains the terms and conditions for various eCommerce solutions available to you. With this update, you have access to Walmart Fulfillment Services and Walmart Ad Center for Sponsored Products to help grow your business, should you choose to utilize those services.

 

Review agreement

Explore 5 ways to help manage your Walmart pricing strategy more effectively

With pricing being a major factor in customersā€™ buying decisions, Walmartā€™s Every Day Low Price (EDLP) promise helps ensure shoppers find low prices on Walmart.com. Read our recent Sell Better Blog post to discover which Marketplace tools can help you optimize your pricing strategy and stay competitive in a world where online prices are constantly changing!

 

Read more

Unlock access to Walmart's premium Search ad!

Walmart Connect is expanding access to its premium Search placement, Search Brand Amplifier. Now, Marketplace advertisers can send a brand and its products to the top of relevant search results on Walmart.com. New brands and existing brands with new products may benefit the most from this expansion. Register today via Walmart Brand Portal to become eligible for Search Brand Amplifier!

 

Get started

Stay up to date on your Marketplace business with the new Seller Center notifications panel

Introducing the new Seller Center Notifications panel! Keeping track of changes within your Walmart Marketplace catalog has never been easier. With this new panel, sellers have a one-stop shop for timely and important updates. Select the frequency in which you get notified about time-sensitive events like the following:

  • New orders
  • Unpublished items
  • Buy Box changes
  • Pro Seller status changes
  • and more!

This way, you can address each notification accordingly to help avoid interruptions to your business. To opt-in to receiving notifications, please navigate to the Notifications tab in Seller Center.

 

Update settings

Enjoy our new and improved Seller Center Order Management Dashboard

We are pleased to announce the launch of the enhanced Order Management Dashboard in Seller Center. The purpose of these updates is to help sellers like you streamline, manage, and fulfill orders more efficiently.

Hereā€™s whatā€™s new:

  • Simplified order status categories. Sort through orders with Unshipped, Shipped, Canceled, and All tabs.
  • Updated search parameters. Search by Customer First/Last Name, SKU #, PO #, and Order #.
  • Updated order filter categories. Sort through orders by Order Date, Fulfilled By, Ship By, and Status.
  • Consolidated order details. See all pertinent order information in one place.
  • Customer-requested cancelation notifications. An open order with a cancelation request will show an alert against the status.

 

View now

Hawaii and Alaska to be included in the value shipping option

Important update coming soon. By default, in the near future, sellers will ship to Hawaii and Alaska as part of value shipping. Sellers will also be able to select additional uncommon regions as part of the value shipping option. Please note, if you prefer, there is an option to disable shipping to HI/AK regions during the template creation and edit flow in Seller Center.

Flieber helps Marketplace sellers avoid over- and under-stocking inventory

Not sure how much inventory to order to support the demand for your products on Walmart Marketplace? That’s where Flieber comes in. Flieber is a platform that integrates with your sales channels and supply chain operations. It helps identify exactly which products to order, in what quantities, and when. This way, you can avoid stock-outs or a surplus of inventory.

With the most sophisticated sales forecast and native integrations, Flieber provides recommendations and POs in real time.

 

Schedule a demo

Cin7 Orderhive has a special offer for Marketplace sellers

Cin7 Orderhive makes order and inventory management easier for eCommerce sellers. It helps increase operational efficiency while cutting down the costs. Orderhive is built with the idea of simplifying sellerā€™s workflows with the following key product features in mind:

  • 100% geared toward D2C business models
  • Deep automation designed to carry out monotonous background tasks
  • Countless native integrations giving you real-time, omni channel inventory management

 

Start your free trial

Yotpo: Marketplace sellers can receive 50% off their first year of review syndication

The Yotpo 50% off promotion is back for Marketplace sellers! Sign up for Yotpo review syndication and get 50% off your first year. Plus, import 1,000 reviews for free and quickly boost your brand presence on Walmart.com.

 

Learn more and sign up

Halloween 2022 is almost hereā€”get your Marketplace strategy ready

In preparation for the spookiest time of the year, please take time to review the following to ensure you have a successful Halloween on Walmart.com.

  • Discoverability ā€” The key to helping your items be discovered by ready-to-buy customers is attribution. Halloween items should have ā€˜Halloweenā€™ attributed as its ā€˜Occasionā€™. Please review the style guide for reference and ensure all your Halloween items have the correct content and attributes.
  • Pricing ā€” Set up promotional pricing and offer at least 10% customer savings to enable strikethrough pricing and ā€˜Reduced Priceā€™ or ā€˜Clearanceā€™ flags. If you use a third-party integrator, consult your partner on how to submit promotional pricing.
    Leverage our new Repricer tool which allows sellers to enable automatic price adjustment for items in their catalog. Prices are adjusted based on triggers such as the winning Buy Box offers and external site prices. This tool monitors pricing across the site so you donā€™t have to check and manually update your item prices every time competitor prices change.
  • Growth Opportunities ā€” Please review the ā€˜Growth Opportunitiesā€™ section of Seller Center. Here you will find information to help you improve your Content Score, Listing Quality, Pro Seller Badge status, Trust & Safety Issues, and more.
  • Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) ā€” WFS offers end-to-end fulfillment services for Walmart Marketplace sellers. With one of the worldā€™s largest supply chains, weā€™re uniquely positioned to provide the scale, quality, cost, and efficiency you need to help grow a successful business on Walmart.com. Get started here.
  • Fast shipping ā€” Customers expect free and fast shipping, especially for Halloween. Finding that perfect last-minute costume and receiving it on time can help enhance a customerā€™s experience. Marketplace sellers can enable 2-day shipping across their catalog both nationwide or geo-based.
  • Trust and Safety & Prohibited items ā€” Per Walmart’s Prohibited Products Policy, be aware that all new sellers offering Halloween items must be pre-approved by our Trust and Safety team. For existing sellers, review your Halloween products to ensure that items are compliant with our policy. Please be especially mindful of any items that may be considered offensive or in poor taste.
    Violations of the Prohibited Products Policy may lead to account restrictions or termination. If you have any questions about our policy, please contact Trust and Safety via Seller Center and include the code ā€œTNSā€ with your case. If you have questions regarding specific item IDs or Halloween products, please include those in your case.
  • Sponsored Products ā€” Help Walmart customers discover and purchase your products through ads that appear in prominent and high-traffic placements.
    To get started, fill out the Walmart Connect contact form. If you already have an account and want to learn more about Sponsored Products and best practices, please visit Advertising Help.

Reminder: Full Item Setup & Maintenance specs 3.2 retiring soon

Starting October 1, our systems will no longer support Item Setup or Maintenance using Item Spec 3.2. Make sure you start using the latest versions in Seller Center now so you can enjoy all the new features, manage your items more efficiently, and help ensure your business remains uninterrupted!

Item Spec 3.2 Retiring will only impact Sellers directly integrated with Walmart APIā€™s. No action is required by sellers integrated via third-party solution providers at this time.

Payments & Tax

Update to non-fraud chargebacks for sellers

Beginning August 1, Walmart Marketplace will offset amounts owed via verified credit card chargebacks due to product defects, product content, non-receipt of the product, or similar customer issues.

These chargebacks will be reflected in the reconciliation report as Refunds with new reason code ā€˜5025ā€™. The reason description will be reflected as ā€˜Customer Chargebackā€™ and the chargeback reason description as ā€˜Chargeback Reason provided by the customerā€™.

Policies & Guidelines

Walmartā€™s Holiday Returns Guarantee for 2022

This year, Walmartā€™s Holiday Returns Guarantee will apply to all items purchased in-store or online from October 1 through December 31. Stay tuned to the September newsletter for details on exceptions to this policy. These products will be returnable until January 31, 2023. Our policy aligns with the industry standard and allows peace of mind for shoppers throughout the holiday season.

Remember, a thoughtful return policy is important to Walmart shoppers and can help you build trust and loyalty with your customers. Weā€™re excited to offer customers the best holiday experience yet and we know you are too!

Coming soon: Promotional pricing updates

This month, weā€™re updating our requirements to qualify for strikethrough pricing and ā€œReduced Priceā€ or ā€œClearanceā€ flags. This is to help enhance the promotional pricing experience on Walmart.com and fulfill our Every Day Low Price (EDLP) promise to customers.

Hereā€™s whatā€™s changing:

  • The ā€œWas Priceā€ will be validated by the itemā€™s offer history or sales history. It will be defined as either:
    • The 90-day median price paid by customers for the item (excluding limited time deals or other promotional prices) on Walmart.com,
      OR
    • The median price offered by Walmart or Marketplace sellers for the item on Walmart.com for at least 28 out of the last 90 days (excluding limited time deals or other promotional offers).
  • The submitted promotional price will need to be at least 10% lower than the ā€œWas Priceā€ to receive strikethrough pricing and a ā€œReduced Priceā€ or ā€œClearanceā€ flag.
  • If you submit a normal price update and offer a price that is lower than the ā€œWas Priceā€, strikethrough pricing will automatically apply.

Keep an eye out for more information coming soon!

Updated International Trade Restrictions for Marketplace sellers

Walmart is firmly committed to complying with all laws and regulations in every market we operate, and we expect the same from our Marketplace sellers.

On June 24, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assests Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions strictly prohibiting the importation into the U.S. of gold, or product containing gold, having Russian Federation origin.

As events continue to develop, we ask that you monitor and ensure compliance with all Executive Orders, trade restrictions, and other sanctions regulations arising from the conflict in Ukraine.

Thank you in advance for your attention. Please reach out to your counsel with any questions or concerns.

Confirm your details to adhere to the Arkansas Compliance Act

As part of the Arkansas Compliance Act, some Marketplace sellers need to confirm their contact information and related details annually. Please look out for the notification email and confirm your information by navigating to ā€˜Settingsā€™ within Seller Center and finding the Seller Verification tab under ā€˜Administrator Options.ā€™

Security & Privacy

Walmart protects your security and privacy. We will never ask for personal information (such as passwords or credit card numbers) in an email. If you receive such a request, please do not respond to the email.

This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site. Switch to a production site key to remove this banner.