News & Announcements
Finish the Year Strong and End the Holiday Season on a High Note
You work hard all year round to give customers an exceptional shopping experience on Walmart.comāand the holiday season is really your time to shine. Keep up the momentum and frequently check your inventory to help make sure items stay in stock, set ‘Additional Days Off’ in Seller Center for non-working days, enable free TwoDay and ThreeDay delivery regionally to help ensure your items arrive by December 25, and continue setting up promotions to call out customer savings with strikethrough pricing and āReducedā or āClearanceā flags.
Follow the Holiday Checklist below for more recommendations on how to optimize your listings and see more success.
Adjust Your Fulfillment Settings for Non-Working Days
Don’t forget to update your Seller Fulfillment Settings in Seller Center to ensure you can fulfill and ship orders on-time. Sellers can set ‘Additional Days Off’ to specify non-working days such as Christmas or New Year’s Day and can adjust shipping cutoff times to manage order flow. As a reminder, all orders placed before the cutoff time should ship the same day and orders placed after the cutoff time must ship the following day.
If you need to pause or stop operations and cannot fulfill new orders, we encourage you to cease accepting new orders altogether. If you are leaving for more than a week, please set ‘Additional Days Off’ and zero out your inventory.
For more information on how to update your Fulfillment Center settings, click here.
Optimize Your Shipping Strategy for Peak Holiday Demand
In their recent guest blog, ShipStation shared valuable holiday tips to help sellers stay on top of their shipping operations and prepare for potential supply chain constraints and carrier delays. Read through the blog below to see how you can provide more precise delivery and help improve the customer’s experience by optimizing your shipping settings with key carrier deadlines and day-definite express services.
Managing Holiday Returns and Disputes
Now that some of the biggest holiday savingsā events of the year are over, you may start to see an increase in return volume. Not sure if you should file a returns dispute? Read through our Sell Better Blog to find out when itās a good idea to challenge a customer return and watch our Returns and Disputes tutorial below to see how easy it is to file directly from the Payments dashboard in Seller Center.
Improve Your Catalog with Help from a Freelancer
Get helpĀ fromĀ Fiverrās wide-ranging network of freelance professionals to boost your product listings with fresh seasonal content, quality images, engaging product descriptions, and breathtaking videos. Read through their guest blog below to learn how you can save time and money by delegating tasks to project-based professionalsĀ and find out how you can receive 10% off your first Fiverr purchase.
WFS Oversized and Large Item Expansion
Carrier Shipping Deadlines
Before you finalize your shipping strategy, please check the Holiday Shipping Guide to see which carrier ship speeds will ensure your products deliver by December 24. Keep in mind, some deadlines start as early as December 15, so you’ll want to choose a ship speed that best matches your delivery promise to ensure customers have a great holiday shopping experience.
Return Address Label Update
Weāre making changes to return shipping labels to help you better identify Walmart Marketplace returns. Later this month, you may begin to notice the following changes:
- If the first line of your return shipping address contains the term Walmart or any other variations, it will be replaced with your āDisplay Name.ā
- The second line of your return shipping address will now include āWMT MP Return.ā
A Better Returns Experience for Customers
Walmart Marketplace sellers can provide customers with an even better returns experienceājust in time for the busy holiday season. Customers can now bring their unboxed Marketplace returns to a Walmart store and a store associate will process the return to ensure the sellerās items are successfully returned.
Order Management Dashboard Enhancements
Weāve made improvements to the āPast Orderā reports feature on the Order Management dashboard. Now, sellers can access āPast Orderā reports minutes after requesting to download the report and will have access to that report for up to 6 months.
Payments & Tax
Payment Fees
As a reminder, in accordance with our Seller Promise, our default payment method is “direct deposit” to your bank account with no fees to you, ensuring that you receive 100% of your funds.
Requirements for no fee payments:
- Enrollment with your payment processor must be initiated from your Seller Center account.
- Payment must be delivered to a U.S. or Canadian bank account that supports direct deposit (ACH).
If you are paying fees today and wish to change to “no fees payment delivery”, please contact your payment service provider (Payoneer or Hyperwallet). You will need to have your business bank account details available when you contact them.
Complying with IRS Mandates
IRS mandates require Walmart to ensure that your tax profile on file with us is accurate. To comply with this mandate, we are verifying seller tax IDs and legal names we have on file with the IRS, and we may contact you if your information cannot be successfully verified.
How do I verify my tax profile is correct?
- Login to Seller Center
- Select āTax Profileā under āSettingsā on the top menu bar
- Verify that your:
- Legal name is in the Name field
- Tax ID (TIN)
- Tax classification (W-9, W8-ECI, W-8BEN) are correct.
- If the information shown is correct, please open a Partner Support case for further assistance
- If you made changes to your tax profile, you will be notified after the information has been verified
What happens if I don’t correct my information?
If after 30 days, you have not updated your information or opened a Partner Support case, your payments may be suspended until we can verify your tax information with the IRS. Further actions may include, but are not limited to:
- Collecting backup withholding on gross payments at the rate of 24%, as directed by the IRS
- An IRS-imposed $280 penalty for incorrect information if updates are not made before your 1099-K form is filed for the calendar year (penalty assessed each year information remains incorrect)
- Additional solicitations from Walmart to obtain correct information
Please refer to the IRS for more detailed information.
1099-K Reporting
As a reminder, the information on the 1099-K form you will receive in January of 2022, must be verified, and corrected in Seller Center by December 31, 2021. Please note that 1099-K forms will not be amended or re-issued if changes to your tax profile are not updated in Seller Center by the end of the year. Failure to update your tax profile with may result in an IRS “Information Return Penalty” of $280 (IRS IRC 6722).
Carefully review the key information and important dates below to ensure you are not penalized.
2021 tax year reporting thresholds:
| Rule Type | Applicability | Min Order Count | Min Gross Value ($) |
| IRS | All states | 201 | $20,000 |
| State override | IL | 4 | $1,000 |
| State override | MA | n/a | $600 |
| State override | MD | n/a | $600 |
| State override | MO | n/a | $1,200 |
| State override | MS | n/a | $600 |
| State override | NJ | n/a | $1,000 |
| State override | VA | n/a | $600 |
| State override | VT | n/a | $600 |
Ā
Important dates:
Ā
| # | Limit Date |
Activity |
| 1 | Dec 20, 2021 | Review and update your tax information in Seller Center.
Allow 5-10 days for your information to be verified and potential follow up actions to complete. |
| 2 | Jan 5-14, 2022 | 1099-K sales reports will be generated based on the information on file at the close of 2021 |
| 3 | Jan 31, 2022 | Your payment processor will contact you via email with instructions on how to retrieve your 1099-K |
| 4 | Mar 31, 2022 | 1099-Ks will be filed with the IRS and Department of Revenue of the state corresponding to your legal address |
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Eligibility and Important Notes:
- Only sellers with a W-9 tax classification are eligible to receive a 1099-K form
- Reporting thresholds are applied to orders shipped between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021
- State given reporting thresholds take precedence of IRS thresholds
- Refunds areĀ not considered: if you shipped 201 orders and 10 were refunded, you will receive a 1099-K
- Cancelled sales, even if shipped areĀ not counted towards thresholds eligibility
- If you do not meet filing criteria, you willĀ not be issued a 1099-K and will instead need to self-report
- Follow IRS guidelines
- Maintaining the accuracy of tax information used for reporting isĀ your responsibility
- Amended reports willĀ not be issued if your tax information is incorrect by the close of 2021
- 1099-K sales reports will be issued to you via your Payment processor (Payoneer or Hyperwallet) to your primary contact email
- Failure to maintain accurate tax information as part of your 1099-K filing may result in IRS penalties of up to $280 (IRS Pub. 1586)
Tax Profile Form
We recently made several important enhancements to the Tax Profile form in Seller Center and added the following enhancements:
-
- Support for W-8BEN sellers (primarily from China and Hong Kong)
- Ability to enter the company name and address in your country of incorporation
- Ability to provide a reason for and the effective date of your tax profile change (this impacts your 1099-K)
- Ability to upload supporting documentation to streamline the review/approval process
- Verification of your tax profile with the IRS
Sellers can expect additional enhancements coming in January 2022:
- Tax & Payment contact information:
- First & last names
- Phone
- Email addresses (primary & alternate)
This contact information will be used if we need to contact you regarding verifying your tax information, changes to payments, and to send you 1099-K forms.
Summary of features by tax classification:
Tax Class. |
Country of
Incorporation |
United States | Other Country | Reason for
Change |
SupportingDocumentation |
||
| TaxID | Address | TaxID | Address | ||||
| W-9 | US | R | R | n/a | n/a | R | R |
| W-8ECI | Country other than US | R | R | O | O | R | R |
| W-8BEN-E | Country other than US | n/a | n/a | R | R | R | R |
Legend:
R: requiredĀ O: optionalĀ n/a: not allowed
Policies & Guidelines
Competitor Fulfillment Policy Reminder
As a reminder, Walmart Marketplace sellersĀ may not use competitorsā delivery servicesĀ and/orĀ may not ship orders in competitor packaging. If you need additional assistanceĀ to meetĀ your fulfillment needs, we recommend applying to ourĀ Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) program. The WFS program gives sellers the ability to send inventory to Walmart fulfillment centers, where we will store your products securely and prepare them swiftly for shipping when an order is placed. Plus, WFS handles all customer support and returns for these orders.
Marketplace Enhanced Returns
Weāre continuing to refine our return exceptions policy to lower your costs, improve customer satisfaction, and streamline your operations. As of December 1, pursuant to the Marketplace Return Policy, all eligible items have been automatically moved to our Enhanced Returns experience.
Prohibited Products Policy Reminder
We want to remind you of our Prohibited Products Policy, which lists the types of products that are prohibited and/or restricted from the Walmart Marketplace. The policy is subject to change so please periodically review the page.
Walmart will remove any product listings that per our discretion may be in violation of Law, the Prohibited Products Policy, or any other Walmart policy. Please consult with your legal counsel if you have questions about the laws and regulations concerning your products. Note that corrective action may be taken on your account as needed due to violations of our policies, this may include suspension and/or termination of your account.
If you have questions about our Prohibited Products Policy or would like additional guidance, please create a case for Partner Support and reference code TNS.
Review the Walmart Seller Pricing Policy
We want to remind sellers that the Walmart Marketplace pricing policy is in place to ensure that customers have access to fair, competitive prices for products offered by sellers on Walmart Marketplace.
For all products, including products such as hand sanitizers, cleaning agents, face masks, etc., we require sellers to continue to adhere to Marketplace policies regarding price and advertising claims to ensure customer trust in Walmart Marketplace. Products that are priced in violation of the pricing policy will be removed. Please refer to the Pricing Policy and our Prohibited Products Policy for more information.
If prices change and the item now falls within the acceptable range, the item will automatically republish, typically within 48 hours. If more than 48 hours has passed and you believe your item remains incorrectly unpublished, please create a case with Partner Support.
Product Restrictions - Pre-Approval Categories
Walmart strives to be the most trusted retailer, having a marketplace that is inclusive, robust and compliant is one of our highest priorities. As per our Prohibited Products Policy, please be aware that the following categories require pre-approval from Walmart before a Seller may offer such products on the Marketplace.
-
- Fragrance
- Luxury brands
- Software
- Cell Phones and Accessories
- Halloween and select seasonal products
- Custom Content
Sellers may apply for approval to offer products in these categories by contacting Partner Support and selecting: Items/Inventory > My item is unpublished. Include a list of the brands or products you wish to sell. Approvals will be granted for specific brands or products within these categories. Please note that approval may be retracted if there are any legal claims related to products or if your products, or account are found to be in violation of any of our policies.
If you have questions about category restrictions or our Prohibited Products Policy, please create a case via Seller Center with the code “TNS”.
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.
