Build strong foundations, optimize fulfillment and prepare your business for peak-season growth
Peak season success starts long before the holidays arrive. Winning sales requires a lot more than just shipping faster—you need to prepare earlier, optimize your operations and invest in the fulfillment strategy that best supports your business goals.
Whether you fulfill orders yourself, use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) or leverage a combination of Marketplace solutions, this three-part guide will help you prepare for higher demand, improve delivery speed and position your business for stronger holiday growth. Plus, we’ve included special incentives throughout to help you grow profitably while leveraging our fulfillment solutions.
Build strong foundations, optimize fulfillment and prepare your business for peak-season growth
Peak season success starts long before the holidays arrive. Winning sales requires a lot more than just shipping faster—you need to prepare earlier, optimize your operations and invest in the fulfillment strategy that best supports your business goals.
Whether you fulfill orders yourself, use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) or leverage a combination of Marketplace solutions, this three-part guide will help you prepare for higher demand, improve delivery speed and position your business for stronger holiday growth. Plus, we’ve included special incentives throughout to help you grow profitably while leveraging our fulfillment solutions.
Build your holiday growth plan
| If you want to... | Look to... |
|---|---|
| Prioritize products with proven demand | Customer Favorites |
| Simplify logistics and scale your top items | Walmart Fulfillment Services |
| Streamline shipments from Asia | Walmart Cross Border: Imports |
| Fulfill orders placed on all your sales channels | Multichannel Solutions |
| Position products closer to customers to unlock faster shipping | Inventory Transfer Services |
| Optimize your self-fulfilled delivery promises | Simplified Shipping Settings |
| Reduce fulfillment costs with discounted shipping labels | Ship with Walmart |
| Offer faster delivery for self-fulfilled listings | Expedited Delivery |
A step-by-step breakdown of how to win the holidays
1. Start by prioritizing products with proven demand
Take the guesswork out of deciding which SKUs to stock. Customer Favorite items can receive up to 5x greater page view visibility with customers and deliver up to 12x higher sales per item compared to non-Customer Favorite items.1
- Review recommendations in Seller Center to identify and add trending items.
- Factor in 8–12 weeks of inventory coverage for key seasonal products.
1 Based on performance data from FY26. Compared to competitively priced, fast-shipping (≤ 2-day) non–Customer Favorite items.
Savings spotlight!
100% off referral fees
100% off storage fees
15% off fulfillment fees
when you list a qualifying Customer Favorite item, meet or beat competitor pricing and enable fast, free shipping through WFS2
2 Terms and conditions apply. Offer ends Jan. 31, 2027.
2. Choose the smartest fulfillment strategy for you
Walmart Fulfillment Services
Our recommendation for fast, reliable shipping you won’t have to stress over.
Simplify logistics and ship your top items with WFS
Sellers using WFS see 50% GMV growth, on average, for items with the ‘Fulfilled by Walmart’ tag and delivery promises of two days or less.3
- Identify best sellers, Customer Favorites, promotional products and other high-volume SKUs.
- Convert these types of listings to WFS.
- Send inventory into Walmart’s fulfillment network as early as possible to avoid last-minute capacity constraints.
- Take advantage of zero peak-season storage fees or fuel surcharges— and WFS rates that average 15% less than the competition.4
- Ship to customers faster than ever. WFS units shipped Same-Day or Next-Day grew nearly 150% between Q1 FY26 and Q1 FY27.5
3 Walmart first-party data, 2/1/25–3/27/26.
4 Walmart first-party data, orders fulfilled FY26 (2/1/25–1/31/26). Fulfillment cost per item.
5 Walmart first-party data, Q1 FY26 vs Q1 FY27.
“The holidays make up a huge portion and percentage of our sales, so it’s chaos around here during that time. By being able to prepare in advance and send all of our catalog for Q4 into WFS warehouses, it allows us to not have to worry about picking, packing and shipping thousands of packages.”
Build your timeline around key deadlines
Start prepping now to avoid delays and keep products in stock.
- Plan for inventory to arrive by Sept. 1 for the October Event.
- Plan for inventory to arrive by Sept. 15 for the Annual Event.
- Work backward from these dates to finalize production, shipping and receiving schedules.
Streamline international inbound orders
Operations located in China, India, Vietnam or Cambodia? Walmart Cross Border: Imports lets you save an average of 15% on your total supply chain costs.6
- Quote, book, pay for and track international shipments directly in Seller Center.
- Ship eligible Full Container Load and Less Than Container Load shipments, Walmart Cross Border offers sellers an average port-to-door transit time of 23 days.7
- Review Walmart Cross Border: Imports deadlines for recommended booking and Cargo Ready Dates.
6 Walmart first-party data, FY 2026. Walmart Marketplace’s pricing model incorporates a competitive analysis of ocean freight costs, comparing them to market indexes and primary competitors. It also factors in savings from reduced accessorial fees.
7 Walmart first-party data, FY26. Analysis based on port-to-delivery timeline for units shipping from China to LA.
Savings spotlight!
10% off your first three eligible Walmart Cross Border: Imports bookings
when you book within 90 days of completing enrollment8
8 Terms and conditions apply. Offer ends Jan. 31, 2027.
Fulfill orders placed on all your sales channels
Send your inventory into WFS early so you can start leveraging Multichannel Solutions as soon as volume spikes. The program allows you to fulfill orders from everywhere you sell, including Amazon, SHEIN, Shopify, TikTok, your own website and more.
- Consolidate eligible inventory into one fulfillment network, then use that pool to fulfill orders placed across sales channels.
Savings spotlight!
20% off Multichannel Solutions fulfillment fees for 90 days
when you use the program for the first time9
9 Terms and conditions apply. Offer ends Jan. 31, 2027.
Position products closer to customers to unlock faster shipping
You may be asked to send inventory to multiple fulfillment centers this holiday season to enable fast delivery during peak. Let Walmart handle distribution for you with Inventory Transfer Services. Sellers that utilize Walmart’s Inventory Transfer Service experience a 17% improvement in next-day shipping and an additional GMV lift of 15%, on average, compared to those not using the program.10
- Ship inventory to our recommended WFS consolidation center.
- We’ll distribute it across up to eight fulfillment centers, helping expand nationwide delivery coverage while simplifying inventory allocation.
10 Walmart internal data comparing ITS-enrolled offers vs. matched non-ITS offers, 12/1/25–4/30/26.
Seller Fulfilled Solutions
Shipping orders yourself? Leverage our self-fulfilled solutions to make sure your entire catalog is ready for holiday demand. Start by reducing costs and optimizing operations so you can offer faster delivery for your most popular items, then scale strategically to expedite shipping across a wider assortment.
- Reduce fulfillment costs by purchasing discounted shipping labels through Ship with Walmart. Plus, ship on time to get up to $100 of order protection11 and prevent your On-Time Delivery rate from being impacted by delays outside your control.
- Streamline operations and provide more accurate delivery promises by switching from manual shipping templates to Simplified Shipping Settings. Configure multiple carriers with customized region coverage and create rules to automatically select the best option for each shipment based on speed or cost.
- After reducing fulfillment costs and optimizing shipping, offer Expedited Delivery for your high-demand products to increase visibility and conversion. Expedited delivery offers boost GMV by an average of 25% compared to non-expedited offers.12
12 Walmart first-party data, 10/2025 – 10/2026
Seller Fulfilled Solutions
Shipping orders yourself? Leverage our self-fulfilled solutions to make sure your entire catalog is ready for holiday demand. Start by reducing costs and optimizing operations so you can offer faster delivery for your most popular items, then scale strategically to expedite shipping across a wider assortment.
- Reduce fulfillment costs by purchasing discounted shipping labels through Ship with Walmart. Plus, ship on time to get up to $100 of order protection11 and prevent your On-Time Delivery rate from being impacted by delays outside your control.
- Streamline operations and provide more accurate delivery promises by switching from manual shipping templates to Simplified Shipping Settings. Configure multiple carriers with customized region coverage and create rules to automatically select the best option for each shipment based on speed or cost.
- After reducing fulfillment costs and optimizing shipping, offer Expedited Delivery for your high-demand products to increase visibility and conversion. Expedited delivery offers boost GMV by an average of 25% compared to non-expedited offers.12
12 Walmart first-party data, 10/2025 – 10/2026
Savings spotlight!
25% off referral fees on eligible items configured with Simplified Shipping Settings for 90 days
when you migrate qualifying offers from manual shipping templates13
3. Stay on top of performance throughout the season
Be sure to:
- Monitor WFS inventory levels daily, keep self-fulfilled inventory up to date, track top-selling SKUs, and replenish before stockouts occur to maintain 8-12 weeks of supply.
- Review on-time shipping and delivery performance regularly.
- Follow recommendations in the WFS item conversion report.
- Continue reviewing Customer Favorite recommendations to identify new growth opportunities.
The earlier you check off these to-dos, the better prepared you’ll be to keep products available, deliver on time and meet customer expectations all season long!
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