There is a massive opportunity for sellers right now, and it’s one that very few know, or are even talking about, yet… Walmart fast shipping tags. This post will take a look at what the Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping program offers sellers (on a currently limited basis), what sellers need to know about the program, and most importantly… how to take advantage.
Walmart is not backing down from competition in the online retail space. Their campaign for Free 2-Day Shipping is the clearest indicator yet that they won’t go quietly. While Amazon continues to grab headlines for its rapid growth, Walmart remains committed to its surge into ecommerce, having grown U.S. online sales 44% last year. The brick-and-mortar giant still drives more than 3x the revenue of Amazon and knows how to sell products.
Walmart is putting a ton of money into promoting free 2-Day shipping. You’ve probably seen ads on TV, social media, and billboards. I just saw this TV spot over the weekend…
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Why sellers should offer free 2-day shipping
This is effectively Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime. Like Prime, there are benefits to both sellers and consumers. For consumers, getting easier access to products that can get to them quickly is a huge win. For sellers, the added exposure this entails makes the extra cost worthwhile.
Top filtering options
After secondary category, free 2-day shipping is the next highest filtering refinement on Walmart’s marketplace. In addition, it’s color-coded in green to stand out from the rest of the filtering options.
Much like Amazon Prime, Walmart wants consumers to first look at products that can get to them quickly.
Premium placement within category
Within the category page, 2-day shipping-eligible products continue to receive preferred location treatment. Per the above image, it’s highly unlikely consumers can miss both the left-nav filter AND the product-specific tag for 2-day shipping.
While the entire algorithm isn’t known, browsing through multiple categories reveals that the top products are generally ones that offer Walmart free 2-Day shipping.
Increased traffic to listings
The result of the above changes is that sellers in the Walmart free 2-day shipping program are getting more traffic to their listings. If you’re in stock on the items you sell, or you’re the brand and sole seller for that product, you’re going to drive more business.
More sales
The proof is in the pudding on this one. As one of the few integration partners that can enable sellers on Walmart free 2-day shipping, we see the data, and the early returns are incredible.
Walmart sellers are seeing over 100% lift in sales on products with free 2-day shipping tags. If that’s not enough reason to clamor for access to the program, I don’t know what is.
Don’t just take our word for it though. We’re not the only ones hearing that sellers are winning the Buy Box on Walmart after adding free 2-day shipping to their arsenal.
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How sellers can get access to the program
This is a new program for Walmart, and while they’re aggressively promoting 2-day shipping to consumers, they’re being quite a bit more methodical with sellers. That said, if you have products that do even a moderate amount of volume, we can walk you through the steps to gain access.
Apply to sell on Walmart
This may seem obvious, but if you aren’t already selling on Walmart you need to apply. It’s not like some other marketplaces where you can simply create an account and go.
As an integration partner with Walmart, Sellbrite can help you expedite this process. Visit this link to apply to sell on Walmart today and start the process.
Identify your target SKUs
At this time, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to be able to get all of your SKUs into Walmart free 2-day shipping. The only caveat is if all of your products do decent volume.
The reason is because Walmart is only allowing a few fulfillment services access to the tag, and most fulfillment services require a minimum amount of volume, usually 1 unit/day, in order to accept a product. So identify which of your top sellers hit this threshold and also have the margins to withstand the cost of free 2-day shipping.
Work with an integration partner
After identifying which SKUs you want to put into the program, it’s essential that you use an integration partner to facilitate fast, accurate fulfillment and inventory sync on your Walmart account. The last thing you want to do is miss an order notification and get dinged for not hitting the 2-day deadline. That’s a quick way to find yourself kicked out of the program.
A quality Walmart integration software will also make it easy to get your products listed to the Walmart marketplace. Looking to manage one integration point for Walmart and your other marketplace channels? Check out our daily product demo and start a trial of Sellbrite to see just how easy it can be.
Send inventory to approved fulfillment center
One of the essential requirements for getting access to Walmart free 2-day shipping tags is to use an approved fulfillment center for your warehousing and fulfillment. Sellbrite features a native integration with Deliverr, an FBA alternative for your Walmart business, and preferred partner for Walmart’s fast shipping program.
With Deliverr as your fulfillment partner for Walmart, your product will live in at least 4 warehouses around the country to ensure it can get everywhere you sell within Walmart’s 2-day window.
