Author: Krishna Sreeram, Director of Advertising (SellCord)
Imagine being in a busy marketplace, surrounded by competitors, all trying to grab the attention of shoppers. Now, imagine having the right tools to stand out. That’s what Walmart Marketplace offers. As its e-commerce platform grows, it gives sellers the chance to reach millions of customers both online and in-store.
Whether you’re just starting out or already a seasoned brand, mastering Walmart Marketplace can boost your visibility and sales. Let’s dive into the strategies that can help you succeed.
Understand the Power of Selling
Walmart’s omnichannel approach offers brands a unique advantage. The ability to connect online and in-store sales through Walmart Marketplace presents an incredible opportunity to enhance your customer reach. By integrating both digital and physical shopping experiences, Walmart allows you to drive in-store foot traffic with online success and vice versa. This is especially valuable for sellers aiming to increase brand exposure across multiple channels.
Walmart’s customer behavior insights allow you to understand where shoppers are purchasing, enabling better targeting strategies for your listings. For instance, when you leverage in-store sales data for your online promotions, you can ensure that your brand is consistently visible to customers across different touchpoints.
Actionable Tip: Use Walmart’s omnichannel features to align your online and in-store promotions. If your product performs well in-store, use that momentum to boost its digital visibility. Start by cross-promoting in-store offers on your Walmart.com listings.
👉🏻 Take a look at the ultimate guide to selling and scaling on Walmart
Leverage 1P and 3P Selling Models
Understanding Walmart’s different selling models is key to determining the best strategy for your brand. With 1P (first-party) and 3P (third-party) options, sellers can choose between selling their inventory directly to Walmart (1P) or maintaining control over their product listings and fulfillment through Walmart Marketplace (3P).
- 1P Selling: Walmart purchases inventory from you, stores it in their fulfillment centers, and sells it on their platform. This model is great if you want a hands-off approach but are willing to let Walmart control pricing and retail.
- 3P Selling: With third-party selling, you manage your product listings, prices, and fulfillment. Walmart Connect also offers options like Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), where Walmart handles your storage and shipping for you, but you remain in control of inventory.
Actionable Tip: As a new seller, consider starting with 3P. This will allow you to keep control over your pricing and inventory while tapping into Walmart’s massive audience. Once your brand is established, you may transition to 1P to benefit from Walmart’s control over product pricing and fulfillment.
👉🏻 Learn more about 1P and 3P Selling Models
Optimize Product Listings for Maximum Visibility
Optimizing your Walmart listings is essential to gaining visibility and converting shoppers into customers. A well-optimized listing ensures that your products appear in relevant search results when customers are looking for them. Use high-quality images, clear product titles, detailed descriptions, and relevant keywords that your target audience is searching for.
One key to success is using Walmart’s Search Insights. These insights allow you to identify which keywords are driving the most traffic to your product listings, so you can adjust your titles and descriptions accordingly. Additionally, complete your product attributes to improve your listing’s chances of being shown to the right shoppers.
Actionable Tip: Regularly update your listings using Walmart’s Search Insights to identify which keywords are gaining traction. Ensure your product titles are optimized for the search terms that matter most, and always complete the required attributes to increase your visibility.
👉🏻 Check out Walmart's Listing Quality guide
Utilize Walmart’s Advertising Solutions
Walmart Connect provides a suite of advertising tools to increase the visibility of your products on Walmart Marketplace. Whether it’s through Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, or Display Ads, these advertising options help you reach more potential buyers at various stages of their shopping journey.
Sponsored Products are great for product visibility on Walmart search pages, while Sponsored Brands help create awareness for your entire product line. On-site Display Ads can target users who are browsing and may not have a specific product in mind yet, increasing the chance of discovery.
Actionable Tip: Start with Sponsored Products to drive traffic to your best-selling items. As your budget allows, experiment with Sponsored Brands and Display Ads to target shoppers earlier in the decision-making process. This will help ensure your products are visible at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
👉🏻 Explore Walmart’s Advertising Solutions
Use Walmart’s Insights for Data-Driven Decisions
Walmart offers a wide range of data-driven insights to help sellers track their performance and make smarter decisions. By utilizing Walmart’s Performance Dashboard and Real-Time Reporting, you can monitor key metrics like impressions, clicks, Return on Ad Spend (RoAS), and more. This allows you to continually adjust your strategy, ensuring that your campaigns are always optimized for the best results.
Actionable Tip: Regularly analyze your campaign performance using Walmart Connect’s dashboard. Focus on metrics like RoAS to understand which products and strategies are driving the most revenue. Adjust your bids and targeting accordingly to ensure maximum efficiency.
Build a Strong Brand Presence with Walmart’s AI Tools
Walmart’s AI tools can help sellers optimize their product listings and ads by automating key tasks. These tools use data and machine learning to help you create compelling creatives for your product listings, enabling you to reach more customers and improve your ad performance.
Actionable Tip: Use Walmart’s AI-powered tools to generate high-quality ads that resonate with your target audience. Test different visuals and messaging to identify which combinations result in the highest engagement.
👉🏻 Learn more about Walmart’s AI Tools
Conclusion: Stay Ahead of the Competition
Selling on Walmart Marketplace offers a wealth of opportunities for brands to expand their reach and grow their business. By leveraging Walmart’s omnichannel tools, optimizing your listings, and using advanced advertising and analytics solutions, you can stay ahead of the competition and ensure long-term success.
Start implementing these strategies today and watch your brand grow.
