Many sellers have experienced the same puzzling phenomenon on Walmart's platform: despite offering diverse product selections, certain items consistently underperform while others thrive. In 2022, Walmart's e-commerce platform demonstrated remarkable growth, contrasting sharply with Amazon's relatively stable performance. Numerous sellers reported that during that year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, Walmart actually outperformed Amazon in sales volume—a development that has drawn increasing attention to this emerging marketplace.
Walmart: A Blue Ocean Market With Unique Challenges
Walmart began inviting Chinese sellers to join its marketplace in March 2021, initially implementing stringent requirements including at least one year of Amazon sales experience and nearly $1 million in GMV. These high barriers discouraged many potential sellers, with numerous applicants receiving rejections during registration. Even those who successfully joined often lacked sufficient market experience or resources to fully commit to the platform. Consequently, early adopters operated with relatively relaxed approaches, resulting in less intense product competition and significantly lower advertising costs compared to Amazon.
However, some sellers demonstrated exceptional market awareness and operational strategies, achieving notable success on Walmart's platform. After managing one account successfully, many expanded to multiple accounts—sometimes even purchasing additional accounts to secure market share. Currently, Walmart hosts over 140,000 online sellers, more than doubling its seller base in just one year. Since late 2022, Walmart has substantially lowered its admission thresholds, presenting an ideal opportunity for new sellers to establish their presence.
Early-Stage Opportunities Abound in Developing Marketplace
Walmart's marketplace remains in its developmental phase, with rules and features that continue evolving—often mirroring Amazon's model but not yet reaching full maturity. This transitional period creates abundant opportunities. Many strategies that proved successful on Amazon during its early stages remain effective on Walmart's newer platform.
The current product selection on Walmart remains limited compared to demand in numerous categories, making "position-holding" and "product-broadcasting" approaches particularly effective. Many sellers employing these methods achieved substantial returns in 2022. As Walmart introduces richer media functions, variant advertising capabilities, and enhanced tag recommendation placements, the inevitable transition toward specialized product models accelerates. The eventual introduction of ranking features will serve as the definitive signal for this shift, requiring sellers to monitor platform developments closely and adjust strategies accordingly.
Variant Advertising: A Crucial Step Toward Specialization
In specialized operational models, advertising plays a pivotal role. Therefore, the refinement of advertising functions represents a critical prerequisite for this transition. Walmart's introduction of variant advertising will significantly impact sellers, necessitating prompt adjustments to advertising strategies.
Previous advertising reports revealed that variants received substantially less exposure and clicks than main products, potentially leading to ineffective multi-attribute link advertisements, insufficient variant sales, and inaccurate sales assessments. For sellers unfamiliar with Walmart's specific rules, this created substantial obstacles.
The new variant advertising function allows targeted promotion of specific variants, increasing operational flexibility and benefiting sellers through:
- Enhanced exposure opportunities and link weighting: Variant advertising provides more display opportunities, helps identify core variants, increases overall link weight, improves search rankings, and potentially doubles order volumes.
- Improved conversion rates: Previously, most traffic originated from searches for main products (base items), creating single-source traffic that limited variant conversions. Variant advertising introduces more precise traffic sources, improves demand matching, and boosts overall conversion rates.
- Prevention of variant competition: Sellers can differentiate between various style attributes, capture more category traffic, and avoid harmful competition between variants.
Optimizing Walmart Variant Advertising Strategies
Implementing variant advertising proves straightforward: after adding the main product (base item), an "Add" button appears on the right side, allowing sellers to select all variants or specific ones for advertising. Sellers should develop refined advertising strategies based on product characteristics and market demands to achieve optimal promotional results.
Strategic Recommendations for Walmart Marketplace Success
Beyond leveraging variant advertising, these strategies can enhance performance on Walmart's platform:
- Product selection remains paramount: Thoroughly understand Walmart's consumer demands and identify products with market potential through platform data analysis and competitor research to discover untapped market segments.
- Optimize product listings: Create high-quality product titles and descriptions, use clear product images, and provide detailed specifications to improve search rankings and click-through rates.
- Prioritize customer service: Respond promptly to inquiries, address complaints efficiently, and deliver exceptional after-sales service to increase customer satisfaction and repeat purchases.
- Maintain compliance: Strictly adhere to Walmart's platform rules and policies, avoiding infringement, counterfeit sales, or other violations that could jeopardize store operations.
- Implement data-driven decisions: Regularly analyze store sales data, advertising metrics, and product performance to inform operational adjustments and improve profitability.
Walmart's marketplace continues developing rapidly, offering substantial business opportunities. Sellers must stay informed about platform updates, continuously learn and adapt, to distinguish themselves in this emerging market and achieve sustainable growth.