Top Challenges Amazon Sellers Face When Entering Walmart—and How to Overcome Them

For Amazon sellers, expanding to new marketplaces like Walmart offers exciting growth potential. Walmart has an established customer base and is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world, making it an attractive option. However, the transition from Amazon to Walmart isn’t without its challenges. If you’re thinking about branching out into Walmart’s marketplace, there are some hurdles you should be aware of, and knowing how to navigate them is crucial to your success.

In this guide, we’ll explore the top challenges Amazon sellers face when entering Walmart, and offer actionable solutions to help you overcome them.

1. Challenges with Product Listings and Data Compatibility

When you sell on Amazon, you’re accustomed to a listing system that allows for a lot of flexibility. However, Walmart has stricter guidelines for how products should be listed on their platform. It’s important to understand these requirements upfront to avoid frustration.

Why This is a Challenge:

Image Requirements: Walmart has specific image requirements. Unlike Amazon, where the focus is on high-quality visuals, Walmart demands that images be clear with a white background and proper resolution.
Title and Description Limits: The character limits for product titles and descriptions on Walmart are more restrictive than on Amazon, which means you may need to condense information or rewrite your listings.
Category and Attributes: Walmart’s categorization system differs from Amazon’s. If you don’t place your products in the right category, it could affect visibility and sales.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

Familiarize yourself with Walmart’s listing requirements before uploading your products. Ensure your product images meet their specifications, your titles are concise and meet the character limits, and that your products are placed in the correct category. Using bulk upload tools can also help you ensure your listings are consistent and accurate.

2. Fee Structure and Pricing Challenges

Amazon has a well-established and predictable fee structure, but Walmart’s fee structure may be a bit more complicated. Understanding these fees is essential when setting your prices and managing your profitability.

Why This is a Challenge:

Referral Fees: Walmart charges a referral fee for every sale, and this fee varies by product category. Some of these fees are higher than what you might be used to on Amazon.
Fulfillment Costs: If you’re using Walmart’s Fulfillment Services (WFS), there are storage and shipping fees to consider. Additionally, managing these fees alongside Amazon’s FBA costs can be confusing.
Price Parity: Walmart enforces a price parity policy, meaning your product prices cannot be higher on Walmart than on Amazon or other platforms. This can limit flexibility in setting prices.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

Before listing products on Walmart, carefully review their fee structure for the relevant product categories. Ensure that your pricing strategy accounts for the various fees, including referral and fulfillment costs. To stay compliant with Walmart’s price parity rule, monitor your pricing across all marketplaces using automated tools that adjust prices when necessary.

3. Walmart’s Seller Approval Process

Walmart’s approval process for sellers is more selective compared to Amazon. As an Amazon seller, you may be accustomed to a faster, more straightforward onboarding process, but with Walmart, it’s different.

Why This is a Challenge:

Documentation Requirements: Walmart requires a significant amount of documentation, including proof of your business’s legitimacy, tax information, and other essential details.
Longer Approval Time: The approval process for sellers can take longer than expected—sometimes several weeks or even months—especially if you’re applying to sell in certain product categories that require additional verification.
Category-Specific Approvals: Some categories (such as health and beauty or electronics) may require additional certification before you can list those products.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

To avoid delays, make sure you have all necessary documentation ready when applying to sell on Walmart. This includes business licenses, tax identification numbers, and product certifications (if applicable). Once you’ve submitted your application, check the status regularly and follow up if necessary to ensure the approval process is moving forward.

4. Transitioning from FBA to Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)

If you’ve been using Amazon FBA, you’re used to a seamless fulfillment process. Walmart offers its own fulfillment service, but it works differently, and transitioning from FBA can present some challenges.

Why This is a Challenge:

WFS Setup and Costs: Walmart’s Fulfillment Services are not as widely adopted as Amazon FBA. You’ll need to understand the setup process, fees, and storage policies.
Third-Party Fulfillment: If you choose not to use Walmart’s fulfillment service, you’ll need to manage fulfillment through a third-party provider, which can be more complicated than Amazon’s FBA system.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

Decide early whether you want to use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) or continue with your existing fulfillment provider. If you choose WFS, familiarize yourself with Walmart’s specific requirements for inventory management, shipping timelines, and fees. If you opt for a third-party fulfillment service, make sure the provider can meet Walmart’s standards for delivery and customer service.

5. Marketing Your Products and Gaining Visibility

One of the key reasons Amazon sellers are successful on Amazon is the platform’s robust advertising and marketing tools. Walmart’s platform offers its own advertising solutions, but it can be more difficult to get visibility, especially when starting out.

Why This is a Challenge:

Walmart’s Advertising Tools: Walmart offers advertising through the Walmart Media Group (WMG), but this system can be unfamiliar and less intuitive compared to Amazon’s well-established advertising platform.
Paid vs Organic Traffic: Gaining organic visibility on Walmart can be a challenge, especially when competing with larger retailers. Paid ads may be necessary to drive traffic to your products, but learning how to optimize your ad spend can take time.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

Start by using Walmart’s Sponsored Products to get initial visibility for your listings. Focus on optimizing your product listings with high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and keywords to improve organic search rankings. Learn about Walmart’s Media Group and how to use paid ads effectively, and consider using analytics tools to track your campaigns and improve their performance over time.

6. Handling Customer Service and Returns

Amazon handles a lot of the customer service workload for its sellers, but Walmart places this responsibility on you. Providing excellent customer service and managing returns are essential to maintaining a good seller rating.

Why This is a Challenge:

Customer Support Expectations: Walmart requires sellers to provide timely responses to customer inquiries and resolve any issues related to returns or refunds.
Returns Management: Walmart’s return policies can be stricter than Amazon’s, and if not managed properly, they can negatively affect your seller rating.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

Make sure you have a system in place to handle customer inquiries promptly and professionally. Offer a clear returns policy on your product listings, and ensure it aligns with Walmart’s standards. Monitoring your seller performance regularly through Walmart’s Seller Center will help you stay on top of any issues and resolve them quickly.

7. Standing Out in a Competitive Marketplace

Unlike Amazon, where millions of third-party sellers compete, Walmart’s marketplace is still growing, but it’s becoming more competitive by the day. Larger brands and big-box retailers often dominate the most profitable categories, leaving smaller sellers at a disadvantage.

Why This is a Challenge:

Competition with Established Brands: Many categories are already filled with large companies with better brand recognition and more resources.
Lower Seller History: New sellers on Walmart might struggle to gain trust, as they don’t have the same sales history that can influence rankings and customer decisions.

How to Overcome This Challenge:

Focus on differentiating your products by offering excellent customer service, competitive pricing, and unique value propositions. High-quality product listings with clear, detailed descriptions and great images will help set you apart. Consistently delivering great customer service and encouraging positive reviews will help build your credibility and improve your visibility over time.

Conclusion

Entering Walmart’s marketplace is a smart move for any Amazon seller looking to expand their reach, but it’s not without its challenges. By understanding Walmart’s unique requirements and addressing these obstacles head-on, you can increase your chances of success. Focus on optimizing your product listings, understanding the platform’s fee structure, and providing exceptional customer service. Over time, you’ll be able to navigate Walmart’s marketplace confidently and tap into its potential for growth.

Take your time, plan ahead, and use the right tools to manage your listings and marketing efforts. With patience and persistence, you’ll soon see the rewards of selling on Walmart.

If you’re looking for ways to simplify your operations as you expand across marketplaces, Mr. FlexBot is here to assist. By analyzing product performance and key metrics, it empowers you to make smarter, data-driven purchasing decisions across platforms like Amazon and Walmart. No distractions—just clear insights to help you buy better and maximize profitability.