Walmart has been a household name in retail for decades, but its online marketplace is still relatively young compared to giants like Amazon and eBay. That is exactly what makes it exciting for ecommerce sellers right now. Walmart Marketplace is growing fast, attracting millions of online shoppers, and the competition among sellers is still far less intense than what you will find on Amazon.
For sellers who are already familiar with the wholesale model or who have experience with store automation, Walmart presents a fresh opportunity. But is it all upside? Not quite. Like any marketplace, Walmart comes with its own set of advantages and challenges that every seller should understand before committing time and money.
In this article, we will take an honest look at the pros and cons of selling wholesale on Walmart and using automation to manage your store. Whether you are thinking about expanding from Amazon, diversifying your sales channels, or starting fresh on Walmart, this breakdown will help you make a more informed decision.
How Walmart Wholesale and Automation Work
Let us start with a quick overview so we are working from the same foundation.
The Wholesale Side
Walmart wholesale follows the same general principle as wholesale on any other platform. You purchase branded products in bulk from authorized distributors or manufacturers at a discounted price. You then list those products on Walmart Marketplace and sell them to customers at retail price. The difference between your cost and the selling price, minus fees and shipping, is your profit.
Walmart offers its own fulfillment service called Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), which works similarly to Amazon’s FBA. You send your inventory to Walmart’s warehouses, and they handle storage, packing, shipping, and customer returns. Products fulfilled through WFS get a special badge and are eligible for faster shipping, which can boost your visibility and sales.
The Automation Side
Automation in the Walmart context works much the same way it does on other platforms. You can use software tools to automate tasks like product listing, inventory management, repricing, and order processing. You can also hire an automation agency that manages your entire Walmart store on your behalf, from product sourcing all the way through to customer service.
Now that we have the basics covered, let us dig into what makes Walmart wholesale and automation attractive and where the challenges lie.
Advantages of Walmart Wholesale and Automation
Less Competition Compared to Amazon
This is arguably the biggest advantage Walmart Marketplace offers right now. Amazon has millions of active sellers competing for the same customers and products. Walmart, on the other hand, has a much smaller seller base. While that number is growing, the marketplace is far less saturated than Amazon.
For wholesale sellers, this means fewer competitors on each product listing, less aggressive price wars, and a better chance of winning the Buy Box. Products that might have twenty or thirty sellers on Amazon could have just a handful on Walmart. That difference alone can make a significant impact on your margins and sales volume.
Access to Walmart’s Massive Customer Base
Walmart is the largest retailer in the world by revenue. Their website attracts hundreds of millions of visitors each month, and their customer base spans every demographic and income level. When you sell on Walmart Marketplace, you are tapping into that enormous audience.
Many of these shoppers are loyal Walmart customers who prefer buying from Walmart over other platforms. They trust the Walmart name, and that trust extends to the third party sellers on the marketplace. This built in credibility is something you would have to work much harder to earn on a standalone website.
Walmart Fulfillment Services Simplifies Logistics
WFS takes the operational burden off your shoulders, just like Amazon’s FBA does. You ship your products to Walmart’s fulfillment centers, and they take care of the rest. Orders are picked, packed, and shipped on your behalf. Returns are handled through Walmart’s system.
Products fulfilled through WFS receive a “Fulfilled by Walmart” tag, which gives customers confidence in shipping speed and reliability. WFS items are also eligible for Walmart’s two day shipping program, which can increase your product’s visibility in search results and improve conversion rates.
For sellers who are already familiar with FBA, the transition to WFS feels familiar and manageable.
No Monthly Seller Fees
Here is something that surprises a lot of sellers coming from Amazon. Walmart Marketplace does not charge a monthly subscription fee. On Amazon, Professional sellers pay a monthly fee just to keep their account active, regardless of whether they make any sales.
Walmart only charges referral fees when you actually sell something. These fees vary by category but are generally competitive with Amazon’s rates. This pay as you sell structure is particularly appealing for new sellers or those testing the platform with a smaller product catalog. You are not losing money just by having an account.
Growing Marketplace with Early Mover Advantage
Walmart’s online marketplace is in a growth phase. They are actively investing in their ecommerce infrastructure, improving their seller tools, expanding WFS capacity, and attracting more buyers to the platform. For sellers who get in now, there is a real opportunity to establish a strong presence before the marketplace becomes more competitive.
Early movers on Amazon back in its growth years benefited enormously from less competition and lower advertising costs. While nobody can guarantee the same trajectory for Walmart, the parallels are hard to ignore. Getting established now could pay off significantly in the years ahead.
Automation Makes Multi Platform Selling Manageable
Many wholesale sellers operate on both Amazon and Walmart, and some sell on eBay and Shopify as well. Managing listings, inventory, and orders across multiple platforms manually is impractical once you reach a certain scale.
Automation tools solve this problem by syncing your operations across all your sales channels from a single dashboard. When a product sells on Walmart, your inventory updates on Amazon automatically. When you add a new product to your catalog, you can push the listing to multiple platforms at once.
This kind of multi channel automation is what makes it realistic to sell on Walmart without doubling your workload. You are adding a revenue stream without adding proportional complexity.
Product Listing on Walmart Is Straightforward
Walmart’s listing process is relatively simple, especially for products that already exist in Walmart’s catalog. If the product you are selling is already listed on Walmart, you can match your offer to the existing listing rather than creating one from scratch. This speeds up the process significantly.
For sellers using automation tools, listing products on Walmart can be even faster. Many listing software platforms support Walmart alongside Amazon and eBay, allowing you to create and manage listings across all three marketplaces from one place.
Disadvantages of Walmart Wholesale and Automation
As promising as Walmart sounds, it is not without its downsides. Here is what you need to be prepared for.
The Application Process Is Selective
Unlike Amazon, where almost anyone can create a seller account and start listing products within a day or two, Walmart has a more selective onboarding process. They require sellers to apply and meet certain criteria before being approved.
Walmart typically looks for sellers who have an established ecommerce history, a professional business setup, and a track record of good customer service. New sellers without prior marketplace experience may have a harder time getting approved. Some applications get rejected, and the process can take several weeks.
This barrier to entry is actually a double edged sword. It keeps the marketplace quality higher and reduces low effort competition, but it can be frustrating if you are eager to get started and your application is delayed or denied.
Smaller Customer Base Than Amazon (For Now)
While Walmart’s online traffic is impressive, it still trails behind Amazon in terms of pure ecommerce volume. Amazon dominates online retail, and many shoppers default to Amazon when they want to buy something online. Walmart’s online marketplace is growing, but it has not reached the same scale yet.
This means that for some product categories, the sales volume on Walmart may be significantly lower than what you would see on Amazon. You might find great products with low competition on Walmart, but the total number of buyers searching for those products could also be lower.
Sellers should view Walmart as a complementary channel rather than a complete replacement for Amazon, at least for now.
Fewer Seller Tools and Resources
Amazon has spent years building out its seller ecosystem. From Seller Central’s analytics dashboard to the advertising platform, brand registry, A+ content, and a massive library of third party tools and services, Amazon offers sellers a rich set of resources.
Walmart’s seller tools are improving, but they are not at the same level yet. The advertising platform is less mature, the analytics are more limited, and there are fewer third party software options built specifically for Walmart. This can make it harder to optimize your listings, track your performance, and grow your business with the same precision you might be used to on Amazon.
As the marketplace grows, Walmart will likely continue to improve its seller tools. But right now, there is a noticeable gap.
WFS Has Limitations
Walmart Fulfillment Services is a solid offering, but it is still newer and less developed than Amazon’s FBA. WFS has fewer fulfillment centers, which can result in longer shipping times for customers in certain regions. The range of product categories and sizes supported by WFS is also more limited compared to FBA.
Some sellers have reported slower inbound processing times, meaning it takes longer for their inventory to become available for sale after arriving at Walmart’s warehouse. These operational hiccups can be frustrating, especially during peak selling seasons when speed matters most.
Automation Agencies for Walmart Are Less Established
The automation agency space for Walmart is less mature than it is for Amazon. There are fewer agencies that specialize in Walmart, and those that do may have less experience and fewer proven results to show for it.
This does not mean good Walmart automation agencies do not exist, but it does mean you need to be more careful during your research. Ask for specific Walmart case studies, verify their track record, and be cautious of agencies that are primarily experienced with Amazon but claim to handle Walmart with the same level of expertise.
Price Competition Still Exists
While Walmart has less seller competition than Amazon, price competition is still a factor. When multiple sellers list the same wholesale product, they compete for the Buy Box just like on Amazon. Prices can get pushed down as sellers try to undercut each other.
The good news is that with fewer sellers per listing, price wars tend to be less severe than on Amazon. But they still happen, and you need to factor potential price drops into your margin calculations.
Walmart’s Policies Are Strict on Pricing
Walmart has a pricing policy that requires sellers to offer competitive prices. If your prices are significantly higher than what the same product is sold for on other platforms (including Amazon), Walmart may suppress your listing. This means your product will not appear in search results even though it is technically still listed.
This pricing policy can create tension for sellers who sell the same products on both Amazon and Walmart. You need to keep your prices aligned across platforms, which limits your ability to charge more on Walmart even if there is less competition there.
Should You Sell Wholesale on Walmart?
The answer depends on where you are in your ecommerce journey and what your goals are.
Walmart Makes Sense If
You are already selling on Amazon and want to diversify your revenue across platforms. You have an established business and can meet Walmart’s application requirements. You are looking for a marketplace with less competition and room to grow. You want to take advantage of early mover positioning before the marketplace gets more crowded.
It Might Not Be the Best Fit If
You are brand new to ecommerce and have no prior selling experience. You do not have enough inventory or capital to support selling on an additional platform. You are looking for a marketplace with high traffic volume right from the start and are not willing to be patient while Walmart’s online presence continues to grow.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Walmart Wholesale and Automation
Apply with a strong profile. When submitting your Walmart Marketplace application, present a professional business with a clean website, a history of positive seller metrics, and all your business documentation in order.
Start with products you already sell on Amazon. If you have wholesale products that perform well on Amazon, listing them on Walmart is a logical first step. You already know the demand exists and you have supplier relationships in place.
Use multi channel automation tools. Invest in software that supports both Amazon and Walmart so you can manage inventory, listings, and orders from one system. This prevents operational headaches and reduces the risk of overselling.
Pay close attention to Walmart’s pricing rules. Make sure your prices on Walmart are competitive and aligned with your pricing on other platforms. Getting your listings suppressed because of pricing violations is an avoidable problem.
Monitor WFS performance closely. Keep an eye on inbound shipping times and fulfillment accuracy. If WFS is not performing well for certain products, consider seller fulfilled shipping as a backup option.
Final Thoughts
Walmart wholesale and automation present a genuine opportunity for ecommerce sellers who are willing to put in the effort. The marketplace is growing, competition is still manageable, and the infrastructure for sellers is improving with each passing year.
That said, it is not a perfect platform. The application process is selective, the tools are still catching up to Amazon, and the online customer base is smaller for now. But for sellers who view Walmart as part of a broader multi channel strategy rather than a standalone solution, the potential is hard to ignore.
The sellers who will benefit the most are those who approach Walmart with realistic expectations, strong product research, and a willingness to adapt as the platform evolves. If that sounds like you, Walmart wholesale might be the next smart move for your ecommerce business.