Walmart has joined forces with Shopify to open Walmart Marketplace to new small and medium businesses. The venture is designed to help small businesses reach customers who regularly shop on Walmart.com.
Walmart Marketplace Partners with Shopify
More than 1 million businesses use Shopify’s all-in-one ecommerce platform. By partnering with Shopify, Walmart Marketplace aims to empower small businesses to reimagine customer experience.
Walmart Marketplace enables small business vendors to integrate their catalogue, manage orders, arrange shipment, and provide customer care.
Exploiting the Ecommerce Boom
It’s no secret that ecommerce is booming, especially in the wake of the crippling coronavirus pandemic that rendered many physical stores shut for months. To remain competitive and keep up with consumer demand, small retailers should consider jumping onto the ecommerce bandwagon.
Competition is Healthy in Retail
The Walmart Marketplace aims to help small retailers expand their ecommerce reach by selling products alongside other ecommerce sellers. As Walmart Marketplace CEO Doug McMillon says, when it comes to the retail business, competition is healthy.
“The launch of U.S. eCommerce business grew 74% in total last quarter, and growth in marketplace outpaces the overall business even as first-party sales were strong,” said McMillon.
“As we launch this integration with Shopify, we are focused on U.S.-based small and medium businesses whose assortment complements ours and have a track record on exceeding customers’ expectations,” McMillion added.
Convenient Integration Methods
By joining the Walmart Marketplace community, small retailers sell their products next to the wide assortment sold by Walmart and other Marketplace sellers. Merchants can also benefit from convenient integration methods. They can build their catalog, control inventory and set prices. Sellers can manage orders and shipping methods, and ship items directly to their customers.
No Setup or Monthly Fees
Furthermore, on the Walmart Marketplace community there is not setup or monthly fees. Instead, a reasonable referral fee is automatically deducted from a seller’s payment for sold items.
Once approved for the Walmart Marketplace program, sellers sign a Retailer Agreement with a Walmart representative. They complete a seller profile and connect their payment account. An onboarding process involves the small business choosing an integration method, adding items and testing orders.
Once the merchant is ready to launch, Walmart Marketplace will carry out a final review. When the review is complete, the seller can get selling.
Shopify has a long history of helping small businesses grow. By teaming up with ecommerce giants, the Walmart Marketplace is designed to help small business retailers reach more customers. By joining a community of respected and professional sellers, small business retailers are better equipped to sell more products, grow, and become more profitable.
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Image: Walmart.com
This article, "Walmart Marketplace Opens to Shopify Small Business Sellers" was first published on Small Business Trends
June 17, 2020 at 07:06AM
via https//www.brucedayne.com/
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead, Khareem Sudlow
