3 Hurdles You May Face While Selling On Walmart Marketplace

It is alright to be optimistic about Walmart online marketplace because there are scores of reasons that back a glorious future in the same. However sellers in the process of commencing their endeavors in this platform should be aware of certain limiting factors that can create turbulence in otherwise smooth waters to damaging extents, 3 of which can be mentioned as follows…

Entry – Selling on Walmart marketplace is a treat that is reserved only for the best of the lot. If you are not a top performer in eBay, Amazon etc with glorious track record in terms of traffic attraction, revenue generation and other crucial parameters as such, there is ample possibility that your application will never be entertained by Walmart.com.
Besides this, it is a fact well known to sellers by now that Walmart takes a considerably long time to process applications and approve the same. The process of approval may take around 4 to 5 weeks in certain cases. Till then, sellers are only needed to wait and watch.

Price battles – Price battles can get very serious while selling in Walmart.com especially for entities that also sell in other top marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Walmart assures lowest prices to buyers and expects multichannel entities to respect this policy to the last word. Therefore, sellers will have to work out their profit margins and cost compatibility with other marketplaces of presence very carefully so that they don’t end up getting warned or suspended from both / all marketplaces of presence.

Initiating end to end integration like Walmart Shopify eBay Integration etc. can be a worthy solution to this issue.

Maintaining standards – You cannot compromise on core operational processes with substandard apparatus and this is amply relevant as far as order completion is concerned. At all times, your integration efforts, tools and softwares as well as reporting and tracking system are needed to be in the best of health. This can often get expensive for sellers but worth the effort. 

5 unexpected problems new online sellers face—and their simple solutions

With big dreams, grand ideas and peaking enthusiasm do many people venture the online retail industry. However, expectations built on exaggerating numbers and all the hype, their journey starts taking unexpected turns in just few weeks. And needless to say, since new in the market, they find themselves lost and clueless, with less motivation to continue.

To help you bring your castle hanging loose to the ground, here are 5 unexpected problems of new online sellers that you should expect in your coming days (yes, we give you the solutions too)- 

1.       Underselling- This is the most common and obvious problem. You expect to have customers flock to your store but that doesn’t happen. And your large inventory stays just like that with limited sales on selected days. Simple solution is, whether you’re selling on Walmart marketplace or on eBay, optimize your store according to the guidelines of that platform and spend more time in marketing. 
2.       Overselling- This inventory management related problem is real and can be a give a major headache to the retailers. Selling on multiple platforms, that calls in for loads of manual work, almost always leads to overselling- selling more than what’s available. Avoid this easily by using e-commerce solution that offers multi-channel real-time inventory management.  
3.       Spending too much time on less-important tasks- Whether you sell on eBay, Amazon, Walmart or any marketplace, there’s a lot to manage at the technical end—tasks that, at times, are rather less-important than say marketing and customer acquisition; be it manually listing products on individual platforms or updating titles and descriptions. Again, simple solution is rely on e-commerce solution that allows to manage everything under single roof. 
4.       Battling competitors- On any marketplace, unless you’re offering something eccentric, competition is fierce. And many new retail players undermine this. You don’t do that! Research on market competition; don’t worry but learn from your successful competitors. Also, have a micro approach; don’t target every consumer base, focus on one or two for better conversion. 
5.       Complaining customers- Even when you’re selling the best products, you are bound to face few angry customers, on review section, social media platforms and through emails, who are never seemed to be satisfied. Don’t reply them in the same tone. Address their issues with politeness and modesty. And if things go out of control, end the deal with a sincere apology. 

These are 5 unexpected problems new online retailers often face. So if you sell on eBay, Amazon, Walmart or any other marketplace, expect these difficulties before they block your path ahead.