Developing an eCommerce Sales Strategy for Expanding to Walmart.com

Walmart has invested nearly $14 billion in capital investments to drive long-term sales growth and compete with top marketplaces. 

As we continue to see consumers shop online post-pandemic, with 33% expecting to use them for more purchases a year from now (source: Cleveland Research Company), this is a strong indication for brands to consider selling on multiple online retail sites to fully capitalize on the continuing growth in the digital landscape.

Evaluating a Sales Strategy Beyond Amazon

Now that the dust is beginning to settle from the pandemic and the spike in ecommerce is starting to level out, we’ve been asked, time and time again: “what’s next”?

Well, we have three data points for you to consider:

• Where are my customers shopping online?
• How am I going to expand beyond Amazon?
• What do I need to manage this growth?

Identifying Consumer Trends

Before considering what platforms to invest in next, it’s crucial to get the data first, and follow the consumer trends. To understand your customers, you will have to understand where they are shopping and how their behaviors are changing.

Although Amazon continues to maintain the top position across all ecommerce marketplaces, Walmart ranks second, and is growing rapidly as it increases its share and invests significantly in the marketplace model. With brands understanding the changing demands of their customers, Walmart is an obvious next venture beyond Amazon.

In a recent survey done by our partners at Cleveland Research Company, consumers were asked a series of questions about their online shopping behaviors as it relates to how often they’ll shop and on which sites.

When asked “a year from now, how do you think your usage of a given eCommerce site will be different”? Most of them responded with more or a similar number of purchases.

Additionally, the Walmart shopper was asked if they’d purchased a new brand (one they had never heard of before) on Walmart.com. Of the customers surveyed, 45% said they had purchased a new brand they weren’t familiar with, while 39% said they had not purchased from a new brand. This can be suggested that customer who are going to marketplaces are not necessarily brand loyal and name brands could be losing a good share to private label brands if they are not actively investing in this growing marketplace.

Evaluate a Walmart Selling Strategy

There are three components to consider if you’re wondering how you’re going to expand beyond Amazon to Walmart.com.

• Pick a selling strategy: determine if you plan to sell direct, via 3P, or through a trusted partner/reseller. 
• Know what is in your control: leverage your current marketplace strategy instead of starting from scratch.
• Set expectations at the beginning: Walmart is not Amazon, so use data to identify realistic expectations for your business when expanding to Walmart.

Leverage Technology to Scale Business

A lot of pressure has been put on eCommerce teams with limited resources to successfully push into new marketplaces. When expanding, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the curve and integrate market-leading technology to drive growth and report results. 

• Price Monitoring & Brand Protection: Monitor pricing across channels, enforce eCommerce policies and limit MAP violations, track stock-outs, and contact or remove rogue sellers.
• Catalog Management: Conduct SEO keyword research and optimize content specific to the Walmart marketplace, as well as monitor and take swift action for inaccurate live content.
• Advertising: Manage both Walmart & Amazon ads in one platform to compare campaigns and analyze results.
• Reporting Dashboard: Centralizing software reports across marketplaces for KPIs, forecasts, and ad results will increase efficiency and data analysis. 

When thinking about expansion into Walmart, we recommend looking at your catalog and considering the 80/20 rule: 80% of the business is typically run by 20% of your catalog. Look at the top performing products and decide which makes sense for the Walmart customer. Walk before you run, and identify which products perform best, and go from there.

We have identified and utilize top-leading software technology to address the inefficiencies of brand teams, and we strive to utilize leading consumer insights and assist with bandwidth issues. Contact us today to determine how we can best help your business grow and leverage the many growing marketplace opportunities.