Success on Walmart.com can be challenging for any company, especially those without expertise in eCommerce business practices. However, these challenges can be addressed by following some basic practices and collaborating with the Walmart.com merchant teams. We invite you to keep reading to glean the insights we’ve gained over the years in the retail industry.
Visibility and Views
Not recognizing the importance of an item’s visibility and its number of digital views on the Walmart website is a common pitfall. This means Walmart brings consumers to its site, but it’s dependent on a brand’s efforts to get the shoppers’ attention and drive conversions. You can accomplish this by wowing consumers with your branding, highlighting key product features, imagery, video, and advertising.
Key Things to Remember
Walmart.com must be considered a strategic element for building your overall Walmart and eCommerce business. So ensure your success by considering trade spending to support your efforts.
More online SKUs (stock-keeping units) doesn’t necessarily mean more sales. Taking a strategic approach to your online portfolio can save you capital but ensure your team is working on high-impact activities.
Driving visibility increases the velocity of views, which in turn drives KPIs (key performance indicators).
Don’t be overwhelmed by these challenges; everyone is searching for efficiencies with Walmart Item 360 Errors, optimized content, and have questions regarding 1P (first-party relationship) vs. DSV (Drop Ship Vendor) vs. 3P (Third Party Seller).
Item 360 Errors
You’ll sometimes receive error messages that aren’t intuitive. These can be time-consuming and frustrating to deal with. Take the time to do as many Item 360 tutorials as possible and continue to revisit the platform because it continuously evolves. Open and diligently track submitted trouble tickets. Collaborate with local agencies because they know this stuff inside and out. In many cases, they have built tools focused on helping you in multiple and unexpected ways.
Optimized Content
Walmart does a great job providing you with all the details you need to be successful via the Category Style Guide found in Item 360. This guide is your cheat sheet for being successful. This resource contains innumerable details and should function as your roadmap to optimized content.
Make sure you engage the brand team and/or marketing resources. Their input and expertise will drive the success and optimization of your content and listings.
1P vs. DSV vs. 3P
Once you’ve decided on the assortment of products you want to offer, you must run an internal financial analysis (margins, fulfillment costs, and internal resources) to select the best distribution model.
Working closely with the Walmart merchant team should provide you with the roadmap to select your assortment of products and the type of distribution model you should utilize. Once you’ve done this, it’s all about the relentless execution of orders.
Setting up your eCommerce listings can be tricky. Still, collaboration with your corporate digital team or an agency focused on Walmart.com will help you successfully execute and ensure your business is represented the way you want it to be.
Ecommerce is here to stay. So understanding how to properly utilize Walmart.com is a good strategy for any company doing business with Walmart Brick & Mortar, and most companies focused on eCommerce platforms.
The faster you embrace the challenge, the further along you will be at this same time next year!
