Walmart: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Bentonville-based marketplace Walmart. Here you can find information on how to request a Walmart account, how to configure this marketplace on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

Commercial information

How to request an account

Associated costs

Marketplace features

Settings and configuration

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Product selection
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

 

Commercial information

Founded	1962
Founder	Sam Walton
Headquarters	Bentonville, Arkansas, United States
Area served (orders)	Canada, Mexico, United States
Revenue	USD 572.8 billion
Number of monthly visits	120 million
Website	Walmart
Setup cost	none
Commission	commission rates range from 6%­ to 15%, and vary per category and total sales price
Other costs	none
Payment	biweekly
Product categories	pretty much anything
Input language	English
Input currency	USD
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	yes
Profile on ChannelEngine	Walmart

How to request an account

To start selling on Walmart you need a seller account. Make sure that you have the following:

• A US business tax ID (social security numbers are not accepted).
• A W9/W8 and an EIN verification letter from the Department of Treasury, verifying your US business.

• An address or place of physical operations.

• A US business address.

• A planned integration method for your product catalog. E.g.: bulk upload, API, solution provider, etc.

• Primary product categories, catalog size, and related information. E.g.: total SKUs you plan on selling on Walmart initially, with verified UPC information, and used vs. refurbished, etc.

Other important Walmart specifics:

• Walmart fulfillment services (WFS) lets merchants store their inventory at Walmart fulfillment centers. When a customer places an order on Walmart, WFS picks, packs, and ships the item(s) to the customer on the merchant's behalf. WFS also handles all customer support and returns for these orders.
• One shipment created on ChannelEngine can lead to one or more shipments on Walmart. E.g.: when you create a fulfillment shipment on ChannelEngine and you want to send 100 products to the Walmart fulfillment centers, Walmart can decide to split these products over multiple fulfillment centers – such as 50 products to a fulfillment center in California and 50 products to a fulfillment center in Florida. 
• With Walmart, partial shipment, partial returns, and partial cancelations are possible.
• Check Walmart's list of prohibited products per category before adding your products.

Associated costs

Walmart does not charge setup or monthly fees. However, it does charge a commission fee of 6-15% – depending on the category and total sales price. For more information on commission rates per category, please refer to the Walmart referral fee guide.

Marketplace features

Supported	Not supported
Product offers	HTML formatting
Product content	Repricing
Orders	Sales channels
Shipments
Cancelations
Returns
Marketplace fulfillment service (WFS)
Product variation

Settings and configuration

Setting up each marketplace on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, once you add the marketplace:

1. Go through the Setup.
2. Create a Product selection.
3. Complete the Categorization.
4. Set up the Mappings: content, offers, and carriers.
5. Configure the Pricing: rules and currency conversion.
6. Finish the Activation.
7. Check the Listed products overview.

Marketplace-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On Walmart

The Walmart Marketplace APIs use OAuth for token-based authentication and authorization.

To request the Client ID and Client secret:

1. Log in to the Walmart Seller Center.
2. Click My Account, and select the login type Marketplace.
3. Create your Client ID and Client secret from the API keys page.

To grant ChannelEngine the correct API permissions:

1. Go to Settings, API key management.
2. Click ChannelEngine key permission.
3. In the popup that opens, select the permissions as shown in the screenshot below.
4. Click Submit.

On ChannelEngine

To connect Walmart with ChannelEngine:

• Go to your Walmart marketplace and, on the Setup page, enter the following:
  • Walmart client ID - this is the API key copied from Walmart's back-end.
  • Walmart secret ID - this is the User ID copied from Walmart's back-end.

Categorization

Walmart has a strict list of categories to which you must map your own categories. Categorization is required when you want to add new products.

Mappings

Content

Walmart has a long list of both required and optional attributes. If you use WFS, more attributes are required.

All products (required)

• Brand - the brand or manufacturer of the product. The maximum number of characters is 60.
• California Prop 65 warning text - 
• Contained battery type - 
• Contains chemical, aerosol or pesticide? - 
• Contains electronic component? - 
• Country of origin - the product's country of origin. For multiple countries, separate them with a comma. E.g.: US - United States, CA - Canada.
• Main image URL - the URL for the image. The requirements are:
  • Resolution - at least 1,000x1,000 px
  • Background - white (RGB 255, 255, 255)
• Product name - the name of the product. The maximum number of characters is 200.
• Orderable GTIN - the 14-digit global trade item number used worldwide and governed by GS1. E.g.: 00889526164690. If you use another universal product identifier, such as UPC, you must add 00 to a 'prefix' field. You can add this via an extra data field, or by using an advanced rule.
• Product identifiers product ID - specify the product identifier in digits. E.g.: 889526164690.
• Product identifiers product ID type - specify the product identifier type. The options are: EAN, GTIN, UPC, and ISBN.
• Shipping weight (lbs) - enter the weight in pounds.
• Site description - an overview of the key selling points of the item, marketing content, and highlights in paragraph form. For SEO purposes, include the product name and relevant keywords.
• State restrictions - restriction type - specify when your product must be prohibited from being sold due to a law, regulation, ordinance, etc. The options are: Commercial, Illegal for sale, None. If you map this attribute to a value other than None, you must map the State restrictions - state codes or State restrictions - ZIP codes attributes accordingly.

All products (required when you use WFS)

• California prop 65 warning - Walmart cannot double-slot products in their distribution centers. This means that any product that could be distributed in California must be compliant with Prop 65.
• Contained battery type - specify the battery type the product contains. E.g.: Lithium ion, alkaline.
• Contains chemical, aerosol, or pesticide - specify whether the product contains those chemicals.
• Contains electronic component - specify whether the product contains an electronic component.
• Each depth (in) - a Walmart packaging term. 'Each' means a unit intended for individual sale. If the 'each' is the consumable selling unit, Each depth (in) stands for the longest horizontal measurement in inches, front to back, with the product sitting on its natural base and facing forward. If the 'each' is not the consumable (sellable) unit, Each depth (in) is the longest horizontal measurement in inches, with the product sitting on its natural base. The value is a decimal with a maximum of nine characters.
• Each GTIN - a Walmart packaging term. The GTIN that identifies the Each.
• Each height (in) - Walmart packaging term. If the 'each' is the consumable (sellable) unit: Each height (in) is the vertical measurement (in inches), top to bottom, with the product sitting on its natural base and facing forward. If the 'each' is not the consumable (sellable) unit: Each height (in) is the vertical measurement (in inches), top to bottom, with the product sitting on its natural base. The value is a decimal with a maximum of nine characters.
• Each weight (lbs) - Walmart packaging term. The weight (in pounds) of the 'each', including all of its packaging materials. The value is a decimal with a maximum of 11 characters.
• Each width (in) - Walmart packaging term. If the 'each' is the consumable (sellable) unit, the Each width (in) is the shortest horizontal measurement (in inches), left to right, with the product sitting on its natural base and facing forward. If the 'each' is not the consumable (sellable) unit, the Each width (in) is the shortest horizontal measurement (in inches), with the product sitting on its natural base. The value is a decimal with a maximum of nine characters.
• Site start date and Site end date - determine whether the product is active on Walmart within a certain period. By default, a product is set to active when added. If you already have products online on Walmart that were not added via ChannelEngine, you may need to check these attributes.
• State restrictions - state codes - indicates the sale restriction of the product across one or more states. The maximum number of characters is 4,000. Multiple values can be separated by commas (,). E.g.: CA, CO, ME.
• State restrictions - ZIP codes - indicates the sale restriction of the product across one or more ZIP codes. The maximum number of characters is 4,000. Multiple values can be separated by commas (,). E.g.: 20004, 20500, 38116.

All products (optional)

The majority of optional content attributes are related to batteries and packaging. Most others offer attributes are listed below:

• Additional image URL - the product's additional image URLs. Add multiple ones by separating URLs with a comma (,).
• Fulfillment lag time - the time it takes between the product being ordered and it being shipped, in days.
• Is primary variant - if set to 'yes', this variant is shown to prospects as the default on the product detail page (PDP). Make sure to define only one primary variant per product family, otherwise the products are going to be rejected.
• MSRP - the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP).
• Must ship alone? - defines if the product must be shipped by itself or if it can be shipped along other products.
• Swatch image URL - the image URL for each color-based variant of the product, shown as a thumbnail on the PDP. Make sure to include an image for each variation of each product family, but not for every possible variation within the variant group.
• Variant group ID - products are grouped based on this attribute. Map the ChannelEngine default attribute Parent SKU to this attribute to create variations. The minimum and maximum lengths are 1 and 300, respectively.

Offer

Offer mapping is required so your products can be made available online and your stock and prices can be updated.

Required

• Fulfillment override - select WFS if you are using Walmart's fulfillment services, or Merchant if you are shipping orders to clients from your own warehouse.

• Price before (re)price rules - the default price to which price rules are applied. Select the Disable default fallback checkbox if you do not want the price to fallback to the default product price on ChannelEngine.

• Promotion applied - specify whether a promotion must be added. The options are: Applied and Not applied.
• Selling price - specify the selling price on Walmart. Select the Disable default fallback checkbox if you do not want the price to fallback to the default product price on ChannelEngine.

Optional

• Promo placement - specify when to apply the promotion. The options are: Cart and Checkout. You can only select a Promo placement if you have not set a Promo type.
• Promotion end date - set the date and time for the promotion to end. The supported format is ISO 8601, with UTC offset. E.g.: 2021-07-16T19:20:30+5:30 when the time zone is ahead of UTC.
  This field is required if the Promotion applied field is set to Applied.
• Promotion start date - set the date and time for the promotion to start. The supported format is ISO 8601, with UTC offset. E.g.: 2021-06-16T19:20:30+5:30 when time zone is ahead of UTC.
  This field is required if the Promotion applied field is set to Applied.
• Promotion type - select the type of promotion. The options are: Clearance, Reduced, and Base.
• Promotional price - set the promotion price. This field is required if the Promotion applied field is set to Applied.

Carrier

Carrier mapping is required on Walmart, and several logistics companies are listed. ChannelEngine imports the available carriers from the Walmart API.

Listed products

Listings are used to decide which products should be displayed on Walmart.

Additional information

Order extra data items

When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also fetches extra data items related to the order itself – or to order lines. This extra data is specific to this marketplace. An explanation of each can be found below: 

Order extra data

Keys	Conditional*	Description
order_shipment_method_code	No	The id for the shipping method, as taken from shipping information in the channel order.
customer_order_id	No	The id for the customer order, as taken from the channel order.

 

Order line extra data 

Keys	Conditional*	Description
Tax.amount	No	Related to the VAT of the item in the channel order line. The name of the key is taken from the channel order line. The value of the key is the tax amount.
WalmartChargeType.FEE	Yes	Any additional fees from Walmart on an order line level.

* Conditional fields only display if the channel provided a value.

FAQs

How often does each task run on Walmart?

By default, Walmart follows the schedule below:

Task	Frequency
Export product content to channel	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to channel	every 15 minutes
Import product offers from channel	every 15 minutes
Import orders from channel	every 20 minutes
Export order shipments to channel	every 60 minutes
Export returns to channel	every 60 minutes
Import returns from channel	every 60 minutes
Export returns from channel	every 60 minutes