The total number of sellers exceeds 80,000! Walmart US officially opens to Chinese sellers

Recently, Walmart held a grand US site investment strategy conference in Shenzhen titled "New Cross-border Journey, New Opportunities for Walmart", and officially opened investment channels to Chinese sellers.

Over 20,000 people watched the conference live, and more than 100 Chinese sellers have joined

This conference caused a sensation in the cross-border circle. It was extremely popular and tickets were hard to come by. The conference site was crowded with nearly a thousand cross-border sellers and industry leaders. In addition, more than 20,000 people watched the conference live.

This conference is Walmart US’s first investment promotion in China. For Chinese sellers, it is an excellent opportunity to enter the Walmart platform.

After the conference, Chinese sellers flocked to the registration channel. One seller said: "The channel for pre-application materials is no longer open. How many sellers are trying to squeeze in?" It is understood that more than 100 Chinese sellers have joined the previously difficult-to-enter Walmart US site and are officially digging into the US market.

The latest data from Marketplace Pulse shows that as of March 30, 2021, the total number of sellers on Walmart Marketplace reached 82,616 , with strong growth in the number of sellers. So far this year, 13,272 new sellers have joined, including 4,938 sellers last month. It is believed that after the launch of global investment promotion, the growth rate of Walmart's sellers will be even more impressive.

After asking many sellers, I found that many sellers were unable to show up at the conference in person, and even accidentally missed the live broadcast. So, now follow me to see what conditions sellers need to enter Walmart and how to apply?

Application requirements for Walmart US

As we all know, Walmart has been actively recruiting merchants around the world this year and has relaxed many restrictions. It is reported that Walmart said that there is no store opening fee or monthly rent for entering the platform. However, to enter Walmart US, Chinese sellers must meet the following conditions to be eligible to apply for entry:

Necessary conditions:

1. A valid Chinese business license

2. More than one year of experience in operating North American market platforms

3. Good store ratings and sales performance

Other conditions:

1. Rich product catalog

2. Excellent customer experience

3. Fast and reliable delivery capabilities (overseas warehouses and return capabilities or qualified third-party logistics service providers)

It is reported that it was very difficult for sellers to enter Walmart US before, for example, they had to be a US company, have a US warehouse, a US return address, etc. These policies discouraged many sellers who wanted to enter and made them wait for many years.

Now Chinese companies can also settle in smoothly, but sellers should be aware that a Chinese company entity can only register one account in one market.

In terms of entry conditions, we can see that Walmart has requirements for sellers' performance, and the review of sales performance is a relatively important point. It is reported that to open a US site, sellers need to have annual sales of 5 million US dollars. This news spread in many seller groups and many sellers discussed it on Weibo .

One seller said: "Friends on the US site said that a sales volume of more than 10,000 a day is not a high requirement. And judging from the popularity of registration, there are still many sellers who can easily achieve sales of more than 5 million US dollars a year."

Walmart US site specific entry process

It is reported that Chinese sellers apply to enter Walmart’s US site mainly through online application through Walmart’s official public account “Walmart Global E-Commerce”. In addition, there will also be some offline investment promotion conferences organized or participated in by Walmart for sellers to choose from.

The specific application process is as follows :

1. Fill out the Walmart official questionnaire (in English). Follow Walmart’s official WeChat account “Walmart Global E-commerce” or the offline event exclusive QR code to obtain the online questionnaire.

2. Fill in the form according to your own situation and upload relevant information and documents.

3. Document review.

4. After registering an account and completing the final evaluation, the account can be put online.

5. Officially list the product and make relevant background settings.

It is reported that the entire process will have full service and assistance from the Walmart team, from investment promotion, training, services to products, optimization and other aspects, which will accelerate sellers' account registration and business processing and help sellers grow their performance.

What is the charm of Walmart for Chinese cross-border sellers ?

Chinese cross-border sellers attach great importance to Walmart's investment promotion. The reason why Walmart can "grab the hearts" of Chinese sellers lies in these major advantages.

Walmart has a strong customer base . Every month, Walmart's e-commerce platform has 120 million unique visitors, with amazing traffic. At the same time, Walmart's website transaction volume has increased by 35% year-on-year . By joining the Walmart platform, Chinese sellers can enjoy the "back of the mountain, good shade".

At the same time, Walmart provides sellers with a clear consumer portrait of the Walmart platform. The Walmart platform focuses on millennials (accounting for 1/3 of the user base), and some middle- and high-income groups with houses, families, and children are also its important customer base.

Fast and complete logistics services . Walmart's WFS logistics service covers almost 100% of the United States, and can basically achieve "two-day delivery". For sellers, it can not only provide sales revenue, but also increase customer selection rate. In addition, WFS can provide consumers with return and refund services. Currently, Walmart has opened KY1 and KS1 warehouses to Chinese sellers, but sellers need to solve the first-leg transportation from China to Walmart warehouses by themselves.

At the same time, sellers should be aware that the goods used in WFS must be non-perishable and non-regulated goods. In addition, there are corresponding requirements for the size and weight of the goods.

More optimized product UI and UX . Walmart said that its website has been completely upgraded, and more user-friendly product UI and UX have been launched to provide sellers with more complete services and attract more consumers. At the same time, in terms of products, Walmart has also launched several hot-selling categories to solve the sellers' troubles in selecting products.

It is reported that several major categories such as home furnishings, daily groceries, 3C products, toys, seasonal products, consumer products, and clothing and accessories were the best in the last year. Walmart also speculates that in the post-epidemic era, several major categories centered on home scenes such as cleaning, home appliances, and musical instruments will continue to grow.

Walmart has great potential and is developing rapidly . Since 2015, Walmart has continued to develop e-commerce. In 2020, Walmart's e-commerce has developed rapidly, with the growth rate of e-commerce entities reaching 79%, achieving double-speed growth. Emma Zhu, head of Walmart's e-commerce seller management, said that in 2020, the sales of third-party sellers on the Walmart platform almost doubled .

At the conference, many Walmart sellers shared their sales data and operational experience. The sales director of Tongtuo Technology said that after entering Walmart, its GMV in 2020 exceeded 8 billion yuan . Pei Xubo, chairman of Xinadda , also shared: "Take our single e-commerce team as an example. The annual sales in 2020 soared from US$160,000 in 2014 to US$98 million . The six-year annual compound growth rate of e-commerce is as high as 192%."

This is very attractive data for Chinese sellers. It is reported that in 2020, US retail e-commerce sales reached a record high of US$861.12 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44%, the highest growth rate of US e-commerce in 20 years. This wave of e-commerce boom has made many Chinese cross-border sellers want to enter the US market.

Currently, Walmart US is still in its infancy in attracting Chinese sellers, and there must be huge early dividends, such as some entry discounts, traffic support, etc. This is a great opportunity for Chinese sellers.

Walmart US

Merchants

Chinese Sellers