Quick Brief: Last year has been crucial in paving the path for the future of eCommerce. Speaking strictly of Walmart, numerous changes were brought about in the marketplace with the shift in customer behavior. Buyers’ evolving expectations and the marketplace’s focus on customer satisfaction have brought about updates that will change the way you sell in 2022. In this blog, you’ll take a deep dive into the evolving world of eCommerce and everything exciting in store for 2022. Analyze how the Walmart Marketplace changed last year, and learn everything for selling on Walmart in 2022.
Walmart 2021 Recap
2021 has been a great year for the eCommerce industry. The world of eCommerce saw a boom in business that surpassed any predictions! The change was so substantial that it made the smallest mom&pop shops set up online stores.
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As millions of homebound consumers turned to the eCommerce platform to buy household, cleanliness, personal care, and recreational products, thousands of small enterprises onboarded global marketplaces and forever changed the way we do business.
However, an increase in sales for categories such as gardens, pets, grocery, puzzles, and DIY kits wasn’t the only thing that changed.
The change was more imminent and was felt more deeply in the way people did business. Consumer expectations changed. ‘Grocery’ was one of the most prominent selling formats; customers placed ease over price, and new avenues for business mushroomed on social media.
What this means for 2022
The previous year’s changes have restructured the eCommerce scene for the world. The after-effects of which have been felt significantly at global marketplaces like Walmart. The change in buyer behavior has shaped new policies and enforced new ones in the marketplace.
An increased focus has been brought on customer satisfaction, post-purchase quality being a big thing.
Listing Quality has also been brought under scrutiny as more and more people started conducting online product research.
Grocery, staples, home improvement, kids, and pets categories grew many-fold on the marketplace.
With increasing online competition, sellers are also focusing on Walmart’s paid services.
Other than that, sellers are also turning towards new forms of advertisements as new OTT platforms and streaming services enter the market every day.
How earlier updates will shape new Walmart 2022 trends
2021 was a big year for Walmart. Here’s looking at everything that changed in the Walmart Marketplace universe and how it will change in 2022.
- Walmart Inc.’s U.S. eCommerce sales were 43 billion USD in 2021, a more than 70% increase compared to 2020.
- Walmart’s online grocery sales were 30.96 billion USD in 2021, 3.83 billion USD more than the earlier figure of 27.13 billion USD in 2020.
New Walmart Features and Updates to keep in mind for selling on Walmart in 2022
Other than its record-breaking profits, Walmart also introduced several changes to its marketplace. These additions finally made life easier for marketplace sellers.
Listing Quality Dashboard
This new dashboard proved to be one of the essential Walmart features in 2021. The Listing Quality Dashboard is aimed directly at product SEO and ranking. Walmart introduced this update intending to help marketplace sellers increase the visibility of their products.
The Listing Quality Dashboard analyzes the overall average quality score of products, the breakdown of the components that make up average listing quality, post-purchase quality, Pro Seller Badge status, while also providing item-level scoring for all published items.
Pro-Seller Badge
Another great feature introduced in 2020, the Pro-Seller Badge is a synonym for quality at the Walmart Marketplace. This almost works like a verified blue tick on social media, making the seller look more authentic.
Walmart awards pro-seller badges to top-performing sellers, who follow strict guidelines to attain this as a mark of excellence. This, in turn, makes the buyer more confident about their purchase and increases the seller’s conversion rates.
Post-Purchase Quality
Post-Purchase Quality is an added metric that sellers need to be aware of in 2022. This aims to help sellers improve the quality of their products and services.
PPQ is a measure of the product’s overall quality and the customer’s post-purchase satisfaction from it. Post-Purchase Quality is another factor that will influence buyer confidence and help with increasing conversion rates.
Campaign Management
One of the most significant features launched in 2020, Campaign Management, has automated promotional campaigns. With this feature, Walmart aims to help sellers promote their products during seasonal and category campaigns managed by Walmart.
The idea is to allow sellers to submit, update, and manage their product/s (individual or bulk) for Walmart-run campaigns that are already in the spotlight.
Panel Update
Walmart also changed its panel design to a more user-friendly panel, which is significantly less complicated. This makes navigating the seller center and managing day-to-day operations a cake-walk for sellers.
The new panel includes robust features such as Listing Quality, Pro Seller Badge, Shipping Templates, Message Alerts, and many more!
Walmart Fulfillment Service
At the beginning of 2020, Walmart launched its fulfillment service- WFS. This new fulfillment service holds the fastest delivery potential at the lowest costs feasible for marketplace sellers.
They are thus allowing sellers to offer fast and cheap delivery services while improving their seller scorecard.
Message Alert
Another great feature that was big in 2021 was- Message Alert. Who can argue that seller-buyer interaction is key to customer satisfaction? However, customer messages are lost in the myriad of emails sellers receive. The new Message Alert aims to correct this. Sellers can now see buyer messages directly on the seller panel.
Thus, letting the seller directly address customers without any trouble creates a better flow of information and guarantees customer satisfaction.
Shipping Templates
Another great feature introduced in 2020, the new shipping templates make it easier for sellers to set shipping exceptions for all the states. Where old shipping exceptions only extended to 7 US states & UTs, with the new templates, sellers can manipulate shipments to all 51 US states & UTs.
This allows sellers to set precise rules and facilitate a frictionless shipping experience for the sellers and the customers.
Ship With Walmart
Walmart introduced another shipping-related update, the new Ship With Walmart program- to promote selling on Walmart Canada. The feature allows US-based sellers to onboard Walmart Canada with ease with Walmart’s negotiated customs and excise duties.
With SWW, sellers can successfully onboard Walmart Canada and sell across the border without thinking about high handling and shipping costs.
IP Infringement claims policy
Now the IP owners can protect their creations. The owners can report infringement claims for the products listed on the Walmart marketplace. If an IP infringement is done by someone, this policy helps you report to Walmart. But the IP owner needs to prove to Walmart his/her ownership of IP rights. This policy includes copyright, trademark, patent, and counterfeit claims.
New-Seller Savings program
Walmart launched an exciting program for new sellers to onboard the Walmart marketplace. With this New Seller Savings program, sellers who joined the Walmart marketplace before 31st March 2021 and went live by 1st May 2021 enjoyed commission-free sales for 30 days. It proved to be an excellent opportunity for sellers looking to expand without worrying about the commission that needs to be paid to Walmart.com.
Non-US sellers can now sell on Walmart
One of the crucial updates of 2021 was allowing Non-US sellers to the Walmart marketplace. Earlier, only US-based sellers could perform product listings and sell on Walmart. In 2021, Walmart opened its doors for the Non-US Sellers and welcomed them on its selling platform.
Payments dashboard for solving returns and disputes
Walmart simplified returns management and disputes’ resolving procedure. To solve disputes and returns, sellers can now use the payment dashboard in the Seller Center instead of relying on the Seller help. This makes it easy for the sellers and helps them resolve these issues more straightforwardly.
Item Spec 4.0
Walmart introduced Item Spec 4.0 which makes item set up and maintenance process efficient. This item spec 4.0 helps you quickly set up and manage items on Walmart, boost your product discoverability, and enjoy one spec for WFS and item setup.
Smart Tags for Two Day Shipping
Walmart introduced Smart tags for Two Day Shipping. These machine-based smart tags help you apply Two Day Shipping tags to the products by identifying the items that can best leverage the Two Day Shipping option and can be shipped faster. The algorithm automatically adds and removes Two Day Shipping tags. And neither you need to meet the performance metrics required for the Two Day Shipping program or any additional charges to enroll yourself for the Smart tags. Moreover, the smart tags can help you boost your conversion rate by upto 37%.
What we’re saying is-
Last year has been a roller coaster ride for all of us, especially for the eCommerce world. We hope these recaps and Walmart Marketplace predictions for 2022 will help you understand the changes that will hold significance this year, whether behavioral or technical. The new updates and features introduced by Walmart aim to improve the marketplace and pave the path to a brighter future. However, the year has provided several beneficial lessons for 2022, especially for the Walmart sellers who want to make it big in 2022. And for those too who are interested in selling on Walmart in 2022.