Walmart is known for offering low product prices to its customers. So to stay relevant on Walmart, Sellers need to keep their product prices competitive. At the same time, updating prices can be a troublesome task for the sellers as several parameters need to be taken care of. The most important of which is the Walmart Pricing Policy.
An error in abiding by Walmart’s strict rules may lead to the cancellation of orders for that product or even unpublishing of the item. Hence, frequently updating product prices becomes essential for Walmart sellers- not just to stay relevant but also to remain published.
Steps to update item pricing on Walmart through Walmart Seller Center
Wondering how to make the cumbersome task of updating item prices easier? If you are looking to update item prices through the Seller Center, there are two methods of doing so. These are:
- Individual products
- Bulk uploads
Individual products
You can upload the individual product prices from Walmart Seller Center using the following steps:
- Choose the item whose price you want to change from Manage items.
- Click the update price option in the Action Bar.
- Enter the new price in the New Price field.
- Thereafter, Click Update Price to confirm changes.
Source: Walmart knowledge base
Bulk uploads
To do bulk pricing updates from the Walmart Seller Center, perform the following steps:
- Log in to the Seller Center.
- On the left-hand navigation bar, Click Bulk Updates under Items & Inventory. A dialog box pops up.
Source: Walmart knowledge base
- Click the Bulk Pricing and Promo update under the Select Spec section. Click Download.
- Now to update basic pricing, fill the first two columns in the sheets that will open up. However, if you want changes in the Promotional Pricing as well, fill in all other column information.
Fill out the required information:
- Save the Spec and close it.
- Now upload the file. You can do it in two ways:
- Thereafter, choose the update type, i.e., Price Updates and Promotional Price Updates, and then click Submit.
- After that from the Select Spec dropdown, choose the spec type. Choose Bulk pricing and Promotion Update, and then from Update type dropdown, select Price Updates and then click Submit.
To track the progress, visit Price Feed in the Feed Status tab of the Seller Center.
Walmart Pricing Policies
Another aspect to remember when updating the products is Walmart’s Pricing Policy. Walmart protects the customers and the sellers alike. While it aims to make sure that sellers can earn maximum possible profits, there is a check to that.
The limitation is also targeted to give maximum benefits to the customers. The flipside to this is that the sellers cannot make profits to a length that violates fair trade in the market. Hence, there are rules that control pricing at Walmart.
There are two Walmart pricing policies. These are:
Walmart price matching policy
Walmart price leadership policy
Walmart Price Matching Policy
Also known as the Price Parity Rule. As per this policy, if a seller sells the same product, i.e., a product of the same color, brand, and make, at a different platform at a drastically low price point, the seller’s product will be unpublished. This platform can be his or her own store or another marketplace.This also includes shipping costs.
When the Seller reprices the product as per the price parity rule, the product gets re-published automatically; this usually takes from 1 to 15 minutes.
Walmart Price Matching Policy Limitations
- The product should be the same in the make and kind. This includes all aspects, from size, model, quantity to brand, and color.
- The item should be in stock at Walmart and the other store when price matching is being done.
- The matching of Walmart Product Prices applies to one product per customer per day. Although, unless the product is meant for resale, this rule does not apply to products that are going to New Mexico.
- There is no offer to update the price later-on for a product that is out of stock right now.
- The price matching is only done if the other marketplace or store offering the lower cost, should be one of these: Academy.com, Amazon.com, Autozone.com, Babiesrus.com, Basspro.com, Bedbathandbeyond.com, etc.
Walmart Pricing Matching is not applicable in these circumstances as mentioned above.
Walmart Price Leadership Policy
The other pricing policy is known as Walmart Price Leadership Policy. As per this policy, if the customers are saving an excess amount on buying the same product of the same make and kind on some competing website(including shipping and regardless of the Seller), the Seller’s product will be automatically unpublished on Walmart.
In such a case, a notifying message reaches the Seller via ‘Manage Items Report.’ Whereas Walmart will continue to monitor the other sites and if the price on those sites changes to a range matching yours, the product will go live once again within 1 to 15 minutes.
Things to keep in mind when updating prices through Walmart Seller Center
Sellers need a proper understanding of Walmart’s pricing policies to run a successful business in the marketplace. Although updating product prices through the Walmart seller center is easy, sellers need to keep the following aspects in mind:
- Strictly follow the Walmart pricing policy and Walmart price matching policy to be a successful Walmart seller.
- Keep your prices competitive and lowest possible to have increased chances of winning the buy box. Stay updated with the Buy Box report available in the Seller Center.
- Always keep your item ‘in stock’ to increase your chances of winning the buy box.
- When working on Walmart pricing, focus on getting higher sales at lower prices instead of fetching a higher margin on a single sale.
- As Walmart offers Everyday Low Prices (EDLP) on all the products, keep your item prices based on Walmart’s EDLP strategy.
Every Day Low Price (EDLP) is a strategy followed by Walmart which assures low prices on all products every day. These low product prices are maintained throughout the year and there is no need for any coupons or promotions to avail them.
CedCommerce Repricing tool
Sellers need to keep the prices updated regularly while also keeping in line with Walmart’s ‘Price matching policy’ and ‘Price leadership policy.’ However, updating product prices through the Walmart seller center can seem tedious. In such a scenario, you can opt for Cedcommerce’s repricer tool.
This tool will prove to be lifesaving and make price updation a breeze for you. It also helps you in keeping products’ prices aligned with those of the competitors. Your Walmart product prices will always remain competitive and you will not have to worry about getting unpublished.
To Sum Up
Walmart is committed to providing exceptional customer experience to the marketplace customers by keeping product prices reasonable. Hence, sellers need to update product prices frequently and strictly adhere to Walmart pricing policies. This will allow sellers to remain published and help their products to be more visible.