Walmart stands out as one of the largest retailers in the United States, with a substantial hold on various market segments ranging from clothing to fresh produce. In 2009, Walmart launched its online marketplace, giving eCommerce businesses access to millions of potential customers across the United States (and dozens of countries around the world). However, having access to so many people isn’t free. If you’re unfamiliar with selling on Walmart and the marketplace fees that come with it, you should continue reading.
In this guide, we’re going to give you a complete breakdown of the fees you can expect when selling on Walmart. We’re going to answer some of Walmart sellers’ most common questions, including: Is there a listing fee to sell on Walmart? What percentage does Walmart take from each sale? What is the fee structure on Walmart Marketplace? Finally, what can you do to reduce the burden of Walmart seller fees?
When it comes to building an eCommerce business, knowledge is power. So, let’s get started and discuss everything you need to know about the Walmart Marketplace and seller fees!
Unlike some of its competitors, Walmart keeps its fee structure pretty simple. The bulk of fees that you pay as a Walmart seller will come from referrals. In the context of selling on Walmart, “referrals” apply to the fees that you pay to Walmart as part of each transaction. In other words, you pay Walmart a percentage for “referring” customers to your products.
There are other fees involved when selling through Walmart, and we will cover them a bit later on. However, referral fees are the basis of Walmart’s eCommerce model, as they help ensure that Walmart can profit from sales made on its platform by third-party sellers. And though this is a pretty straightforward system at first glance, it can get complicated if you sell products that fall into different categories. In the next section, we’ll take a look at some of the most common referral fees and organize them by product type and category.
Some types of products are more expensive to sell on Walmart than others. For example, you’ll have to pay nearly twice as much in referral fees to sell consumer electronics as you would pay to sell pet supplies. Here’s a detailed summary of Walmart’s most common referral fees in 2024:
This is not a comprehensive list of every product category recognized by Walmart. However, it does cover many of the most popular categories for sellers. It’s also important to note that Walmart sets a standard referral fee of 15% for products that do not fall neatly into one of its existing categories (i.e. “Everything Else”).
The short answer is “no” — Walmart will not charge you anything just to list your products on its platform. However, if you intend to make any sales through the Walmart Marketplace, you will have to pay the referral fees corresponding with the category of your products. The upside is that if you’re not making money from your Walmart seller account, neither is Walmart. This is an important distinction since some other eCommerce platforms charge just to have your products show up to users. If you list more than 250 products per month on eBay, for example, you’ll have to pay a listing fee of $0.35 per item.
Yes, Walmart does have an end-to-end fulfillment program that charges fees to store your inventory in Walmart fulfillment centers and have it shipped directly to your customers. In the past, Walmart sellers had no choice but to handle shipping, storage, and returns on their own. Now, Walmart offers fulfillment to sellers, but the cost can vary substantially based on the type of products you sell, how long they need to be stored, and where in the world you’re shipping them.
You can quickly get an estimate for your Walmart fulfillment costs right here. As an example, let’s say you have a packaged, 2-pound product that is 5 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. As of the latest pricing info from Walmart, the standard fulfillment fee would be $5.45 per item. If you wanted to store your products, you would pay an additional $0.05 per item, per month. Storing during peak season would also cost $0.05 per unit, per month, or $0.16 if the product needed to be stored for longer than 30 days. If you opted for long-term storage for this particular item, it would cost you $0.54 per unit, per month.
There are additional considerations that could raise or lower your fulfillment fees. Generally, the larger and heavier your item (or items), the more you’ll have to pay. Additionally, apparel items have an extra $0.50 fulfillment fee, while any item with a sale value of less than $10 has an automatic $1.00 fulfillment fee. This means that if you want to sell a lot of products for less than $10 each, you might be able to save money by handling shipping and storage yourself or finding a third-party fulfillment service that offers lower rates.
While you can’t avoid paying Walmart seller fees (they’re automatically deducted from each sale), you can find ways to optimize your eCommerce business strategy and get the most out of every purchase. First, you’ll need to make sure that your accounting game is on point. Even if you use quality accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero, you still need a way to quickly and accurately move all the information from your Walmart Marketplace store into the program of your choice. This is where ConnectBooks comes in.
With ConnectBooks, you can automatically pull all of your transactional data into one place — without any manual data entry. This gives you a snapshot of each product you sell, as well as a more comprehensive view of your business as a whole. So how does this help you with Walmart seller fees? By having all of your transactional data in one place and being able to see exactly how much these fees are costing you, you can choose products and price points that guarantee the best profit and the lowest overhead.
If you’re currently working with QuickBooks, we offer fast integrations between Walmart and QuickBooks Online, as well as Walmart and QuickBooks Desktop & Enterprise. You can also get help learning the ropes as a Walmart seller with our Walmart accounting guide.
Do you want to learn more about the Walmart marketplace seller fees? If so, reach out to the experts at ConnectBooks today!
