My 7 key takeaways from the Walmart Let’s Grow! 2024 conference. 

Impressive marketplace growth

1.) Walmart’s online marketplace has seen sustained 30% growth in each of the past quarters.

Ocean freight savings

2.) “Walmart Cross Border” is open for all doing full container load (FCL) shipments from three of the main Chinese ports: Yantian (Shenzhen), Shanghai or Ningbo. 

Less than container load (LCL) shipments are still in Beta rollout, only available to those with Walmart account managers. 

If you are familiar with Amazon’s Global Logistics (AGL), then this program is very similar. 

Shippers – you may want to compare rates as Walmart could be offering more competitive pricing than AGL during this rollout phase. I’d love to hear from anyone who has done so! 

Q4 Storage fees relief

3.) No peak Q4 holiday storage fees (again) for sellers if their goods arrive by Sep. 30. 

This is a personal favourite as we pay a small fortune in Q4 storage selling on Amazon.

Fulfill other platform sales

4.) Multichannel fulfillment is here! Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) will now fulfill any off-platform orders with the same shipping speed and in blank, non-Walmart branded boxes. 

Again, it’s good competition to have in the market to go up against Amazon’s MCF program. They claim 15% lower pricing than the competition. I’m looking forward to comparing their rates against Amazon’s! 

New categories to sell in

5.) Added categories included premium beauty, collectibles and pre-owned merchandise (great for book sellers). 

New way to support local

6.) Launch of Walmart Local Finds allows consumers to discover local options online with speedy delivery. This is a great fusion of “supporting local business” while still having the convenience of online shopping. 

Easily sign up for deals and promotions

7.) Addition of new “Deals Dashboard” in Seller Center, where sellers can more easily enroll in ongoing deals or holiday-specific ones like Black Friday. 

Catch the Walmart wave

Overall, Walmart is on a real upward trajectory. We help our sourcing clients through China Product Pros position their products for the platform and have also have been selling our home storage brand on walmart.com for almost three years, so I’ve seen the growth firsthand.

For our brand, profitability is stronger in the home category than on amazon.com. The competition is less fierce, our advertising ROAS is better, and WFS works very smoothly. 

Onboarding is similar to the amazon.com process, so it’s easy to get your catalog uploaded, goods in through WFS and selling quickly. 

That’s almost a wrap for me at the 2024 Walmart Let’s Grow! Conference!

Are you selling on walmart.com? What’s been your experience?