Walmart Expands Marketplace, Challenging Amazon

Emboldened by a pandemic-driven increase in digital sales, Walmart has decided to challenge Amazon’s dominance in the ecommerce arena. Walmart is presumably the only retailer with the financial resources, logistical prowess, and size to do this.

In its two-pronged approach, Walmart is trying to lure Amazon’s sellers and expand its own marketplace to international sellers. The company is reaching out individually to a few of Amazon’s largest sellers. It has already contacted Perch, one of the large aggregators that buy smaller Amazon sellers.

According to a survey by Jungle Scout, an Amazon-seller tool, 39 percent of Amazon sellers are considering Walmart this year. The survey shows that those sellers interested in Walmart tend to list products in the top-selling Amazon categories such as home and kitchen, toys and games, and sports and outdoors.

To attract new sellers, Walmart is also simplifying its onboarding process, which had been criticized as burdensome. Walmart is also promoting a limited-time offer called New-Seller Savings that provides a 30-day waiver on sales commissions to all merchants who join the platform by March 31 and go live by May 1.