How to Get Approved on Walmart Marketplace (And Scale Fast)

Walmart Marketplace is the most underutilised opportunity in ecommerce right now. With 36 million daily active shoppers, 120 million monthly unique visitors, and significantly less seller saturation than Amazon, the platform rewards well-prepared sellers with faster organic rank gains and lower advertising costs than they'd see on any comparable channel. The catch: the application process is genuinely selective, and Walmart rejects the majority of applicants who approach it without preparation.

Over the past two years, we've gotten dozens of clients approved on Walmart Marketplace including several who had been rejected once or twice before contacting us. This guide covers exactly what Walmart looks for, where most applications fail, and what to do in the first 30 days after approval to start generating revenue.

Why Walmart Marketplace Is Worth Pursuing in 2025

The most compelling case for Walmart Marketplace in 2025 is the competitive differential. The platform has roughly 150,000 active third-party sellers compared to Amazon's estimated 9.7 million. In most product categories, the first page of Walmart search results is much less crowded than the equivalent Amazon search which means new listings can achieve organic visibility faster and with lower advertising investment.

Walmart's Fulfilment Services (WFS) programme, the Walmart equivalent of Amazon FBA, has matured significantly. WFS items receive two-day delivery badges and priority placement in search results. The fulfilment fee structure is competitive with Amazon in many size tiers. And Walmart's shopper demographic a blend of value-conscious buyers and increasingly affluent suburban households is a strong fit for a wide range of product categories from home goods to beauty to pet supplies.

• No monthly seller fee (Amazon charges $39.99/month). You pay only referral fees per sale.
• Category referral fees range from 6% to 20%, comparable to Amazon, with some categories lower.
• Walmart's Buy Box algorithm is less opaque than Amazon's price competitiveness and fulfilment method are the primary drivers.
• Walmart Connect (the advertising platform) has significantly lower CPCs than Amazon Advertising in most categories.
• First-party data integration and Walmart+ membership growth are driving higher-quality shopper intent.

What Walmart Looks for in Seller Applications

Walmart's approval criteria are not publicly exhaustive, but based on hundreds of applications reviewed, the core signals Walmart evaluates are: established marketplace or DTC presence (existing Amazon, eBay, or website sales history), product catalogue quality and breadth, pricing competitiveness versus Walmart's existing catalogue, fulfilment capability and reliability, and business legitimacy documentation.

The most important single factor is prior marketplace history. Walmart wants evidence that you are an operational seller, not someone setting up their first ecommerce account. If you have an Amazon seller account with sales history, an established Shopify or DTC website with transaction data, or sales history on another marketplace, that evidence should be front and centre in your application. Provide URLs, screenshots of account health dashboards, and sales volume figures.

• Business legitimacy: US EIN (Tax ID), US business bank account, and a US business address. International sellers need a US legal entity.
• Catalogue quality: a minimum of 10–20 SKUs in your initial catalogue, with clear UPCs/GTINs for each product.
• Competitive pricing: Walmart will check your prices against their existing catalogue and may reject or suppress listings priced higher than they can source elsewhere.
• Fulfilment reliability: if using merchant fulfilment, provide evidence of sub-2-day processing time capability. WFS applications are reviewed separately.
• Brand or authorised reseller documentation: if reselling, you need authorisation letters. Brand owners have a smoother path.

The Application Process: Step by Step

1. Go to marketplace.walmart.com and click "Request to Sell." Create a Walmart Seller account (separate from your shopper account).
2. Complete the business information section: legal entity name, EIN, address, and business type. This is straightforward accuracy matters.
3. Complete the product catalogue section: describe your product categories, number of SKUs, and average price point. Be specific. Generic answers ("consumer goods") are weaker than specific ones ("ergonomic home office accessories, $35–$120 average price, 40 SKUs").
4. Submit marketplace or DTC evidence: add your Amazon storefront URL, Shopify domain, or other sales channel URLs. Include any revenue-level information that strengthens your profile.
5. Wait for the review decision. Most applications receive a decision within 1–4 weeks. If approved, you'll receive an onboarding email to complete the Seller Center setup.
6. Once in Seller Center: complete your legal and payment details, set up your shipping settings, upload your catalogue (via spreadsheet or API integration), and activate listings.

Common Reasons Sellers Get Rejected and How to Avoid Them

The most frequent rejection reasons we see are: no prior marketplace history, catalogue size too small (fewer than 10 SKUs), products that Walmart already carries as a first-party (1P) seller, pricing above what Walmart's existing 1P or other marketplace pricing shows, and incomplete business documentation. Walmart is not trying to exclude legitimate sellers they're trying to filter out underprepared applicants who will create fulfilment problems or degrade the buyer experience.

• If rejected for no sales history: establish a DTC website first (even a basic Shopify store with active product listings and some transaction volume), then reapply with that URL.
• If rejected for catalogue size: expand your SKU count before reapplying. 20–40 SKUs in a coherent category is a much stronger application than 5–8 scattered products.
• If rejected for pricing: audit your intended prices against Walmart.com's current catalogue. You cannot win a race to the bottom against Walmart's own sourcing, so reposition your catalogue to categories or products Walmart doesn't already stock at scale.
• Wait at least 30–60 days before reapplying after a rejection. Immediate resubmission with no changes is always declined.

Your First 30 Days on Walmart: Getting to Your First Sale

Approval does not mean sales. Most sellers who give up on Walmart do so in the first 60 days because they uploaded their catalogue and waited for traffic that never came. Walmart's search algorithm prioritises listings with complete content, competitive pricing, and fulfilment speed. New sellers start without reviews and without sales history, which means organic rank is initially low. You need to actively drive early velocity.

1. Optimise every listing to Walmart's content requirements: complete all attribute fields, upload at least 4 images, write full keyword-optimised descriptions. Items with higher content completeness score rank better.
2. Enroll in Walmart Fulfilment Services (WFS) if your product size and category are eligible. The two-day delivery badge dramatically improves conversion rate on Walmart.
3. Launch Walmart Connect advertising immediately. Run sponsored product campaigns on your primary keywords with a $25–$50 daily budget. Early ad spend creates the sales velocity signals the algorithm needs to rank your listings organically.
4. Price competitively. For the first 30 days, price aggressively (not below cost, but at the lower end of market) to win the Buy Box and generate initial sales data.
5. Submit products to Walmart's Item Setup best practices specifically, complete all "enhanced content" fields which include comparison charts, videos, and enhanced descriptions.

Scaling Your Walmart Store After Approval

Sellers who scale effectively on Walmart do so by treating it as a distinct channel with its own dynamics not a copy-paste of their Amazon strategy. Walmart's algorithm rewards sales velocity, Buy Box ownership, and fulfilment reliability. Unlike Amazon, Walmart's search is more sensitive to price changes, so maintaining competitive pricing across your catalogue is an ongoing operational task, not a set-and-forget decision.

The growth levers that work: expanding catalogue depth in proven categories (add complementary SKUs once you have reviews and rank on hero products), scaling WFS adoption (more WFS items means more two-day badge placements across the site), and optimising Walmart Connect campaigns with search term data from your first 60–90 days. Sellers we work with who follow this structured approach consistently reach $15,000–$40,000/month in revenue within their first six months on the platform.