Walmart doesn’t just want to be the biggest brick-and-mortar seller in the world – they know that eCommerce is the way of the future. According to Webretailer.com, Walmart.com is a relatively distant 3rd in online US visitors behind Amazon and eBay, but it’s closing the gap with a huge growth rate. In their efforts to catch up, Walmart is launching programs aimed at ensuring that their delivery experience can match the vaunted standard set by Amazon Prime. Last year, they launched Walmart Fulfillment Services, a new program that enables sellers to store inventory in a Walmart fulfillment center where it is processed and shipped.

In this article, we’ll cover how WFS works, its strengths and weaknesses, and alternative solutions for sellers who want to deliver fast and free on Walmart.com.

Overview of Walmart Fulfillment Services

Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) is a program designed to help ecommerce sellers streamline their order fulfillment process. By leveraging Walmart’s extensive network of fulfillment centers, sellers can offer fast and free shipping to their customers, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. WFS is a cost-effective solution for ecommerce sellers looking to outsource their fulfillment operations and focus on growing their business.

With WFS, sellers can store their inventory in Walmart’s fulfillment centers, where Walmart takes care of picking, packing, and shipping orders. This not only ensures timely delivery but also enhances the overall customer experience. Additionally, Walmart handles returns and customer service, allowing sellers to concentrate on other aspects of their business. By using WFS, sellers can benefit from Walmart’s logistics expertise and robust infrastructure, making it easier to scale their operations and reach a broader audience.

How does Walmart Fulfillment Services work?

At its core, Walmart Fulfillment Services is a competitive answer to Amazon Prime. The single most important element of competing with Amazon is earning parity on fast and free shipping. Without fast and free shipping, Walmart knows that customers will continue to turn to Amazon. The faster Walmart can grow WFS and get its sellers to use the network, the better its 2-day shipping coverage will be.

Sellers that use Walmart Fulfillment Services for their Walmart listings go through a relatively simple and hands-off process. Once a seller has an account and listings and the seller is approved for Walmart Fulfillment Services, then they send inventory to Walmart fulfillment centers and convert their products to Fulfilled by Walmart listings.

If they don’t have it already, they will then get the Walmart TwoDay badge, boosting impressions and conversion rates. Then, when a customer places an order, Walmart will pick, pack, and ship customer orders – no intervention is needed from the seller. Moreover, Walmart also manages the returns process and provides customer service.

Walmart Fulfillment Centers

Walmart’s fulfillment centers are strategically located across the United States, allowing for fast and efficient shipping to customers. These centers are equipped with state-of-the-art technology and staffed by experienced professionals who handle everything from inventory storage to order packing and shipping. By using Walmart’s fulfillment centers, sellers can take advantage of the company’s expertise in logistics and supply chain management.

Each fulfillment center is designed to optimize the fulfillment process, ensuring that orders are processed quickly and accurately. The advanced technology used in these centers includes automated systems for sorting and packing, which helps to minimize errors and speed up the shipping process. This level of efficiency is crucial for meeting the high expectations of today’s ecommerce customers, who demand fast and reliable delivery.

Multiple Fulfillment Centers

One of the key benefits of WFS is the ability to use multiple fulfillment centers. This allows sellers to store their inventory in different locations, reducing shipping times and costs. This strategic placement of inventory not only enhances the customer experience but also helps sellers save on shipping costs.

With multiple fulfillment centers, sellers can also increase their product visibility and reach a wider audience. Walmart’s network of fulfillment centers is constantly expanding, providing sellers with even more opportunities to grow their business. As Walmart continues to expand its network of fulfillment centers, sellers can take advantage of new locations to further optimize their fulfillment strategy and improve their market reach.

Eligibility and Requirements for WFS

To be eligible for WFS, sellers must meet certain requirements. These include:

• Being a registered seller on Walmart Marketplace
• Having a valid business tax ID and EIN Verification Letter from the IRS
• Meeting Walmart’s quality and safety standards for products
• Agreeing to Walmart’s terms and conditions for WFS
• Meeting the product size, ship-from location, and category requirements set by Walmart

Sellers must also ensure that their products are compliant with Walmart’s policies and guidelines, including providing accurate and up-to-date product information. By adhering to these requirements, sellers can maintain a high level of trust and reliability with their customers, which is essential for long-term success on the Walmart Marketplace.

Costs and Fees for Using WFS

The costs and fees associated with using WFS vary depending on the seller’s specific needs and requirements. These costs include:

• A monthly storage fee based on the volume of the product and the length of time it is stored
• A fulfillment fee based on the item’s weight and product category
• Additional fees for hazmat items and storage during peak season (October 1 – December 31)
• Return shipping fees
• Removal/disposal fees
• Inventory handling fees for inbound shipments and prep services
• Additional fees for special projects

Sellers can estimate their storage and fulfillment fees using Walmart’s online calculator. It’s essential to note that fees are subject to change, and sellers should regularly review Walmart’s website for updates on fees and pricing.

By understanding the costs and fees associated with WFS, sellers can make informed decisions about their fulfillment operations and optimize their business for success. Properly managing these expenses is crucial for maintaining profitability while taking advantage of the benefits that WFS offers.

Benefits of Walmart Fulfillment Services

A Straightforward Solution For Walmart Orders

Simply put, sellers that use Walmart Fulfillment Services for their Walmart orders have a low-complexity solution. There aren’t complicated integrations to worry about, and management tools are available through the seller’s account with Walmart.

Enables Fast Shipping

Since Amazon introduced its Prime program, 2-day shipping has quickly evolved from a “nice benefit” to a “must have.” In fact, a 2024 Statista report indicated that almost two-thirds of global consumers expect to receive their order within 24 hours. If these expectations aren’t met, your offer will see high cart abandonment as shoppers select it and then realize that it doesn’t come with the delivery service they require.

Walmart Fulfillment Services powers fast and free delivery by automatically enrolling products into the Walmart TwoDay program. Walmart’s studies have shown the program to boost conversion by 30-50% – a massive revenue increase.

Handles Customer Service

Walmart handles all customer inquiries, refunds, and returns for products sold through WFS. In addition to the TwoDay tag, in fact, WFS products get “Free & Easy Returns” and “Fulfilled by Walmart” tags, which further increase visibility and conversion.

WFS saves you a lot of time by handling customer service responsibilities on your behalf. As we’ll see in the next section, though, there’s a drawback to the “Free & Easy Returns” tag.

Drawbacks of Walmart Fulfillment Services

A Point Solution That Doesn’t Work Elsewhere

Just like Amazon FBA and other marketplace solutions, Walmart Fulfillment Services works only for Walmart. You likely know already that the best sellers don’t put all their eggs in one basket – they list across multiple marketplaces and often have their own webstore as well. If you’re one of those top sellers, WFS is only a partial fulfillment solution.

The benefits of Walmart Fulfillment Services as a simple solution for selling on Walmart fade away when you have to manage alternate fulfillment platforms for other selling channels.

Increased Returns

Amazon FBA sellers already are well acquainted with the flipside of easy returns – you may not have to worry about it when a customer calls in a return, but you’ll definitely be worrying about it when you realize how big of a hit your margin is taking. A 5% return rate already sounds like a big issue – but it gets that much worse when you realize that a 5% return rate usually comes out to about a 20% negative effect on net profit.

In its quest to chase Amazon, Walmart has adopted a similar return policy for WFS that enables its customers to process a full refund for almost any reason. Beware – this benefit will boost revenue, but it comes with a big hit to profitability.

Alternatives to Walmart Fulfillment Services

The most cost-effective way to offer nationwide 1-day and 2-day delivery is to adopt a distributed fulfillment strategy. Of course, Walmart Fulfillment Services will achieve this for you, but it’s far from a complete solution. If you want a more flexible fulfillment approach that can support your multi-channel sales, here are your four best options.

1. Open Multiple Fulfillment Centers: Merchants can take it upon themselves to open multiple US fulfillment centers and control fulfillment. The benefits of total control, though, are offset by challenging market dynamics. Warehouse space has never been more limited or expensive, and hiring frontline fulfillment workers is so competitive that Amazon is paying as much as $22.50 per hour for new employees. On top of that, opening one’s own centers for Walmart fulfillment ties up significant capital and is risky. Pick the wrong location, and you’ll be left footing the bill.

2. Third-Party Logistics Companies (3PLs): Another option is to outsource fulfillment to multiple 3PLs. Since the majority of 3PLs are smaller operations with just a few locations, you’ll have to work with a few to get nationwide 1-day and 2-day coverage. Fulfillment costs vary between 3PLs, so be sure to use something like a 3PL request for proposal (RFP) template to get an apples-to-apples comparison.

3. Flexport: Flexport uses a network of 3PLs to provide nationwide fast and free shipping to Walmart sellers, and if you use it to fulfill your Walmart orders, you’ll automatically qualify for the Walmart TwoDay badge. Like Walmart Fulfillment Services and other 3PLs, Flexport does the heavy lifting of fulfillment for their clients. Also like Walmart Fulfillment Services, though, Flexport is limited in scope. The service focuses on small packages and their fulfillment cost balloons as product size rises. They also avoid the elephant in the room, Amazon, and shy away from doing fulfillment for orders on the largest eCommerce channel. If you use their service, be prepared to add the complexity of other fulfillment solutions as you grow.

4. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Fulfillment Network: A modern and affordable alternative to working with 3PLs is to use a peer-to-peer e-commerce order fulfillment network. A P2P network is a collective of highly vetted eCommerce retailers who offer up excess warehouse space and resources to provide high-quality Walmart fulfillment to other merchants. As a result, costs are typically lower than what you get with a traditional 3PL fulfillment company, and service levels are higher. With a P2P network, flexible multi-channel fulfillment with nationwide 1-day and 2-day delivery is the norm. The diverse set of merchants ensures that each customer gets a solution customized to their needs, while innovative technology ensures the highest quality fulfillment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does fulfilled by Walmart mean?

Fulfilled by Walmart (FBW) is a fulfillment service where Walmart handles the storage, picking, packing, and shipping of products on behalf of third-party sellers who list their items on Walmart Marketplace. Similar to Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon), FBW allows sellers to leverage Walmart’s extensive supply chain and logistics network to streamline order fulfillment and improve delivery speed.

How do I enable WFS?

To enable WFS, you must sign up for WFS services in your Walmart marketplace. A US bank account is required for WFS fees. Once signup is complete, you can enable WFS for your Walmart sales channel in the Walmart portal.

How much does WFS charge for fulfillment?

WFS shipping fees are determined by the size and category of the product in question. Apparel, oversize items, hazardous materials, and those with a retail value below $10 per item incur additional fulfillment fees. Use this calculator from Walmart to estimate the cost of fulfilling your products using WFS.