October 2023 Seller Fulfilled Prime Guidelines – What’s New, What’s Changed, What’s Important?
In this article
19 minutes
- No time to read? No problem! Watch this quick video summary instead.
- Program Requirements and Criteria
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- No More Protection Through Buy Shipping Usage Available
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- More flexibility in picking carriers and services
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Less Hassle for Merchants in Meeting This Metric
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Prime Badge Available Nationwide For all SKUs, but with the Caveat of Higher Shipping Fees
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Delivery Speed Expectations Increase Across Every SKU
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Time to Enrollment Shortens for Some Sellers, While Others May No Longer Be Eligible
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Amazon Gives Sellers More Chances, but the Road Back is Extremely Tough
- Previous Expectations
- New Expectations
- Return Costs Rise for Sellers - Even When the Onus is on the Buyer
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On August 8, 2023, Amazon announced a wide range of changes to the criteria it expects sellers to meet on its Seller Fulfilled Prime program. The company introduced new requirements, while updating its expectations from merchants across other metrics. These include on-time delivery, valid tracking, nationwide delivery, delivery speed, free returns and program fees. Amazon has also removed the use of the On-Time Shipment metric and no longer requires the use of its Buy Shipping services.
No time to read? No problem! Watch this quick video summary instead.
In this article, we breakdown each criteria – explaining the old requirements and the new ones that will go into effect on October 1, 2023. We also explain the impact we expect sellers to face from each of these changes.
Program Requirements and Criteria
On-Time Shipment (OTS)
The On-Time Shipment Rate is defined by Amazon as the number of units that shipped on or before the Promised Ship Date / Total No. of Shipped SFP Units.
Amazon tracks this metric based on when the carrier scan occurs.
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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> 99% OTS rate expected.
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Amazon is no longer going to track this metric on Seller Fulfilled Prime. The company claims that it is doing this to provide greater flexibility of shipping services and carrier options.
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Positive (but only if you have the right technology in place!).
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Previous Expectations
If an order is received before the cut-off time Mon-Fri and Sat/Sun (whichever the seller prefers to enable), carrier scan must occur the same day.
A carrier scan must occur the next day if an order is received after the cut-off time.
This is the most important metric in the current Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements.
New Expectations
Sellers will no longer be judged on this metric.
You don’t have to ship the same day if shipping tomorrow is optimal
Under the current Seller Fulfilled Prime guidelines, Amazon requires sellers to ensure a carrier scan is conducted the same day for all orders received before the cut-off time.
There are situations where this rule forces sellers to unnecessarily use expensive air shipping, at the expense of more economical services. It’s best to understand this with an example:
Let’s imagine you’re a seller with 2 warehouse locations – one in Los Angeles and the other in New York. Imagine that you receive an order from a customer in Connecticut at 3PM ET on a Monday:
Ideally, you would like to use an economical ground service which can reach the customer in time by fulfilling the order from your New York warehouse. However, because it is past the cutoff time in New York, but before the cutoff time in Los Angeles, Amazon will expect a carrier scan that same day. The only way for you to ship from Los Angeles and deliver to the customer by the promised date is through an expensive air shipping service.
However, with carrier scans no longer required on the same day, you can now choose to ship the next day from your New York warehouse through a service like UPS ground – which is 3.5X cheaper than the air service. Such cost savings can only be achieved, however, if you have the right technology in place. Your shipping software needs to intelligently compare warehouse locations, carriers and shipping services to determine the most economical option to use, which still satisfies the customer expectation.
On-Time Delivery (OTD)
The On-Time Delivery Rate is defined as Number of Units delivered on or before the Promise Date (which the customer sees at the time of checkout) / Total No. of SFP Units Shipped.
Amazon tracks this metric based on 2 parameters – the delivery date committed to the customer when they checkout, and when the package is actually delivered at their address.
Previous Expectations
Under the old program, Amazon heavily pushed the use of its Buy Shipping Service. Amazon might also believe that only the services on Buy Shipping are capable of meeting the delivery promises made to customers.
Therefore, it was only in cases when labels were bought off of Buy Shipping that sellers were held to the high bar of 97% on-time delivery.
New Expectations
This becomes the most important metric under the new Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements.
Amazon is also going to minimize the provision of “Promise Extensions” (in some cases, the customer is shown a later delivery date because Amazon factors in buffer time due to logistical challenges at the seller’s end).
They encourage sellers to begin by looking at their On-Time Delivery Rate for orders without Promise Extensions (to get a sense of their ‘true’ order fulfillment levels).
No More Protection Through Buy Shipping Usage Available
While the 93.5% on-time expectation is a reduced one, which is more favorable for sellers (they don’t have to be perfect every time), this metric could still work against them. The major reason for this is that sellers now lose the protection that the previous program afforded – so long as they bought the label on Amazon Buy Shipping, and performed the carrier scan in time, they could not be held accountable for any delays in order delivery due to carrier issues. Now, it no longer matters whether the label was bought through Buy Shipping or if a carrier scan occurred in time – sellers must meet the 93.5% benchmark. The biggest contributor to making it happen are the shipping carriers. The biggest criteria by which Amazon measures success on the program is now in the hands of a factor that the seller cannot entirely control – the ability of the shipping carriers to execute operations smoothly and without disruption.
Buy Shipping Usage
Amazon Buy Shipping is Amazon’s system through which sellers and merchants can purchase shipping labels to fulfill their orders.
The Buy Shipping Usage % is defined as the Number of Units for which labels were bought with Buy Shipping / Total No. of SFP Units Shipped
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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>99% Buy Shipping usage
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No longer tracked
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Positive
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Previous Expectations
Buy Shipping usage is extremely important. Sellers must print nearly every label on Buy Shipping. Complying with program requirements boiled down to printing labels on Buy Shipping, and then ensuring carrier scans occurred on the same day.
New Expectations
Sellers will not be judged any longer by this metric – this is the biggest step Amazon claims it is taking to provide sellers and merchants “greater flexibility of shipping services and carriers”.
In return for being able to pick services off of Buy Shipping, a timely carrier scan will not suffice – the orders need to actually reach the customer within the Promised Delivery Date >93.5% of the time.
More flexibility in picking carriers and services
Amazon Buy Shipping has one major issue that numerous sellers have reported anecdotally. The platform does not do a good job of estimating the delivery speeds of USPS services. Buy Shipping sometimes excludes USPS services that are actually capable of meeting the delivery date, forcing the seller to pick a more expensive shipping label that it does believe is capable of reaching the customer in time. Buy Shipping also occasionally runs into errors, where it does not return a particular carrier for no particular reason. In all these cases, merchants are forced to buy labels off Buy Shipping, which reduces their usage less than the 99% bar.
With this requirement gone, sellers are now free to pick the ‘truly’ cheapest service. However, you can see the benefits of this only if you have an intelligent multi-carrier shipping software in place that rate-shops multiple carriers and shipping services to identify the truly cheapest label on each order.
Valid Tracking Rate (VTR)
Amazon provides its customers tracking numbers for them to be able to see where their order is at.
An order has valid tracking if it receives a first carrier scan (the scan that is performed by the carrier to indicate that the order is in transit).
Amazon defines the Valid Tracking Rate as Number of Prime packages with a Valid Tracking ID / Number of Prime packages for which shipment has been confirmed.
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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Not tracked currently
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>99% – Amazon requires that the scan be made by an Amazon – integrated carrier.
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Neutral
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Previous Expectations
Sellers were not assessed on this metric.
New Expectations
Sellers are responsible for updating shipping carrier, shipping service and tracking number information on Amazon for each order, to enable customers to track the status of their packages.
Less Hassle for Merchants in Meeting This Metric
Amazon expects each package to have at least one carrier scan. This scan must occur before the customer receives their order, so that they can use the tracking number to see where their order is on Amazon. The fact that the carrier scan does not have to occur the same day is a positive for sellers. Many sellers have reported issues with carrier operations on the weekends – their packages are picked up, but no scans are actually conducted on a Saturday. Under the current program, this leads to violations of the OTS metric.
Under the new program, sellers should not face too many hurdles with getting packages scanned once before they reach customers.
Nationwide Delivery Coverage
This refers to the ability for products to be made available with fast shipping across the contiguous United States (the lower 48 states).
This expectation is based on the size tier that the item falls into (Standard Sized / Oversized / Extra Large).
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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Only for Standard-sized Products
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Expected for every SFP SKU, across all size tiers
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Has Positives and Negatives
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Previous Expectations
Standard-sized products must be made available within the entire contiguous U.S. on fast shipping.
Oversized items can be serviced within specific regions (also known as Regional SFP) – nationwide fast shipping is not required for them.
New Expectations
Products across all 3 of Amazon’s size tiers – Standard Sized, Oversized and Extra Large – must be made available in the contiguous U.S. on fast shipping.
Any product (regardless of size tier) that is configured with a Prime shipping template has a minimum delivery speed of 3-5 calendar days – sellers cannot edit this.
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Get My Free 3PL RFPPrime Badge Available Nationwide For all SKUs, but with the Caveat of Higher Shipping Fees
Amazon is now willing to provide sellers the Prime badge nationwide on oversized and extra large SKUs, whereas previously it was restricted to just the specific regional part of the country the seller operated from. The metrics for 1- and 2-day delivery are not yet extremely high. This is on the whole a positive for sellers because the Prime badge boosts search rank, conversion and sales on these SKUs.
The negative is that the minimum delivery speed across every size tier is 3-5 days. This is a calendar-day based metric, which includes Sundays and Holidays. Therefore, it may not be possible to always use discount services capable of meeting the delivery timeline, such as USPS Priority Mail, FedEx Home or UPS Ground. In some cases, the seller might still be forced to use expensive air shipping.
Delivery Speed Metrics
Amazon tracks this based on the % of Product Detail page views that promise same-, 1- or 2-day delivery to customers.
This percentage will be calculated based on pageviews from customers across the entire contiguous United States, not just those in your defined regions for Same-, 1- or 2-day deliveries.
Previous Expectations
Amazon introduced the delivery speed metric as a percentage of product detail pageviews that promise customers same-, 1- or 2-day delivery.
The calculation is based on calendar days, and includes Sundays and holidays.
New Expectations
The delivery speed metrics across all size tiers have increased. They will now be based on pageviews from customers all over the lower 48 states, in addition to those in your defined regions for same-, 1- and 2-day deliveries.
Amazon has said that it does not have targets for Same-Day Deliveries initially.
However, as Amazon focuses on same-day deliveries for its inhouse FBA logistics network, there might be revisions to this in the coming months.
Delivery Speed Expectations Increase Across Every SKU
- This is how delivery promises will be displayed to customers (assuming a cut-off time of 2PM, and that you deliver every order within 1 day after it ships).
- These metrics have always been the most crucial and challenging for sellers to meet. Sometimes, they’ve been unfairly penalized for them also. Let’s say you’re based in New York, and a customer in Connecticut is browsing your product detail page at 6 PM ET. Even though you may be capable of delivering the package to them the next day, Amazon will still show only a 2-day delivery promise.
Achieving a high % of 1- and 2-day delivery pageviews nationwide is not easy, and relies largely on ensuring that your inventory is strategically distributed in a network of USA fulfillment centers so that customers from everywhere see fast shipping promises.
Trial Period
Sellers hoping to be a part of the SFP program must go through a trial period where they can prove to Amazon that they are capable of meeting the rigorous criteria of the program.
During this trial period, when customers shop their products, they will not see the Prime badge on the listings. On successfully completing the trial period and meeting the SFP criteria, Amazon will enable the Prime badge for the listings.
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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A short pre-trial process, followed by a 90 day trial where 200 orders have to be shipped, while meting all SFP criteria.
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A 90 day pre-qualification process, followed by a 30 day trial where 100 orders have to be shipped, while meeting all SFP criteria.
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Positive for Some, Negative for Others
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Previous Expectations
Before the trial:
Have a Professional seller account, and activate Premium Shipping. Fulfill 30 Premium orders in 1 month.
During the trial:
Fulfill 200 orders in 90 days. Do so while meeting all requirements of the SFP program.
New Expectations
Products across all 3 of Amazon’s size tiers – Standard Sized, Oversized and Extra Large – must be made available in the contiguous U.S. on fast shipping.
Any product (regardless of size tier) that is configured with a Prime shipping template has a minimum delivery speed of 3-5 calendar days – sellers cannot edit this.
Time to Enrollment Shortens for Some Sellers, While Others May No Longer Be Eligible
Previously, the trial period was longer in length and order volumes – having to fulfill 200 orders in 90 days while meeting the program criteria. Now, if you’ve self-fulfilled 100 packages in the last 90 days (or under, say 60 days) – you can get on the shorter trial of 30 days. The overall time to Seller Fulfilled Prime enrollment is potentially shorter (if a merchant can move past pre-qualification quickly).
However, when comparing 200 packages in 90 days to 100 deliveries in 30 days, sellers are expected to ship nearly 50% more orders per month – this can exclude sellers with small monthly volumes who were previously eligible to participate in the program.
Performance Evaluation
Amazon periodically assesses how its SFP sellers are faring, and to check whether they are meeting the expectations set for them.
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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Tracked every 7 days, and every 30 days
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Tracked every 7 days
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No change
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The evaluations that Amazon conducts on sellers continues to occur at the same cadence that it always has – sellers will not face anything new.
Amazon will begin tracking sellers against the new set of metrics beginning October 1, 2023.
Resolving Disputes
Needless to say, order fulfillment is complex and mistakes can occur. While merchants face no penalties for mistakes that FBA makes, sellers on Amazon SFP face severe penalties for issues with orders.
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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If a requirement is missed, Amazon will suspend SFP for you and require you to submit a Plan of Action.
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If a requirement is missed 3 times, you lose SFP eligibility.
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Positive (if your SFP Fulfillment Partner has responsive support)
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Previous Expectations
The Plan of Action needs to explain why you slipped up, what specific steps you’re taking to fix the current situation and measures that will be put in place to ensure it does not repeat.
New Expectations
An email will be sent the first time a requirement is missed. The Prime badge will be “paused” the 2nd time you miss the same requirement. If you are sure the issue is fixed, you can restart the Prime badge. If you make it through four weeks without violating the same requirement after you restart the Prime badge, your account will be reset. If you do miss the same requirement the 3rd time, you will lose the Prime badge. If you go through the pre-qualification process, you can start an SFP trial again.
Amazon Gives Sellers More Chances, but the Road Back is Extremely Tough
Under the previous Seller Fulfilled Prime requirements, when Amazon found sellers missing a certain metric, it would suspend them from the program and require submission of a Plan of Action. This was harsh – a single mistake could lead to suspension of the Prime badge. This was exacerbated by the resolution process – it can take a long time for Amazon to get back, and if they deemed the Plan of Action not good enough, they could delay reinstatement on the program.
Now, sellers have 3 strikes per program requirement. Additionally, this gives a chance to sellers to dig into why they missed a metric and work with their fulfillment partner to ensure it does not repeat again. Sellers that have an SFP fulfillment partner with responsive, reliable customer support should not face too much trouble in ironing out their errors and continuing their participation in the program. However, if the 3 strikes do occur, then it is a long, long way back – sellers must begin all over again – right from the pre-qualification process.
Free Returns
When a customer wishes to return a Return-eligible Prime item, the sellers are in most cases required to pay for the cost of the return shipping label, and to provide the customer a full refund. In a small number of cases, the customer might be required to bear the cost of the shipping label – in these cases, a refund is provided after deducting the price of the label.
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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Sellers are required to bear the cost of the return shipping labels in all cases, EXCEPT certain Buyer reason codes.
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For any return eligible item under 50 lb, the Seller must provide free returns – irrespective of the buyer / seller reason code.
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Negative
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Previous Expectations
When the return had these Buyer codes, sellers were exempt from bearing the cost of the return label:
- Accidental order
- Better price available
- No longer needed or wanted
- Performance or quality not adequate
- Incompatible or not useful for intended purpose
- Part not compatible with existing system
- Excessive installation or did not install
New Expectations
Sellers must bear the cost of the return shipping label even in the cases of the above-mentioned buyer reason codes.
Return Costs Rise for Sellers – Even When the Onus is on the Buyer
Previously, in certain cases, sellers could provide refunds after deducting the cost of the shipping label. Now, even in cases where the onus may lie on the buyer’s side, the seller must bear the cost of the return shipping label. This is an additional expense that they must bear, which was not the case previously.
Program Fees
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Old SFP Requirements
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New SFP Requirements
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Impact on Sellers
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|---|---|---|
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Does not exist
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No Fee (a charge was originally planned by Amazon and subsequently withdrawn)
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No Impact
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Amazon originally announced that they would charge sellers 2% of the unit price for every item shipped via Seller Fulfilled Prime, or a minimum of $0.25.
Amid growing scrutiny from regulators over anti-competitive practises, the company withdrew this fee for concerns over how sellers and officials would perceive such behavior. Amazon withdrew the fee a few days before September 26, 2023 when the Federal Trade Commission and 17 US states sued the company for anti-competitive behavior.
Amazon Resources
We hope you found our breakdown helpful and informative!
To read more about the old requirements that the program wanted sellers to meet, visit this page on Amazon Seller Central: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external/G202072550
To read about the new requirements that Seller Fulfilled Prime will enforce starting October 1, 2023, visit this page on Seller Central:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external/GXCRLXHNJNPE2DHM
You can also read our guide to selling and winning on Amazon Seller fulfilled Prime to learn everything there is to know about SFP before you start the process in October 2023.
Written By:
Jeremy Stewart
Jeremy Stewart leads customer success at Cahoot, helping merchants achieve high-performance logistics through smart technology and process optimization. With a background in both ecommerce operations and client services, Jeremy ensures that every merchant using Cahoot gets measurable results—whether they’re scaling from one warehouse to many or managing complex returns.
Turn Returns Into New Revenue
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Fulfilled By Walmart Meaning: Understanding Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) – Pros & Cons | Cahoot
In this article
11 minutes
- Overview of Walmart Fulfillment Services
- How does Walmart Fulfillment Services work?
- Eligibility and Requirements for WFS
- Costs and Fees for Using WFS
- Benefits of Walmart Fulfillment Services
- Drawbacks of Walmart Fulfillment Services
- Alternatives to Walmart Fulfillment Services
- Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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Get My Free 3PL RFPMultiple 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.
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See Scale JourneyAlternatives 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.
Written By:
Rinaldi Juwono
Rinaldi Juwono leads content and SEO strategy at Cahoot, crafting data-driven insights that help ecommerce brands navigate logistics challenges. He works closely with the product, sales, and operations teams to translate Cahoot’s innovations into actionable strategies merchants can use to grow smarter and leaner.
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How to Grow Sales on Walmart With Two Day and Three Day Delivery
In this article
18 minutes
- What is TwoDay and ThreeDay Delivery?
- What Benefits do the Two Day and ThreeDay Tags Give?
- How To Qualify for TwoDay and ThreeDay Delivery
- Walmart Seller Performance Standards
- Offering TwoDay Delivery: Walmart Fulfillment Services
- Offering TwoDay Delivery: ShipBob
- Offering TwoDay Delivery: Flexport (Deliverr)
- Offering TwoDay Delivery: Your Own Warehouses
- Offering TwoDay Delivery: Cahoot
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
For many sellers in ecommerce, Amazon has long been the platform that they simply could not ignore. However, in recent times, another channel has emerged. Walmart is arguably America’s most well known retailer – the company has a sprawling footprint of around 4,615 physical locations in the US alone. Recent developments, including the rise of Amazon and the Covid-19 pandemic have pushed the Arkansas-based retailer into investing more in ecommerce.
Walmart’s ecommerce accounts for 18% of its total sales volume and expects its ecommerce business to continue to grow significantly, as it has grown over 10% year over year for the last 4 years. The company’s Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey acknowledged that the majority of the company’s profits come from its physical stores. However, he expects ecommerce to continue to grow significantly in the coming years, outpacing Amazon growth. To that end, the company has invested $7.2 billion in supply chain, omnichannel and technology infrastructure. Early results from the company are promising – in the second fiscal quarter of 2024, ecommerce sales grew 24% (compared to 6.4%) for comparable in-store sales. The company also reported that active digital users grew 20% in the quarter. 95% of American consumers visit Walmart stores at least twice a year. While Walmart crossed 150,000 third party sellers on its marketplace as of May 2022, that number pales in comparison to the 1.9 million that Amazon has. However, one thing is certain – Walmart is likely to continue growing investments in ecommerce, and take advantage of the enormous shopper base their physical locations attract. This represents a growing base for ecommerce brands and merchants to sell to.
However, just like Amazon, free and fast shipping is almost a prerequisite for success. On Amazon, customers apply the Prime filter when shopping just to see products that come with fast delivery. In many ways, shipping is no longer a back office operation, it has become central to today’s customer experience. Walmart allows sellers to gain competitive advantages by offering TwoDay and ThreeDay delivery.
In this article, we’ll take a look at what benefits TwoDay and ThreeDay delivery offers on the marketplace, what it takes to earn the TwoDay fast shipping badge, how to ensure you’re compliant with the seller performance standards and some options available to merchants to offer fast Walmart fulfillment.
What is TwoDay and ThreeDay Delivery?
As their names suggest, TwoDay and ThreeDay delivery tags are applied to offers on Walmart which feature free delivery to customers in two or three business days.
In a world where customers are constantly comparison shopping across brands, listings and marketplaces, free and fast shipping provides strong competitive advantages. In many cases, customers choose knockoff or imitation products over superior alternatives simply because of faster delivery.
The Delivery Tags are a great way to gain prominence on the marketplace, distinguish yourself from competitors and to build customer lifetime value through repeat purchases.
What Benefits do the Two Day and ThreeDay Tags Give?
The important thing to understand is that the two day and three day delivery options are slightly different from each other in a few, significant ways. In each section, we’ll examine the difference between them and what benefits sellers get from each.
|
Feature |
ThreeDay |
TwoDay |
|---|---|---|
|
Increased conversion |
As high as 30% |
As high as 50% |
|
Buy Box Prominence |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Increased Search Ranking |
No |
Yes |
|
Filter Inclusion |
No |
Yes |
|
Fast Delivery Tag |
No |
Yes |
High Conversion Lift
The single biggest advantage sellers get from offering customers TwoDay or ThreeDay delivery is the increased conversion. In Walmart’s words, these are the conversion lifts that sellers can expect to see with these delivery offerings:
Boosts Search Rank and Discoverability
Many sellers are already familiar with Amazon’s A9 algorithm. For those not aware, the A9 algorithm factors in a variety of criteria to rank listings on search results in the Amazon marketplace. In a similar fashion, Walmart has what it calls a “Listing Quality Score”. The algorithm applies weights to different criteria (such as price and shipping speed) before ranking listings on search results.
Offering two day or three delivery, and earning fast delivery tags go a long way toward improving your Listing Quality Score, improving metrics such as Buy Box win rates and search rankings. Here’s the difference according to Walmart:
The filter inclusion is similar to the filter Prime shoppers apply when browsing the Amazon marketplace just to see Prime eligible listings.
Fast Shipping Badges
On marketplaces like Walmart, customers have almost infinite choice – fast shipping badges are a great way to stand out and quickly become the preferred listing for customers.
Here’s what you get with TwoDay and ThreeDay:
How To Qualify for TwoDay and ThreeDay Delivery
Now that we’ve taken a look at all the benefits that the two badges offer, let’s examine what actually needs to be done to qualify for these options.
ThreeDay Delivery
For ThreeDay Delivery, sellers need to perform no extra work! They can simply configure a shipping template with “Standard” shipping method and then pick a transit time of 3 days.
Sellers can configure their shipping template in the Walmart Seller Center.
TwoDay Delivery
Sellers aiming to achieve two day speeds on their Walmart fulfillment (and earn the fast shipping badge that comes with it) have 3 different options available to them:
- Use Walmart Fulfillment Services
- Work with Walmart’s partners – ShipBob or Flexport
- Ship yourself (using your own warehouses or 3PL).
If you’re choosing to use your own fulfillment, you will need to meet these requirements:
- Have been a seller on Walmart for 90 days or fulfilled at least 100 orders
- Maintain an on-time shipping and delivery rate greater than 95%
- Maintain a valid tracking rate greater than 95%
- Have a cancelation rate lesser than 1.5%
- Offer free returns
Let’s assume you do what it takes and you’re now selling more with your fast delivery tags – great! But as sellers know, it’s crucial to stay on top of the requirements of the marketplace to ensure you retain your fast shipping badges and keep your listings active. Here’s what sellers need to do on Walmart:
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As per Walmart’s seller help documentation, these are the requirements that merchants on its platform must adhere to; sellers must ensure their products are delivered on time and in good condition. This includes providing accurate tracking information and maintaining a low rate of order cancellations and returns. Additionally, sellers using freight services must ensure timely delivery to maintain performance standards. Let’s look at these points in detail:
On-Time Delivery Rate
Sellers must maintain an On-Time Delivery Rate greater than or equal to 95%. To give this some perspective, let’s compare this against a program like Seller Fulfilled Prime.
While SFP has more demanding speed metrics (expecting roughly 30% of orders on standard sized SKUs to be delivered within 1 calendar day), Walmart has higher on-time delivery expectations. SFP expects only 93.5%, while Walmart expects 95% on-time delivery.
This means that you need to find partners with order fulfillment networks that have warehouses at multiple strategic locations, so that you can shorten the distance to your customers and make your Walmart fulfillment faster.
The only downside is that this leaves sellers at the mercy of the carriers, such as USPS, UPS and FedEx. Their ability to deliver products accurately and on time becomes important.
Valid Tracking Information
Sellers must maintain a Valid Tracking Rate greater than 99%. This requires strong technology and integrations between your fulfillment platform and Walmart. Whenever you receive orders, your systems must write back tracking information automatically to Walmart.
Make sure that you check your fulfillment partner has solid technology and 2-way integrations (such as Cahoot’s with Walmart) that fetch and push important information.
Refund Rate
Sellers must maintain a refund rate less than 6%. This applies to reasons that the seller is responsible for, such as items being damaged or incorrect items being received.
It is essential that you identify fulfillment partners with checks, balances and procedures to prevent such issues. For example, Cahoot has scan-verification technology to nearly eliminate the possibility of incorrect items being picked and packed. Additionally, you need to ensure that your fulfillment partner has excellent pick-pack and order fulfillment practices to package items well, following all relevant guidelines and procedures. Warehouses on the Cahoot network must pass a 44 point checklist before they can begin fulfilling orders for sellers – ensuring industry leading fulfillment standards.
Cancel Rate
Brands must maintain a seller-initiated cancel rate of less than 2%. Such events can commonly occur when orders are received on items that are actually out-of-stock.
Cahoot has a powerful integration with Walmart that pushes back inventory count information. Additionally, the system also comes with dashboards that provide color-coded alerts about your inventory levels (yellow to indicate it’s time for replenishment, and red to indicate that it needs to be done in a hurry!) This ensures you can minimize stock-outs.
Additionally, if you’re fulfilling from multiple locations, make sure that your software has intelligent exception management capabilities to handle problems at one node. If stock-outs or bad weather occur, you can still keep your promise to customers if your shipping software intelligently reroutes orders to other locations.
Seller Response Rate
Sellers must respond to customer inquiries that they receive within 48 hours, more than 95% of the time. The reason for this is obvious – Walmart is positioning itself as a serious challenger to Amazon, which has built a reputation for stellar customer experience. Walmart expects its sellers to offer customers a similar quality of service.
Offering TwoDay Delivery: Walmart Fulfillment Services
Walmart Fulfillment Services is the retailer’s inhouse logistics network, using which you can make your listings eligible for TwoDay Delivery. Let’s take a look at its pros and cons.
Pros of using WFS
Just like using Fulfillment By Amazon makes your listings eligible for Prime automatically, using WFS earns you TwoDay Delivery. There is no requirement to meet the qualification criteria.
As Walmart invests in growing its ecommerce capabilities, supply chain infrastructure building will be a key focus area. With 31 fulfillment centers dedicated to ecommerce as of June 2022, the company’s warehouse footprint ensures that it is possible to achieve nationwide two day delivery.
According to comparisons between Amazon FBA and Walmart WFS, the two programs are relatively level with each other on fulfillment fees. Sellers already used to working with FBA might see savings on some SKUs with WFS, while others might be cheaper on FBA.
The broad implications for sellers are similar to those with Amazon. For fast moving SKUs with minimum storage times that are small or lightweight, WFS will offer great rates. For big and bulky items, you may be able to find better alternatives offering more competitive rates. The real pain with programs like FBA and WFS is seen on long-tail or slow moving SKUs. When items don’t leave a Walmart Fulfillment center quickly, storage fees can rapidly eat into your margins.
Sellers must choose whether to work with WFS or look for alternative providers based on careful analysis of their specific product catalog.
Cons of using WFS
Possibly the biggest limitation of WFS is that it is restricted to just your Walmart orders. This means you’ll probably need to continue using FBA for Amazon, while you seek out another partner for your Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM) or Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) orders. You’ll also have to check if this partner supports other sales channels, such as Shopify (DTC), eBay or Target. Finding such a partner becomes harder if you’re selling to other retailers like Nordstrom or Macy’s, and require B2B replenishments as well.
WFS does not offer competitive pricing for big and bulky items. Additionally, their storage fees make the service impractical for slow-moving or long tail SKUs.
For a seller with a SKU mix that features these types of items, WFS may not make a lot of sense.
You’re already used to sending your inventory to FBA warehouses. That has caused sellers significant headaches with inventory receiving delays and damages in transit. If you use WFS to handle Walmart, you’ll have to repeat all your inbounding processes that you did for FBA – if you sent your items to an Amazon warehouse in California to handle West Coast orders, you’ll have to do it again to a Walmart Fulfillment Center. You’ll have to learn Walmart’s guidelines and processes for receiving inventory and get used to working with another partner.
While Walmart’s warehouse network is smaller compared to Amazon, they also face similar problems – a large number of sellers vying for limited spaces. This means you’ll face peak season surcharges for storage.
image courtesy: Walmart Fulfillment Services
This illustrates the problem – if you don’t have a SKU that is fast moving, you’re in trouble. This means storage fees triple on SKUs that have been sitting in Walmart Fulfillment Centers for more than just 30 days! For SKUs that have been sitting for more than a year in their warehouses, the rates can be even more expensive.
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See Scale JourneyOffering TwoDay Delivery: ShipBob
Pros of Using ShipBob
As ShipBob is one of Walmart’s approved partners, brands that use them can instantly activate TwoDay delivery.
ShipBob has a global network of warehouses. This allows them to spread inventory across multiple locations to reach customers within the two day window.
Cons of Using ShipBob
ShipBob operates their own warehouses. While this may provide them control, it also places significant fixed costs and assets on their bottom line. With leasing rates, warehouse worker wages and carrier rate increases all going up, they may have no choice but to pass on the increased costs to their customers.
On the other hand, asset-light, powerful models like Cahoot’s fulfillment network are designed from the ground up to save customers more. In our experience, 9 out of 10 ShipBob customers see savings when they switch to Cahoot.
As this article explains, ShipBob customers have complained about times when they’ve found it difficult to get hold of someone from the company to fix their issues. Walmart does not hold 3PLs accountable for issues with deliveries, it holds you, the merchant, directly responsible.
Offering TwoDay Delivery: Flexport (Deliverr)
Pros of Using Flexport (Deliverr)
As one of Walmart’s official providers, you get instant access to TwoDay delivery.
With over 80 Warehouses, Flexport’s DTC offering (formerly Deliverr) has the scale required to support nationwide 2 day delivery.
Cons of Using Flexport (Deliverr)
Deliverr’s rates are not competitive for big and bulky or oversized items. If a lot of your SKUs are in this category, you might need to evaluate other options.
Since the exit of Dave Clark from Flexport, the company has been facing significant challenges internally. With recent reports that the company plans to lay off as much as 20% of their workforce, prospective customers might be nervous about the ability of the company to keep up its service levels and customer experience.
“The real difference-maker for us with Cahoot was [that Cahoot works] across the board and that regardless of where a consumer is, they can get their product in two days. The Cahoot full-service solution simplifies our operations and upgrades our delivery experience at the same time.”
~ Cali’s Books (switched from Flexport to Cahoot)
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Offering TwoDay Delivery: Your Own Warehouses
Pros of Using Your Own Warehouses
You make the rules, you play by them! Having your own fulfillment operations frees you from having to rely on anyone else for fulfillment.
If you can manage your fulfillment for WFS, that allows you to scale the same for your other sales channels and online marketplaces. You don’t need to inbound inventory multiple times. It allows you to become leaner and manage your inventory much more efficiently.
Cons of Using Your Own Warehouses
With warehouse lease rates, worker wages and carrier GRIs all on the rise, it has rarely been more difficult to absorb the last-mile costs associated with making deliveries.
A brand aiming to cover the continental US with 2 day shipping requires at least 4 strategically located warehouses (a strategically located warehouse is one that is close to a major population center of the US – such as the Northeast, Southern California, Chicago Midwest region and Texas). This can be a significant drain on your resources. Even for very large brands, the economics are proving hard to justify.
When you bring fulfillment operations in-house, the complexity of running your own logistics can overtake your focus on the activities that actually matter – selling and taking care of your customers.
Running your own fulfillment operations can leave you drowning in busy work and process management.
Offering TwoDay Delivery: Cahoot
Pros of Working with Cahoot
Cahoot has one of the largest warehouse networks in the US. We have 100+ warehouses, rivaling Amazon’s 110 fulfillment centers. Other providers, including Walmart themselves and ShipBob do not have as many warehouses.
Such a huge network offers certain advantages.
The first is that we have warehouse locations that work for nearly any brand. Different brands see orders coming from different regions. Brands selling well-established, commodity-style products might see most of their orders come from the major population centers, such as the Northeast and Southern California. On the other hand, someone selling surfing gear might see most orders come in from Florida and California. Similarly, someone selling skiing and winter sports equipment might see most of their orders come from Colorado or Vermont.
Whatever the geographic spread of your customer base, we’ve got warehouses that can deliver products to your customers in 1 or 2 days using economical ground shipping.
The second is that our vast network allows us to scale to meet the requirements of extremely challenging programs, such as Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime. What’s challenging for other providers isn’t for us.
While other providers may not have the best rates across all SKU sizes, we have competitive pricing for all types of items – small, fast-moving, big and bulky, long-tail and seasonal.
While the likes of WFS and Flexport may become more expensive for oversized items, Cahoot offers competitive rates across the size spectrum. We also have a good track record of offering ShipBob customers meaningful savings on their current shipping fees.
This ensures that you’ll keep fulfillment costs under control and get back more savings to focus on growing your business.
“We onboarded with Cahoot at the beginning of Q4 with the single goal of reducing our 3PL costs. We have been happy to see considerable savings on SPD costs instantly. The team continue to work with us to ensure we distribute our inventory to the right locations across the US to reduce our SPD label costs. Rather than buying an app or a service, it feels like we have begun a great partnership with the Cahoot team who have a genuine interest in helping our business to succeed.”
~ QUICKPLAY Sport
Speak to a fulfillment expert
With WFS, you’ll have to work with multiple partners to handle your fulfillment across different sales channels. Cahoot is out-of-the-box integrated with all leading online marketplaces and shopping cart platforms. We also support B2B replenishments. You can use Cahoot as a one-stop shop for fulfillment, ensuring that you can run lean on inventory and streamline your operations.
Lastly, working with a partner like Cahoot cuts down the number of relationships you need to manage, freeing your team from process management and busy work. Working with a trusted full-service partner is also better than running your own fulfillment operations. You’ll reclaim time, resources and bandwidth to focus on activities that grow your brand, rather than get caught in the complexity of managing logistics.
When comparing providers like ShipBob, Flexport and Cahoot, the quality of customer support matters. There are many advantages to working with a partner rather than Walmart directly, because of their ability to handle fulfillment on other channels. But the key thing to remember is that Walmart holds brands directly responsible for any issues with shipping. And while fulfillment is crucial to business operations, things don’t always go as planned. That’s why it’s important to quickly get help when you need it. Cahoot’s US based team is always ready to offer assistance when you need it, ensuring minimal downtime for your business.
Cons of Working with Cahoot
cahoot offers the most benefits to merchants with some degree of traction, who are currently shipping at least 250 orders a month (roughly 10 packages a day).
Once merchants cross the initial phase, we can help them scale operations with our powerful network and technology.
Conclusion
Like with Amazon, offering free and fast shipping is critical to succeeding on the Walmart marketplace. Offering TwoDay and ThreeDay delivery has a number of advantages – including improving buy box win rates, rankings in search results and most importantly, conversion lift. Merchants have a number of options available to offer two and three day deliveries, including using Walmart Fulfillment Services, their inhouse logistics, ShipBob, Flexport or Cahoot. It’s important for merchants to identify partners with both a large warehouse network, as well as competitive rates across the size spectrum. It’s also important to look for providers that bring full-service capabilities beyond just the Walmart channel, so that sellers can cut down the number of providers they have to work with to manage their logistics. This has the added benefit of streamlining inventory management. Lastly, sellers should make sure to pick a fulfillment partner that offers reliable, responsive support. After all, you’re accountable to Walmart, not your 3PL!
With the nation’s largest retailer now aggressively investing in ecommerce, it’s a perfect time for all sellers and brands to bring their products to Walmart. The key is doing so in a way that keeps complexity and costs low, while growing sales with free two and three day deliveries on every order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I charge customers a shipping fee with TwoDay Shipping?
No, Sellers cannot charge shipping fees while using TwoDay Shipping.
Do I need to apply TwoDay Shipping to all my products?
No. Once approved for TwoDay Shipping, Walmart does not require sellers to apply it on all products.
Does Two Day Shipping include weekends?
No. Weekends and holidays are not included in Walmart TwoDay Shipping.
Written By:
Indy Pereira
Indy Pereira helps ecommerce brands optimize their shipping and fulfillment with Cahoot’s technology. With a background in both sales and people operations, she bridges customer needs with strategic solutions that drive growth. Indy works closely with merchants every day and brings real-world insight into what makes logistics efficient and scalable.
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Fulfillment Revamps Cause “Out-of Stocks” for Walmart Shoppers
In this article
Walmart online shoppers are finding it more difficult to order certain items — heavier products like detergent and pet food and bulkier multi-item orders that are expensive to ship — The Wall Street Journal reports.
E-commerce fulfillment is the bane of any online retailer, which is why solving the last mile has emerged as e-commerce’s Holy Grail.
Shipping and fulfillment costs are bedeviling all players, including Amazon, which has arguably set consumer expectations for fast and free shipping. The e-commerce giant’s shipping costs rose 31% year over year in its most recent quarter, after rising more than 30% (and usually more than a third) in the last five quarters, according to its second quarter earnings report.
The company for half a century has staked its own success on fiercely efficient retail distribution, playing hardball with suppliers and honing its supply chain to maximize profits. But it’s a system based on legacy retail, where the customer supplies free labor to cover the last mile: taking items off shelves, bringing them to checkout, loading them into the vehicle and getting it all home.
Walmart has struggled to bring the same level of efficiency to its online sales, though it continues to experiment. Last month, the company revamped a pilot program, in which store employees deliver online orders. And, the company says it will have expanded its prominent in-store pickup towers to 700 stores by year’s end.
Written By:
Jeremy Stewart
Jeremy Stewart leads customer success at Cahoot, helping merchants achieve high-performance logistics through smart technology and process optimization. With a background in both ecommerce operations and client services, Jeremy ensures that every merchant using Cahoot gets measurable results—whether they’re scaling from one warehouse to many or managing complex returns.
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