This is a guest post from the Walmart Marketplace. Please also note that Walmart’s Item Spec has now been updated to 5.0—find out more here.
The first step to achieving conversion on an online marketplace is having an active audience ready to shop and make a purchase—check.
Walmart.com attracts millions of monthly customers who search for their perfect match among nearly endless categories and products.
The next steps are largely up to the seller: providing quality items and content, offering competitive pricing, and guaranteeing fast, reliable shipping.
Walmart Marketplace equips its sellers with all the tools necessary to achieve those important steps with helpful technology and processes.
Read on to discover how Walmart Marketplace’s essential features—Item Spec 4.0, Listing Quality, and expedited shipping—help sellers stand out and boost conversion.
1. Make Item Setup Work for Your Product Discoverability with Item Spec 4.0
Recently, Walmart Marketplace updated its 3.2 spec iteration to a new version known as Item Spec 4.0.
It brings many new capabilities, including enhanced data definitions, new and more specific closed list values, modernized attribute names, and greatly improved attribute organization.
All of these features work together to provide sellers with not only a streamlined workflow when uploading and maintaining items but also improved item description pages that customers view.
Setting up items correctly using Item Spec 4.0 can improve their discoverability on Walmart.com and can contribute to a shopper’s decision to make a purchase.
One of the most important ways this happens is through proper attribution.
With up to 40 required attributes for marketplace sellers and up to 80 recommended attributes, Item Spec 4.0 is already set up to help sellers succeed.
Attribution appears in a few ways on Walmart.com, greatly affecting a person’s shopping experience.
Whether the attributes are the colors of a sweater, types of fitness equipment, age ranges of toys, or flavors of beverages, they factored into the Walmart.com shelving experience and left-hand navigation.
In other words, the way product pages are organized on the site starts with the attributes selected by the seller when setting up items.
By ensuring proper attribution, you don’t risk missing out on extra impressions and clicks while customers are browsing and narrowing down their search results in your category.
2. Get Actionable Insights to Improve Conversion with Your Personalized Listing Quality Score
We want all Marketplace sellers to feel supported and prepared with insights tailored just for them, and that’s where the new Listing Quality process comes in.
Thanks to an advanced algorithm that weighs factors that can affect a customer’s purchase decision, each seller has a numerical Listing Quality Score that signals the overall health of their listings on Walmart.com.
This exciting growth tool is designed to simplify setting up attractive listings and provide sellers with concrete, clear advice to help them succeed.
The higher the score, the better, but if it’s low, sellers always have the opportunity to improve it (guided by specific tips found in the Listing Quality Dashboard).
The Listing Quality Score consists of four main factors: content and discoverability, offer, ratings and reviews, and post-purchase quality.
A high-quality listing on Walmart.com will have clear Titles, Descriptions, Images, and Attributes (uploaded via Item Spec 4.0!), competitive pricing, convincing reviews, and expedited shipping options.
In the same way that correctly using Item Spec 4.0 can affect an item’s placement on Walmart.com, taking Listing Quality seriously can also make a big difference.
Top-notch item page content can help you gain more product visibility in search results, and detailed product descriptions are known drivers of conversion.
For each listing, we recommend including at least four high-resolution product photos, a Description paragraph with a minimum of 150 words, and a descriptive Title with 50-75 characters.
For more in-depth tips on this topic, check out the entire Listing Quality Optimization Guide.
Putting in the effort to get your catalog in its best shape will pay off in the long run.
BONUS tip: Walmart Marketplace recently introduced the Pro Seller Badge, a mark of excellence given to top-performing sellers to help them stand out and drive conversion.
Listing Quality works together with other factors, including cancellations and returns, to determine a seller’s eligibility. Learn more.
3. Win over More Customers with Expedited Shipping
Once you’ve mastered using Item Spec 4.0 and optimizing your listings with the Listing Quality Dashboard, you can’t overlook an equally important component of your sales strategy: expedited shipping.
It’s no secret that customers have come to expect fast shipping, and Walmart Marketplace provides a portfolio of options to fit each seller’s needs.
Offering two-day and three-day shipping is the best way to go when possible because these speedy options are proven to increase conversion on Walmart.com.
In fact, products on the two-day program see a 50% lift in conversion on average.
With the introduction of Shipping Templates, another recent improvement to Marketplace processes, it’s easy for sellers to customize their shipping strategy based on warehouse locations, shipping carriers, and items they deem worthy of two-day or three-day shipping.
For example, Shipping Templates would allow sellers to offer two-day on items that ship to regions near their fulfillment centers while keeping three-day or Standard shipping elsewhere.
There are dozens of ways to customize Shipping Templates and optimize your shipping strategy to win more customers.
Whether you fulfill your own items or want to participate in Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), expedited shipping is available for your catalog.
Expedited shipping attracts customers and improves your Listing Quality Score, so it’s a win-win.
Let Walmart Marketplace’s Solutions Give Your Business a Boost
You’ve just learned a lot about Walmart Marketplace, but Item spec 4.0, Listing Quality, and expedited shipping are just a few of the company’s features.
In addition to providing internal tools, Marketplace partners with best-in-class solution providers, including Descartes Sellercloud, to help sellers reach their full potential.
Whether you’re an existing Marketplace seller or want to learn more and request to sell on Walmart.com, discover even more benefits from the world’s largest omnichannel retailer.
When a quality seller partners with a high-traffic ecommerce destination, plenty of conversion is bound to happen.
Schedule a Descartes Sellercloud demo today to discover how we can boost your Walmart Marketplace potential.
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