What actually drives growth on Walmart Marketplace

Welcome and Introductions

00:03:12 Speaker 1: Welcome, everyone, to the webinar. I'm Damian. I'll be your host and moderator for today.

00:03:18 Speaker 1: We have a great session planned with some excellent content for both existing Walmart sellers, those just beginning to explore the channel, and those asking about launching.

00:03:29 Speaker 1: We'll be hearing from Walmart, Mikey, on how to succeed and grow, and also from Keter. We have a special guest, which is a leading outdoor storage brand. They successfully launched and scaled on Walmart via ChannelEngine.

00:04:13 Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm Damian, channel partnerships manager for ChannelEngine. I'm based in New York City, which is our US headquarters.

00:04:20 Speaker 1: My role is the bridge between our internal teams and external channel partners, which includes most major retailers, e-tailers, and e-tail outlets, including a strong partnership with Walmart.

00:04:36 Speaker 2: Absolutely, Damian. Thank you for the intro.

00:04:40 Speaker 2: Good evening, good afternoon, and good morning, depending on where in the world you're joining us from. Thank you for making the time to spend the next 45 to 60 minutes here in partnership with Walmart, Keter, and ChannelEngine.

00:04:52 Speaker 2: My name is Mikey. I've been at Walmart now for about 4 1/2 years. I lead a team of business development managers helping to onboard sellers, which will be a popular topic based on the early poll results.

00:05:04 Speaker 2: Ultimately, we help get you live on site, optimize, and set you up for success so your growth continues not only here in FY27, but for many years to come by finding a new channel.

00:05:20 Speaker 3: Thanks, Mikey. Hi, I'm Brooke Koster, director of e-commerce for Keter.

00:05:25 Speaker 3: We are a global manufacturer of resin products. We do outdoor, home, hardware, and storage across many different categories.

00:05:37 Speaker 3: You can find our products on Walmart.com and also Keter.com. Looking forward to telling you our story today.

ChannelEngine Overview

00:05:49 Speaker 1: For those of you not familiar with ChannelEngine, we're the host of this. We are a multi-channel management SaaS platform.

00:06:05 Speaker 1: What does that really mean? For brand, technical, or commercial leaders, this means brand control.

00:06:13 Speaker 1: We're seeing more brands look to get to new channels, maybe migrate a bit away from 1P or wholesale, and take that brand control, whether that's price, brand image, or content.

00:06:26 Speaker 1: Our solution automates real-time inventory synchronization, so you don't have to deal with the nightmare of overselling.

00:06:33 Speaker 1: We introduce AI-powered mappings to format your data perfectly for every local audience because we are global.

00:06:41 Speaker 1: We offer dynamic pricing guardrails. That's a big one as well. Pricing is a big component to selling on e-commerce because you're no longer passing price control to someone else. You, the brand, own it.

00:06:53 Speaker 1: Instead of building a dozen or so messy individual connections to different channels, Walmart, Amazon, or whatever else, you plug into ChannelEngine via Shopify, your ERP, NetSuite, a PIM, WMS, or pretty much any data feed.

00:07:08 Speaker 1: In return, you instantly unlock access to 1,300 channels globally.

00:07:15 Speaker 1: We have offices globally and global connections.

00:07:23 Speaker 1: If you have any questions about how this all works, how to streamline your sales, different channels, or how to streamline sales on Walmart, please get in touch.

Agenda

00:07:36 Speaker 1: Moving on to the agenda, we arranged the topics around how to accelerate sales.

00:07:42 Speaker 1: Many of you mentioned launching and how to launch successfully. I think this is perfect.

00:07:53 Speaker 1: A lot of information is available online, sure. The goal of these sessions is often to find the information that's not so readily available and provide it to you.

00:08:03 Speaker 1: So when you get set up, you're selling as fast as possible and doing as well as you can as fast as possible, and that's better for everyone.

Walmart Marketplace Growth Opportunity

00:08:19 Speaker 1: Mikey, starting with the big picture, a lot of people investigating Walmart have seen great growth numbers that have been released. They're hard to ignore. What is actually driving this growth, and why would now be such a key moment to get started?

00:08:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, Damian, thank you so much for the question. You're right. This slide to me represents opportunity and the opportunity cost for coming onto the Walmart Marketplace now.

00:08:49 Speaker 2: The numbers that you see here, 713 billion in FY26 and eight consecutive quarters of US e-commerce growth over 20%, are important. It is actually now nine consecutive quarters with our Q1 earnings for FY27 that just released over the last 10 days or so.

00:09:06 Speaker 2: We are not only being successful, we're having sustained growth quarter over quarter. That's no accident.

00:09:13 Speaker 2: Walmart Marketplace has really invested in the platform and in making this a hopeful destination for sellers or brands that want to join, diversify their portfolio of where they're selling, and find a new customer they may not currently be reaching.

00:09:30 Speaker 2: Secondly, we've really invested in the human capital component. We're putting people in seats to better help sellers scale once they come onto this.

00:09:39 Speaker 2: We're trying to have a one-to-one relationship with as many brands and sellers as we possibly can.

00:09:46 Speaker 2: That commitment to the Walmart customer, our partners, and brands is really what we set ourselves up for to help deliver these numbers many years ago when I joined the marketplace team.

00:10:10 Speaker 2: That's really what the opportunity is now for anybody who is not currently selling, and where you could potentially be three to five years from now with this trajectory in mind for growth and additional GMV.

00:10:26 Speaker 2: The last one I wanted to call out is that 23% of Walmart sales are now from e-commerce.

00:10:32 Speaker 2: Many brands are trying to get familiar with Walmart Marketplace as a potential channel because the narrative, with our 4,600 stores, is a 1P relationship with a merchant and getting that PO. That is the fundamental and foundational element of Walmart.

00:10:48 Speaker 2: But in partnership with partners exactly like ChannelEngine, this helps us have a scalable solution to expand their e-commerce presence into a new platform.

00:11:01 Speaker 1: Twenty-three percent is quite a big jump, especially with the start of Walmart being a huge retail operation and now having so much going through the e-commerce side of things.

Walmart Customer Profile

00:11:14 Speaker 1: Talking about who's shopping on Walmart, one thing that surprises a lot of brands is who's shopping there. Demographics and wallet of the consumer of different channels play a big part in where brands launch.

00:11:28 Speaker 1: Can you talk about the customer profile you're seeing? I think at times there are misconceptions about who's shopping on Walmart.

00:11:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. This is actually the most fascinating component and tells a great story about the difference between the 1P and merchant side of the house with 3P.

00:11:50 Speaker 2: We are seeing, from a consumer behavioral shift, a more affluent, higher wage-earning income coming to Walmart.

00:11:59 Speaker 2: Walmart has an incredibly loyal consumer. I recently saw stats that 13% of our customers, based on this study, are not cross-shopping on other platforms.

00:12:11 Speaker 2: We understand that people are price sensitive, but we also have that retention of bringing that assortment, and customers are finding the assortment they want and are not cross-shopping.

00:12:30 Speaker 2: At the end of the day, we're here representing our businesses, but when we take that lens off and think about ourselves as consumers, what are we doing to provide for our families and the things we enjoy?

00:12:43 Speaker 2: That is a fundamental shift in how brands need to think about selling with Walmart. If you're not selling directly with Walmart, we may be missing the boat. We may be missing an opportunity for somebody who isn't going to find you on another platform.

00:13:02 Speaker 2: We're seeing higher-earning consumers shift to Walmart because of global economic concerns and things beyond all of our control. People still need the goods they need for themselves.

00:13:21 Speaker 2: We are seeing about an 8% increase of customers with $100,000 or more coming to Walmart and staying with Walmart, and another 8% above $150,000.

00:13:34 Speaker 2: Previously, from the Walmart perspective of everyday low cost and everyday low price, maybe Walmart was not a fit. But if you are a premium brand looking to find a customer, the customers are already here for you to reach.

00:13:53 Speaker 2: The other thing that's fascinating is if you haven't checked Walmart for your own brand, you may already be on Walmart.

00:14:03 Speaker 2: You may already have representation from a distributor or reseller of your products that is not giving you the exact brand representation you're looking for.

00:14:15 Speaker 2: I would absolutely recommend going into Walmart, going into that search query, seeing if your brand is already there, and seeing if there's misalignment between what you're trying to communicate with the customer from your DTC or other marketplace sites.

00:14:33 Speaker 2: ChannelEngine can help with brand content ownership and help us communicate to the customer effectively.

00:14:41 Speaker 1: I love that. We see this in a lot of channels. Brands find out they're on a channel, they're outraged, and it's like, I need to take action.

00:14:54 Speaker 1: Go there, check it out, see what you're finding at Walmart if you're not there yet, and we can see what we can do to get you on and have more brand representation from the brand itself.

Keter's Decision to Prioritize Walmart

00:15:05 Speaker 1: Brooke, hearing all that, does it match why Keter decided to prioritize Walmart? What was the deciding factor for you?

00:15:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, Keter's decision wasn't really just about reach. It was really the right customer at the right time.

00:15:21 Speaker 3: Our business was moving from a 1P model to marketplace. We needed to move fast, and we knew Walmart was a priority for us.

00:15:30 Speaker 3: It's the right customers, as Mikey just said, a variety of customers covering many different categories. It's a trusted platform, honestly. It was something we needed to be part of and knew that.

Keter's Walmart Marketplace Launch Story

00:15:49 Speaker 1: If we talk about Keter's Walmart story a bit more, can you walk us through what you were trying to achieve, what the challenges were, and how it played out?

00:16:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. We needed to see continued sales success as the business was moving.

00:16:09 Speaker 3: We had a great 1P. There was urgency because we knew we needed to be on the marketplace as well.

00:16:16 Speaker 3: Walmart's merchants were showing the importance of marketplace because we could extend the shelf from what was in store.

00:16:23 Speaker 3: We needed to publish a large assortment of products, maintain pricing, win the buy box, and play around various fulfillment areas, both in WFS and WFM.

00:16:36 Speaker 3: The biggest part of the challenge was being able to do this without adding additional workflow to our teams on the back end.

00:16:49 Speaker 3: We started looking at opportunities out there, and ChannelEngine is who we partnered with.

00:17:01 Speaker 3: They held our hands along the way. We had several different calls. We never felt confused or unsure what we needed to do next.

00:17:09 Speaker 3: The partnership with ChannelEngine allowed us to launch a multitude of items on one platform, which is easy to manage.

00:17:18 Speaker 3: We can manage our inventories, pricing, winning buy box, and inventory levels across one platform.

00:17:29 Speaker 3: It really was scary when you are so used to doing e-commerce and 1P, but marketplace was new. We just never felt that we were left out there once we partnered.

00:17:50 Speaker 3: We were able to launch. We started with about a quarter of our products, and we had them launched in six weeks.

00:17:59 Speaker 3: We signed on with ChannelEngine, had the API connection done on the back end, and it was pretty flawless.

00:18:10 Speaker 3: We immediately went into training with their team, and then we saw week-over-week sales growth.

00:18:16 Speaker 3: We opted in more to Walmart Marketplace, put more items in, and then we started seeing month-over-month sales growth.

00:18:24 Speaker 3: Walmart really has become a very scalable sales driver for Keter.

00:18:33 Speaker 1: We hear this quite a bit. Brands have a legacy of 1P or wholesale, but want more brand ownership and higher margins that come with selling on marketplace.

00:18:53 Speaker 1: It's a new world, and you don't want to hire 10 people for one channel or two channels.

00:19:01 Speaker 1: You can get the same team and one software. Start small, as you said, not with the full assortment. You learned it, had support from ChannelEngine, and had support from Walmart, which is not on every channel.

00:19:16 Speaker 1: Things went well, you scaled, added more products quickly, and here we are. Love to hear that story.

What Successful Brands Get Right Early

00:19:22 Speaker 1: Mikey, hearing what Brooke just described, does that reflect what you see from other brands that launch and grow well? What do they tend to get right early on when starting?

00:19:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, I would like to double down on the fact that Brooke and the Keter team engaged with ChannelEngine first and foremost from a scalable solution.

00:19:45 Speaker 2: The speed and ease of use of that platform through the API integration, and being able to do things quickly, is huge.

00:20:06 Speaker 2: It is a scalable solution, especially with the tech stack you offer and what you bring to Walmart. It really is unparalleled and such an amazing value that you deliver for our brands and sellers on Walmart Marketplace.

00:20:22 Speaker 2: Secondly, we touched on the people within the Walmart Marketplace infrastructure.

00:20:28 Speaker 2: We have teams that help with onboarding and WFS shipments. You have a direct line for escalations and internal navigation.

00:20:37 Speaker 2: That really is the difference of selling with Walmart as opposed to maybe selling in other channels. You have one-to-one access here.

00:20:49 Speaker 2: You have hosts like Damian on the ChannelEngine team who can be your advocate if something needs escalation.

00:20:54 Speaker 2: It really is meant to be a symbiotic relationship and partnership between the brand, the partner, and Walmart Marketplace to give a better consumer experience within Walmart.com.

00:21:06 Speaker 1: We work with a lot of different channels. Sometimes you don't get that support or feedback. Even for us, sometimes communication with a partner is not optimized, and that can translate into fewer sales.

00:21:19 Speaker 1: The fact that you have good communication with the channel, a high level of support with the software, and a good product is a recipe for success.

Marketplace Expectations and Operational Advantages

00:21:31 Speaker 1: Brooke, was there anything about Walmart that caught you off guard, either harder than expected or something that turned out to be a bigger advantage than you anticipated?

00:21:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, we had a little of both.

00:21:43 Speaker 3: One challenge was that Walmart puts its customer first, and there was a level of expectation we had to be accountable to.

00:21:52 Speaker 3: Shipping on time and quick responses to customers purchasing our products through the marketplace were challenges.

00:22:01 Speaker 3: We had to make some changes on our end, which actually only made Keter better in the long run. We knew we needed to be part of this and were willing to make that change.

00:22:13 Speaker 3: One of the biggest advantages we've found of the marketplace is our ability to pull levers to increase sales.

00:22:23 Speaker 3: If you are not succeeding, part of that is on us because we are able to get products launched within a few days and then pull levers to change pricing to win the buy box.

00:22:36 Speaker 3: Where we found success we didn't expect was managing inventories.

00:22:42 Speaker 3: If we have excessive inventory, we can get that product online, drop the price to get the buy box, and sell through inventory that otherwise you might end up selling at a loss to liquidate.

00:22:56 Speaker 3: It's really offered us a very beneficial opportunity.

00:23:00 Speaker 1: Or even if it's overselling because the inventory is not synced correctly. That's another issue we get quite often from other channels.

Winning the Walmart Buy Box

00:23:17 Speaker 1: Let's get into the buy box a bit. Mikey, winning the buy box is a goal for any seller on Walmart. It's something to know and explore.

00:23:28 Speaker 1: The way Walmart's algorithm works has some nuances. Brands may not anticipate how this algorithm works or know the details, but at a high level, could you walk us through how it works and where you see brands get it wrong when they first launch?

00:23:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I love talking about the buy box.

00:23:56 Speaker 2: I touched on this at the top of the call, but the game theory around reaching a customer on a listing is the ultimate strategy within e-commerce.

00:24:06 Speaker 2: At a very high level, being the seller of record on a listing and having that sold-by name there is the ultimate competition.

00:24:16 Speaker 2: You're getting that incremental sale, whether you own that listing as one of one and nobody is selling against you, or you are a reseller or brand up against other resellers.

00:24:31 Speaker 2: It is the fun part of being in this. The fundamental aspect of getting that add to cart and checkout is the reward of all the effort day in and day out.

00:24:42 Speaker 2: The buy box is comprised of three main components: listing quality score, price competitiveness, and shipping speed.

Listing Quality Score

00:24:53 Speaker 2: If we jump ahead to listing quality score, this is the foundation, like building a house. You don't want to have any cracks in it.

00:25:07 Speaker 2: The elements that go into this include ratings and reviews, price competitiveness, published in stock, content quality, and shipping speed.

00:25:23 Speaker 2: Within Walmart, Seller Center, and ChannelEngine, everybody who sells with Walmart has access to their listing quality score.

00:25:33 Speaker 2: The screenshot in the top right-hand corner, 71%, would be an encapsulation of what your overall assortment listing quality score is.

00:25:42 Speaker 2: Everything you've listed with us is aggregated into that score.

00:25:45 Speaker 2: On the right-hand side, you can see the listing score breakdown based on a quantitative score the algorithm has provided, along with qualitative performance of poor, good, and excellent in areas of improvement.

00:26:00 Speaker 2: These are recommendations based on the algorithm, not requirements, but they're in your best interest.

00:26:09 Speaker 2: The most exciting thing is the quantifiable impact. A listing quality of 80% or more converts 1 1/2 times more than listings with lower scores on average.

00:26:23 Speaker 2: This comes back to having the right content with all the images and having the content dialed so we're communicating to the consumer effectively.

00:26:30 Speaker 2: It also helps downstream with ad spend, driving return on ad spend, achieving higher ROAS, and making your dollars go further because consumers are finding the right products based on search queries.

00:26:43 Speaker 2: We're preventing cancellations and returns from incorrect products and having a much cleaner selling experience on site.

Price Competitiveness and Repricing

00:27:01 Speaker 2: Price competitiveness has two fundamental elements of winning the buy box: pricing and shipping speed.

00:27:13 Speaker 2: We talked earlier around EDLP, EDLC, premium brands, and how Walmart is becoming more of a home for premium brands. It doesn't mean you have to be a loss leader.

00:27:25 Speaker 2: The beautiful part about selling within 3P as a marketplace brand and seller is that you control your pricing, margins, and fulfillment strategy.

00:27:35 Speaker 2: It is ultimately a hands-on experience for the brand, completely different from the 1P side of the business if you already have a relationship with us.

00:27:43 Speaker 2: Getting the pricing dialed and understanding if you're winning the buy box, and who is winning above or below you, is important.

00:27:50 Speaker 2: We have automated tools via the repricer. That is an automated tool to give you more time back in your day.

00:27:58 Speaker 2: There's never enough time, whether you are an SMB seller wearing many hats on multiple channels or a large enterprise organization with a dedicated team.

00:28:09 Speaker 2: Time is still money no matter how you slice it.

00:28:13 Speaker 2: We want to make sure your pricing is competitive within Walmart and across multiple platforms.

00:28:19 Speaker 2: Even though we have a loyal customer, and I quoted 13% earlier, 87% of consumers are still cross-shopping.

00:28:27 Speaker 2: We don't want you to cannibalize a growth channel here with Walmart at the expense of another channel where you've already been successful.

00:28:41 Speaker 2: We want to help you scale earlier and faster.

00:28:44 Speaker 2: From a pricing standpoint, to win the buy box, you want to set those rules and have best-in-market pricing aligned with your other channels to retain and capture that seller within the Walmart site experience.

00:29:03 Speaker 2: Brooke, what worked effectively after you started to sell with Walmart? What pricing strategies did you need to adopt to become more competitive on site?

00:29:20 Speaker 3: We actually did not initially opt into Repricer. We thought it was something we could handle manually.

00:29:30 Speaker 3: We found that we were missing sales because we were losing the buy box.

00:29:34 Speaker 3: As anyone who sells online knows, a price can change several times in a day.

00:29:39 Speaker 3: When we looked into Repricer, what we loved about the Walmart platform is that you can set your own repricing strategy.

00:29:47 Speaker 3: You can choose to only match within the Walmart platform. You can choose to go outside across other competitors.

00:29:55 Speaker 3: We needed to maintain our profitability as well.

00:29:58 Speaker 3: We have different strategies for different items based on their competitiveness.

00:30:05 Speaker 3: Since we have done that, we have been able to bounce around with Repricer, consistently winning the buy box, and it's a hands-off approach.

00:30:16 Speaker 3: When doing this, we really needed to alleviate workload being added onto people's plates.

00:30:25 Speaker 2: That's amazing, Brooke. Thank you for sharing that story, because that to me is the why.

00:30:31 Speaker 2: When we think about what's in it for me, that's the value a repricer tool can equate to: saving time and helping you increase buy box conversion rate at the item level and within your overall assortment.

00:30:46 Speaker 2: Those are incremental sales you begin to capture by becoming more efficient within management of the platform.

00:31:00 Speaker 2: Brooke, thank you for sharing that anecdote because those are real dollars Keter has been able to capture over the years.

00:31:11 Speaker 2: Ultimately, price is going to be the number one variable within winning the buy box.

Shipping Speed and Walmart Fulfillment Services

00:31:19 Speaker 2: On the previous slide, we saw a 40% GMV increase and a 30% increase in overall buy box conversion percentage.

00:31:27 Speaker 2: Not only are we helping you save money with shipping speed by adopting WFS, we're also potentially saving you money on the back end from a fulfillment strategy of 15% or less on average.

00:31:42 Speaker 2: If you're selling more, you're also saving more by utilizing and adopting WFS. It's a win-win.

00:31:50 Speaker 2: From a shipping speed standpoint, we've all been conditioned to expect something in two days or less.

00:32:09 Speaker 2: How often are you checking out of the buy box to compare other sellers and look at shipping speeds for something you're going to purchase? More likely, you're using the fastest shipping speed possible.

00:32:25 Speaker 2: This is where we want to hone in on the qualitative consumer experience and how you can meet that demand for our sellers.

00:32:34 Speaker 2: With WFS, we see a 50% increase in adoption of our pick, pack, and ship services.

00:32:42 Speaker 2: Many brand sellers are probably familiar with FBA. Think of something similar, but anecdotally a better selling experience from seller feedback I've received, along with saving money.

00:33:00 Speaker 2: We're also an extension of your organization. If you have a robust logistics infrastructure, then continue to lean in there.

00:33:13 Speaker 2: WFS, faster shipping speeds, and what that does will help you with winning the buy box.

00:33:20 Speaker 2: If you're competing on the same listing and shipping faster, you can beat out your nearest competitor even at the same price.

00:33:27 Speaker 2: Secondly, by utilizing WFS, you extend the holiday shopping window for a consumer.

00:33:43 Speaker 2: If your own seller-fulfilled carrier has a cutoff of December 7th to guarantee deliveries later this year, WFS may have a 20th, 21st, or 22nd cutoff.

00:33:50 Speaker 2: You're giving yourself an additional two weeks to compete at the highest traffic time of the year within the site experience, and that is also real dollars.

00:33:53 Speaker 2: Shipping speed can be such an impactful component on top of pricing.

Content Quality and Brand Protection

00:34:15 Speaker 1: I want to touch on content. This is a major one and comes up quite often: content listing quality.

00:34:25 Speaker 1: Listing quality score is where a lot of brands quietly leak performance and maybe fall short without realizing it.

00:34:36 Speaker 1: Can you break down the components within listing quality and where even established brands fall short?

00:34:47 Speaker 1: In my experience, brands will launch channels and perhaps do the bare minimum. There's no consistency in their images on this channel, no high-res or high-quality assets, or fewer images and less product information than on other channels.

00:35:14 Speaker 1: Then you can't possibly expect the same kind of sales. This all goes down to how you are listing the health score of that content.

00:35:27 Speaker 2: Absolutely, Damian. Thanks for bringing this back to content quality, because at the end of the day, that is the foundational component of communicating to the customer within a virtual storefront.

00:35:37 Speaker 2: The content recommendations within Seller Center and through ChannelEngine are actionable.

00:35:47 Speaker 2: We're going to tell you specifically that an item needs more images or that we need to increase keywords.

00:35:54 Speaker 2: We're going to make sure we are narrowing the focus and helping you prioritize at the item level what assets and variables need to be filled in and plugged in.

00:36:06 Speaker 2: For registered brand owners, registering within the brand portal within Walmart helps you with intellectual property protections.

00:36:15 Speaker 2: It also helps you unlock the brand shop within Walmart Connect, which is our ad portal, to have rich media, including 360 images and videos, to communicate more effectively to the customer.

00:36:30 Speaker 2: When we talk about content, it's also about going a level deeper for our brands to make sure we have those protections and can unlock greater enhancements and capabilities within the site experience for that Walmart customer.

00:36:53 Speaker 1: Our software helps with this in a major way. We use a traffic light system.

00:36:59 Speaker 1: We know the bare minimum and what's suggested to list for content. It tells you whether you've met the minimum requirements, where you need more, and what other attributes you could fill in.

00:37:13 Speaker 1: It's very easy to manage. You can work with an account manager within ChannelEngine and your account manager within Walmart to make sure listings, pricing, and everything else are optimized.

Advanced Pricing Strategy

00:37:30 Speaker 1: Pricing is a huge one for me. We did a survey of roughly 1,500 sellers globally, and 40% came back and said pricing changes were the biggest issue for inefficiencies when listing on channels.

00:37:50 Speaker 1: It's huge. It's constantly changing. If there are promotions and you have 1,000 SKUs across multiple channels, that is a lot of management.

00:38:01 Speaker 1: When you use software like ours, it gets easier, but pricing trips up a lot of brands, even those with strong content and experience.

00:38:10 Speaker 1: Can you talk a bit more about the repricer and why getting pricing right is so critical for buy box performance?

00:38:29 Speaker 2: Absolutely. From a repricer standpoint, I never want to see a brand go into the red from a margin perspective.

00:38:39 Speaker 2: The repricer allows you to set floors and ceilings down to the item level.

00:38:44 Speaker 2: Maybe it's part of an exit strategy and you're trying to liquidate, which goes back to earlier comments.

00:38:54 Speaker 2: But the repricer, whether it's on one item or an assortment of 1,000, is a scalable solution in real time to save time and capture incremental sales.

00:39:08 Speaker 2: The interesting part is that this was a game changer when we released this functionality a couple of years ago.

00:39:21 Speaker 2: The idea that I no longer have to check pricing manually every hour, turn that alarm off, and remove that from my calendar block is powerful.

00:39:31 Speaker 2: Capturing those sales, especially as times get busy and you expand more channels, and the set-it-and-forget-it component of the integration with ChannelEngine makes it effective.

00:39:42 Speaker 2: It allows you to sell within a centralized structure that ChannelEngine offers from an integration standpoint.

00:39:58 Speaker 2: It makes it easier to monitor price changes on multiple channels no matter where you're selling, so you know exactly how you're impacting your business.

00:40:07 Speaker 2: If you start seeing an increase on Walmart, you can understand whether you started winning the buy box or somebody else sold out.

00:40:14 Speaker 2: You can really start to get the game strategy of the impact of pricing.

00:40:20 Speaker 2: The other thing within Repricer is helping to find that sweet spot.

00:40:26 Speaker 2: If you are a brand owner and the only seller on that item within Walmart Marketplace, merchants are also seeing what they might look at for open call.

00:40:39 Speaker 2: Maybe your motive is to get into 1P in the fall for plans out of 2028, hypothetically, knowing where we are in 2026.

00:40:48 Speaker 2: Being able to find that sweet spot, maybe listing at $199 and not getting much traction, then doing strikethrough pricing and gaining traffic at $169.99 within a flash deal, can help drive impressions and conversions.

00:41:06 Speaker 2: If you have room within your margin, maybe you need to reconsider your pricing.

00:41:10 Speaker 2: The repricer tool and pricing become a sandbox for you on Walmart.com to measure and tinker to see how to be more effective within your listing.

00:41:21 Speaker 2: Pricing is a key element in a multitude of ways.

00:41:27 Speaker 1: That's something controlled within ChannelEngine. You have the option of doing Repricer through Walmart, and we have our native repricer as well.

00:41:34 Speaker 1: The bottom line is that as long as you're in control of your pricing, able to manage it, set minimum and maximum, and schedule pricing for promotions or holiday seasons, you have more control.

00:41:49 Speaker 1: That can take a lot of time if you don't have the right partner or software, especially if your catalog is big.

00:42:00 Speaker 1: For big brands, everything mentioned is magnified. You get more complexity, a more complex tech stack, and connectivity issues.

00:42:10 Speaker 1: Maybe you've run away from adjusting pricing because you're worried about the fallout, the headache, the additional volume, or selling below the margin you need.

00:42:22 Speaker 1: These are all features within our pricing engine.

00:42:28 Speaker 1: Brooke, how does this play out for you? You launched, played around with pricing, figured out quality score and logistics, and pricing was a big one. Talk to us about the pricing strategy used to win the buy box.

00:42:45 Speaker 3: We found using ChannelEngine's platform that we could set a min-max. It made it very easy.

00:42:53 Speaker 3: We did it through a spreadsheet, just a Google Doc uploaded into their system. Everybody knows how to work on those documents.

00:43:02 Speaker 3: If we were in a crunch for time, we set a ceiling-to-floor price.

00:43:08 Speaker 3: We were able to completely bounce around in between there as retails changed, keeping us winning that buy box.

00:43:16 Speaker 3: Like Mikey talked about, we need to stay profitable too. We can't go into the red. That's not what Walmart wants.

00:43:23 Speaker 3: We are able to maintain all of that with very little hands-on and extra work.

Category Demand and Assortment Growth

00:43:31 Speaker 1: A few more questions and topics, then we'll get to Q&sd; A

00:43:38 Speaker 1: Mikey, I need to know about categories, what's moving, and what's really selling.

00:43:51 Speaker 1: This is a big one for Walmart: getting products available for those who are looking for them.

00:43:58 Speaker 1: What's in demand now? For those exploring, what categories are in demand right now, and what's going to help fuel their growth?

00:44:10 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Great topic. I know this is something a lot of brands want to know: what is going to be my ROI if I decide to come onto the platform right now?

00:44:20 Speaker 2: Right now, we're looking at the assortment growth slide. The assortment growth is an unbelievable enhancement within the site experience for sellers.

00:44:30 Speaker 2: We're giving directional information based on category trends and areas of opportunity for our brands and sellers.

00:44:38 Speaker 2: First and foremost, Walmart Marketplace offers diversification of channels.

00:44:43 Speaker 2: Secondly, it offers an opportunity for full assortment parity.

00:44:48 Speaker 2: Maybe you have a few SKUs if you are a 1P partner, but another 25 items within your assortment that are not currently listed within Walmart.

00:44:59 Speaker 2: By joining Walmart Marketplace, you have full assortment penetration on site to also give merchants visibility to SKUs you may not already have in store.

00:45:10 Speaker 2: We are providing directional information. I don't want Walmart to overpromise and underdeliver, but we are providing indicators for traction in some categories and subcategories.

00:45:24 Speaker 2: Within Seller Center, ChannelEngine can help brands navigate toward those areas of opportunity.

00:45:39 Speaker 2: Maybe you have something right now, like camping. It's summer, there are holidays and vacations. If you're in the camping space, your items may be deemed a customer favorite. Those items are going to be in demand.

00:45:52 Speaker 2: We need to help optimize and get those onto the platform, so maybe we add them into your assortment if they're not already listed.

00:45:59 Speaker 2: There's also cross-category testing. Maybe you're a reseller utilizing ChannelEngine and trying to see what other areas of opportunity from distributors or redistributors you can connect with to start selling within Walmart.

00:46:13 Speaker 2: We're giving a lot more information now than we ever have before because we hear our sellers.

00:46:20 Speaker 2: We have our upcoming seller summit in San Diego at the beginning of September. That's where we receive information from sellers about what you need to be successful for Walmart.

00:46:33 Speaker 2: We take that information back. Assortment growth is one of those pieces of feedback we know you potentially have on our competitors.

00:46:42 Speaker 2: This is our way of helping meet that demand and helping you be more successful for those brands and that assortment.

00:46:47 Speaker 1: What I'm hearing is that it boils down to support. How can I sell more? Here's what's going to sell more. Here are the categories, products, SKUs, and collaboration.

00:47:02 Speaker 1: We can utilize that information Walmart supplies to make things happen from a deployment and activation standpoint.

Getting Started on Walmart Marketplace

00:47:11 Speaker 1: The question then becomes how to go live for brands that are here, and it sounds like quite a few haven't launched on Walmart.

00:47:20 Speaker 1: What does it actually take to get started on Walmart Marketplace? Maybe talk about any incentives that are around if you can.

00:47:29 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Getting started with Walmart, just by being here and learning, has helped provide some feedback based on that poll about how I can best partner with those of you who have not started with us yet.

00:47:43 Speaker 2: There is a QR code that will help with your application to get started.

00:47:53 Speaker 2: You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to have a conversation with you about any questions you have regarding onboarding.

00:48:01 Speaker 2: The new seller savings incentive highlighted here is available and eligible for all sellers coming onto the platform who are not currently selling with us.

00:48:11 Speaker 2: This is up to $75,000, and it's tiered savings for commission fees. There are WFS incentives, Walmart ad credits for advertising, and SEM.

00:48:23 Speaker 2: We're going to do everything imaginable to help you scale your business faster. If you're already using ChannelEngine, we can help you scale onboarding and ultimately scale your business while helping you save money.

00:48:37 Speaker 2: For some brands, there may be additional incentives that are eligible for you. Those are one-by-one partnership conversations by brand and seller.

00:48:50 Speaker 2: Our incentives have never been better. The SEM credit of $1,000 is new this year, where we did not have that in previous years.

00:48:58 Speaker 2: Our offer for new brands coming onto Walmart Marketplace has never been greater. We'd love to continue this dialogue after the webinar.

Keter Product Promotions and Seasonal Events

00:49:08 Speaker 1: That's how to get onto Walmart. The other side of it is already being on Walmart. What's selling well, and what product do you want to highlight, Brooke?

00:49:20 Speaker 3: For marketplace, you make it what you want.

00:49:27 Speaker 3: We have products that are in WFS. We have products that are in WFM. We can change with the pricer. They've made it very easy.

00:49:35 Speaker 3: For Keter, we have participated in deals and events where you can get reduced commission on some items if you opt in.

00:49:42 Speaker 3: We've seen double-digit sales growth numbers when we do that.

00:49:47 Speaker 3: At the end of this month, we are opting into the Walmart summer savings event.

00:49:53 Speaker 3: We're going to have a curated assortment of around 30 items on sale.

00:49:58 Speaker 3: We've got a deco coat technology. It's brand new out there. It looks like a wood-look texture on deck boxes and sheds.

00:50:05 Speaker 3: Check us out. We'd love to get some sales.

Approved 3PLs and Fulfillment Performance

00:50:17 Speaker 1: We had a bunch of questions come through the chat. Mikey, there was a request for approved 3PLs. It came through from a few people.

00:50:27 Speaker 1: We can follow up post-call to get them that information. If you want to touch on the major ones you're seeing, that would be great.

00:50:36 Speaker 2: We do have an approved list of 3PLs that we can provide, and I'll send that over.

00:50:45 Speaker 2: I can't speak specifically because we have to remain relatively agnostic of our partners, but I'm happy to provide that list.

00:50:54 Speaker 2: These are approved partners from an integration standpoint for anything you need from a fulfillment aspect.

00:51:05 Speaker 2: One of the biggest things I hear for anybody adopting a 3PL or switching 3PLs within the Walmart site experience is making sure the data flow is syncing and everything is moving smoothly.

00:51:24 Speaker 2: We don't want to run into performance-related issues.

00:51:28 Speaker 2: At the time of onboarding a 3PL, make sure your on-time delivery is status quo and your tracking rate is on par.

00:51:37 Speaker 2: Ultimately, we don't want a new partner impacting your performance and account health early on.

Strategy for High-End Products

00:51:44 Speaker 1: There was another question about high-end products, specifically furniture, but I think it could apply to any high-end product.

00:51:52 Speaker 1: What strategy at a high level do you think they could deploy to do well? High-end products may not necessarily be the products one would think of for Walmart, but we know they can sell well given Walmart's audience and vast consumer base.

00:52:14 Speaker 2: From my perspective, I would look at listing quality first and foremost.

00:52:20 Speaker 2: Premium products deserve premium placement, and I want to have a premium site experience.

00:52:24 Speaker 2: I would look there first to make sure we have done the foundational elements.

00:52:31 Speaker 2: Then I would want to curate. Are we the only seller on that listing as the brand? Are we against other sellers on that brand? Is pricing a concern? What is our ship speed?

00:52:42 Speaker 2: I understand these may be large, oversized items, so they may not necessarily be fast and free shipping, but we need to dig into every element within the seller experience for the consumer.

00:52:56 Speaker 2: Secondly, what is being done from an advertising standpoint?

00:53:01 Speaker 2: I don't want to spend good money at a bad situation. I want to make sure we do everything first from all the blocking and tackling before we start trying to advertise and scale to drive impressions.

00:53:14 Speaker 2: One thing Brooke mentioned earlier is getting involved in summer deals. What are the areas where we could start planning deals and promotions to help drive visibility?

00:53:26 Speaker 2: One thing I did not touch on earlier is that there is zero entry fee to sell with Walmart.

00:53:33 Speaker 2: There's no hosting fee. We're not bidding for buy box.

00:53:36 Speaker 2: The biggest hurdle to overcome is time and resources, whether that's dedicated headcount, the agreement to move forward with expanding to Walmart, or inventory allocation.

00:53:48 Speaker 2: The barrier to entry is really zero cost up front.

00:53:52 Speaker 2: Walmart does not make money if you're not making money, so we would love to partner and see how we can best scale.

Advertising Strategy on Walmart

00:54:19 Speaker 1: Brooke, there was a question about advertising and how you did it on Walmart. Are you able to share anything about your strategy for advertising?

00:54:30 Speaker 3: We do participate in keyword bidding.

00:54:35 Speaker 3: I'm not going to give exact dollars, but we do have a budget. We're very seasonal, so it fluctuates month over month.

00:54:46 Speaker 3: We absolutely bid to keep our products in front of the consumer.

Omnichannel Marketplace Management

00:54:51 Speaker 1: There was a question about your approach to being omnichannel, not just Walmart. Are you doing channels outside of Walmart?

00:55:03 Speaker 3: We are, and we use ChannelEngine. They're handling three different customers for us, which is a beautiful thing.

00:55:11 Speaker 3: You go into the front page of the platform, and I can see all three. I can click into which one I want to go into.

00:55:21 Speaker 3: We can manage those platforms through one place or one Google Doc with ChannelEngine, and they can separate it out for us.

00:55:32 Speaker 1: You're able to see the performance as well. You mentioned you're seasonal, and there are certain ebbs and flows throughout the year.

00:55:39 Speaker 1: You're able to see performance at a holistic level and then break it down by product or channel, which is helpful.

00:55:48 Speaker 1: Performance is something you're able to track. You might be leaking performance if something got away from you in terms of logistics, or things are not shipping or being delivered on time.

00:55:57 Speaker 1: That will affect your score, and you will see that in performance trends week over week.

00:56:01 Speaker 1: All of a sudden you're not winning buy boxes because the score is dropping. That's something you want to check first when you log in.

00:56:07 Speaker 1: How are sales doing? What's my score like? That will give you some direction about what to do next.

1P and 3P Through ChannelEngine

00:56:14 Speaker 1: There was a question for me: is there a way to be 1P and 3P simultaneously through ChannelEngine?

00:56:19 Speaker 1: Yes, it all depends on the channels available. We primarily do 3P because it gives you more control of the brand.

00:56:23 Speaker 1: There's more to adjust and change when it comes to 1P, and there's very much less control.

00:56:30 Speaker 1: For us as a solution, it's about trying to be all things e-commerce. Eventually we'll have as many 1P channels as possible, though it is a bit limited now.

00:56:40 Speaker 1: Talk to us if there's a specific channel you want. We can support it anytime.