Unveiling Walmart Marketplace: A New E-Commerce Track with Low Barriers and Less Competition

As the battle on the Amazon platform escalates to a “boiling point,” with 2 million sellers fighting for traffic on a narrow track and the high monthly fees and stringent rules making many merchants feel overwhelmed, a massive opportunity that was once ignored is quietly emerging: the Walmart Marketplace.

As seasoned e-commerce professional Josh Hackett declared in 2025, “Walmart will be better than Amazon.” This is not just a casual remark, but a conclusion based on his personal experience of easily making over $100,000 in just one year by only “testing the waters.” For sellers seeking a breakthrough, Walmart is not just a “backup plan,” but a new track full of potential.

The Core Appeal of Walmart: Reshaping the Seller’s Profit Model

Operating on the Walmart platform means you’ll enter a business ecosystem radically different from Amazon’s. The advantages here are fundamental, reshaping the cost structure and profit models for sellers.

1. Significant Cost Advantage: Freeing Up Profits from the Source

Cost is the primary metric for assessing the health of a platform. In this regard, Walmart’s advantages are clear:

Zero Monthly Fee Barrier: Unlike Amazon’s fixed $39.99 monthly fee, Walmart currently completely waives the monthly fee for third-party sellers. This means you don’t pay any fixed cost for the “right to open a store,” making every revenue stream purer.
Reasonable Commission Structure: Amazon’s complex commission system (6%-45%) can severely erode profits in high-commission categories. Walmart’s commission range (6%-20%) is more stable and transparent, providing sellers with a healthier profit margin.
Stable Fulfillment Costs: Amazon’s fulfillment fees, which often triple during the Q4 peak season along with various miscellaneous surcharges, have always been a nightmare for sellers. In contrast, Walmart’s fees are not only lower but also have less volatility, allowing for more accurate cost forecasting and inventory management.

2. Blue Ocean Market Characteristics: From “Survival of the Fittest” to “Intensive Cultivation”

The nature of competition determines the difficulty of operations.

Disparate Seller Counts: 2 million vs. 120,000. This nearly 17-fold difference clearly reveals the disparity in the competitive environment. On Amazon, it’s like a “100-meter dash”; on Walmart, it’s more of a “marathon.”
“First-Mover” Bonus: Currently, the vast majority of consumers still believe they are buying directly from Walmart. This “halo effect” of brand trust provides early-joining sellers with natural traffic and conversion advantages. Here, you don’t have to fall into endless price wars; high-quality Listing optimization can yield generous returns.

3. A Friendlier Regulatory Environment: From “High Pressure” to “Partnership”

A platform’s rules determine the seller’s state of survival. Amazon’s “iron-fisted” policies keep sellers in a constant state of anxiety, while Walmart demonstrates a “win-win” attitude.

An “Unsuspendable” Guarantee: As long as you use WFS (Walmart Fulfillment Service), you gain a kind of “death-defying amulet.” Unlike the constant fear of being suspended on Amazon for historical issues or “fabricated” reasons, Walmart’s operating environment provides stability and peace of mind for sellers.
Clear Boundaries of Rights and Responsibilities: Walmart’s rules focus more on building an efficient and reliable fulfillment system rather than frequently adding new restrictions. This allows sellers to focus their energy more on the product and customer service itself.

4. Leveraging Brand Halo: Trust Endorsement from Zero Start

This is Walmart’s most unique “killer app.”

Natural Trust Bonus: Over 75% of consumers don’t know they are buying from a third party. They are not buying your brand, but the “Walmart” gold-plated sign. This trust provides unprecedented breaking opportunities for new products and zero-review sellers.
Lowering the Conversion Threshold: On Amazon, a new product with zero reviews is almost ignored. On Walmart, even without reviews, as long as the price is competitive, buyers will generously place an order due to their trust in the platform. This is equivalent to the platform “acquiring new customers” for you, greatly shortening the growth cycle from 0 to 1.

Strategy for Victory: Achieving Lean Growth During Walmart’s Bonus Period

Of course, seeing the opportunity is only the first step. How to turn that opportunity into tangible growth is the key. As shared by an insider, Walmart’s success is no accident; it stems from a proven and effective strategic system.

Win with Breadth, Build a “Moat”: At this stage, with few sellers, Walmart’s algorithm is more favorable to merchants with a wide product range. Listing multiple SKUs not only increases the chances of being found but also invisibly builds a scale barrier.
Price Sensitivity, Dynamic Optimization: Walmart’s backend automatically monitors your prices and compares them to major competitors like Amazon. Maintaining price competitiveness is the key to gaining exposure. Using tools to monitor competitors and implement dynamic pricing is an essential skill.
Lock in WFS, Solidify the Foundation: WFS is your “anchor” in Walmart. It not only solves the 2-day shipping challenge and improves the customer experience but is also the key to gaining the platform’s trust and avoiding suspension. In short, not using WFS means giving up the “safety card” of Walmart operations.
Dual-Track Advertising, Stacking Traffic: Walmart not only has its own PPC advertising system but also introduced an SEM system similar to Google’s. This means sellers can acquire customers from both in-site search and off-site traffic dimensions simultaneously. This “dual advertising” model is something Amazon does not offer.

In this golden period where both rule differences and information gaps coexist, in addition to correct strategy execution, invisible intelligence warfare is equally crucial. Do you need to anonymously monitor competitors’ pricing strategies? Do you need to safely test the potential of different product categories? Do you need to manage multiple brands to mitigate risks?

Traditional browser operations are inadequate in the face of these challenges. Every click, every search can expose your business intentions, or even lead to account association and suspension.

This is where the FlashID Fingerprint Browser provides its core value—it is not just a simple tool, but the “infrastructure” that enables you to achieve refined and professional operations on this new track.

Invisible Competitor: Using FlashID, you can create multiple anonymous, separate browser identities, each with a unique IP address and browser fingerprint. You can “disguise” yourself as an ordinary consumer from different regions to safely and continuously track your competitors’ rankings, prices, and promotional activities without worrying being identified or banned. This is the “clairvoyance” for dynamic pricing and product selection strategies.
Fortress of Accounts: When you need to expand your business by opening multiple Walmart stores, FlashID can ensure each store operates in a clean, isolated “sandbox” environment, completely eliminating the risk of “account association” and allowing your business empire to move forward steadily and for the long term.
Automated Market Insight: FlashID’s RPA automation scripts and window sync features allow you to execute market research with unprecedented efficiency. Write one script to complete information collection simultaneously in multiple “virtual” windows, leaving tedious, repetitive work to the machine, allowing you to focus on higher-level strategic decisions.

In summary, Walmart paints an exciting blueprint for sellers in 2025. FlashID is the “map” and “armor” in your hand. It ensures that you can not only see the scenery ahead but also arrive at your destination of success safely and efficiently.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Will Walmart’s policies become more and more like Amazon’s? How long will this bonus period last if I join now? A: It’s predictable that as the number of sellers increases, Walmart’s policies will inevitably become more complete and stringent. However, the real “bonus period” doesn’t lie in perpetually loose policies, but in the window from 0 to 1. When the number of sellers grows from 120,000 to 500,000 or even 1 million, although competition will intensify, compared to the already red sea of Amazon, huge advantages still exist. Seizing the “tail” of the blue ocean to establish brand and scale advantages before policy tightening fully arrives is the biggest bonus.
Q: My biggest concern is the cost of WFS (Walmart Fulfillment Service). Can I make it work if I self-fulfill my orders? A: Theoretically possible, but highly not recommended. It might work for small, low-value test products. But if you want to operate long-term and stably, abandoning WFS is like cutting off your own arm. Because in Walmart’s algorithm, the ability to use WFS is the core metric for measuring whether a seller is “professional” and “reliable.” The experience of self-fulfillment is far inferior to WFS’s “2-day shipping.” It will not only severely affect Listing ranking and conversion rates but also leave the seller in a passive position when any logistics issues arise.
Q: Will the fact that “buyers don’t know about third-party sellers” disappear as more sellers join? When should I stop leveraging this? A: This is inevitable, but you have enough time to convert this trust. The shift in consumer perception is a slow process. What you should do is not leave before consumers “discover the truth,” but use this trust early on to build your own real brand. By providing excellent products and services, you can gradually guide consumers’ trust from “Walmart” to your own brand. This is the highest level of play.
Q: When I move from Amazon to Walmart, what major adjustments do I need to make to my Listings? Can I just copy and paste them? A: You cannot just copy and paste. Although the core optimization logic (like keyword placement, A+ content thinking) is interchangeable, you must adjust it according to the “consumer mindset” of Walmart. For example:
- Titles and Descriptions: Should emphasize “value” and “cost-effectiveness” more, as Walmart’s consumer base is generally more “price-sensitive” than Amazon’s.
- Images and Videos: Should more intuitively highlight product usage scenarios and feature points, reducing overly complex or creative visuals.
- Copywriting Style: Should be more direct and straightforward, in line with Walmart’s “Save money, live better” brand tone.
Q: Is Walmart’s PPC advertising easy to run? What are the essential differences compared to Amazon’s ads? A: Very easy to run, it can even be described as “dimension-striking down.” The essential difference lies in:
- Competition Level: Amazon’s ad space has long been a “red sea,” with the CPR (Cost Per Result) of core keywords pushed to an extremely high level by competitors. Because of very low seller participation, the keyword CPR for many categories on Walmart is still in a “blue ocean” stage, and good exposure can be obtained with a low cost.
- Intent Level: Users shopping and searching on Amazon have extremely strong intent and a short conversion path. Users who see an ad on Google (via Walmart SEM) and then enter have their purchase intentions that need to be further “awakened.”
- Recommendation: New sellers should start with Walmart PPC, using a small budget to test the market and keywords to get a feel for the backend logic. Once proficient, they can then use Walmart’s SEM function to capture more upstream traffic.
Q: I’m a seller coming from a suspended Amazon store. Can my brand still be used on Walmart? Are there any risks? A: This is a realistic issue. The biggest risk is not the brand itself, but your “digital identity.” If you were banned on Amazon and then try to register a Walmart store using the same computer and network environment, Walmart’s risk control system will very likely mark you as high-risk due to your “hardware fingerprint,” leading to rejection of qualification review or rapid suspension after opening the store. A tool like FlashID is essential for helping you “whitewash” your identity and achieve a safe transition.
Q: Is Walmart starting to crack down on product infringement? Will there be risks if I sell some products that are in a “grey area”? A: Yes, Walmart is strengthening brand and intellectual property review and will proactively accept complaints. The space for “taking advantage of loopholes” is shrinking. Although Walmart’s rules don’t easily target sellers, once you are complained about by a brand owner or competitor, the handling process will be very troublesome. It is advisable to follow the straight path from the beginning, and even for non-standard or patented products, prepare the necessary qualification documents to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Q: Besides helping me open a store on Walmart, in what other ways can FlashID help me improve my overall e-commerce competitiveness? A: FlashID is a “strategic-level tool” for the entire e-commerce operation chain. Its applications go far beyond just opening a store:
- Standalone Store Operations: Manage multiple Facebook/Google ad accounts for A/B testing different ad creatives and landing pages.
- Social Media Matrix: Manage multiple brand accounts on platforms like TikTok, Instagram for content publishing and fan interaction.
- Competitor Monitoring: Anonymously visit competitors’ standalone websites and Amazon stores to obtain their pricing, reviews, and sales data.
- Affiliate Marketing: Promote on multiple affiliate platforms (like CJ, Awin) under different identities to avoid being flagged as fraudulent by the platforms.
Q: My budget is limited. From which aspects should I start for the best cost-effectiveness? A: Ranked by ROI (Return on Investment), the recommended priority is:
1. Core Products: Product selection is always the first priority. Find a product with a price advantage and one that fits the preferences of Walmart users.
2. Basic Listing: Do a good job with keywords and main images; this is the foundation for getting organic traffic.
3. FlashID Environment: Ensure you complete store registration and operations in a clean, isolated environment to avoid the “newbie graveyard.”
4. Small-Budget PPC Testing: Once you have one or two stable-selling products, use a small amount of advertising money to test and expand sales.
5. Comprehensive Layout: Once the single-store model is proven, consider FlashID’s multi-account matrix and SEM advertising combination punch.
Q: If I am an Amazon seller and want to operate on Walmart simultaneously, how should I manage the relationship and resource allocation between the two platforms? A: The best strategy is “differentiated operations, mutual empowerment.”
- Positioning Differentiation: Don’t treat Amazon and Walmart as the same store. You can position Amazon as the “brand flagship store,” responsible for building brand image and acquiring high-profit customers; and position Walmart as an “inventory clearance/best-seller testing” channel, leveraging its low cost and less competition features.
- SKU Differentiation: List some core products on both platforms but give them different model numbers, packaging, or accessories to create direct SKU differences.
- Data and Empowerment: The successful Listing strategies and pricing models verified on Walmart can be fed back to Amazon’s operations for optimization and iteration. Ultimately achieving a synergistic effect of 1+1>2.