INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Walmart has distinguished itself as a safer, less crowded marketplace than AmazonBetween 2009 and 2014, Walmart's Marketplace business,
where outside merchants hawk everything from baby blankets to power tools, counted no more than six sellers, and was described by one expert
strategy to take on Amazon Inc, which it is battling for advertising and ecommerce dollars
Walmart Marketplace grew to an estimated 70,000 sellers in 2020, fueled by a surge in online shopping due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a
end of 2022, according to projections by data firm Marketplace Pulse that have not yet been published
The rapid growth is starting to stress the system, some merchants said, a growing number of whom worry that if the pace picks up, Walmart
risks damaging its reputation as a haven for quality sellers
Reuters spoke with vendors from Walmart.com and Amazon, analytics companies that help merchants sell on both marketplaces, industry experts,
consultants and executives."A year or two ago, every brand on Walmart.com would be trustworthy but now it's getting very similar to Amazon
and that's a huge risk," said Cal Chan, who sells supplements and skincare products on both Walmart and Amazon
"Amazon let everyone under the sun in - that helped them grow, but now they're trying to clean up the riff-raff and it's very hard to close
Pandora's Box."Amazon disputed the characterization by merchants and said it has a thorough vetting process designed to help honest sellers
The company employs more than 8,000 people to remove counterfeit products, false listings and identify intellectual property theft
In 2019, Amazon stopped over 2.5 million suspected bad actors from opening Amazon selling accounts, and blocked more than 6 billion
suspected bad listings, an Amazon spokesman said in an email.Walmart has distinguished itself as a safer, less crowded marketplace than
rivals like Amazon, making it easier for merchants to stand out and sell products
But it is now expected to see a surge of new vendors after it said last month it will open its online store to international merchants,
which are less accountable to U.S
Walmart has already added over 130 new Chinese sellers, Marketplace Pulse said.The retailer said it is actively courting foreign vendors
including from ecommerce giant Flipkart, which is bigger than Amazon in India and in which Walmart holds a 77% stake
sellers," Jeff Clementz, Vice President of Walmart Marketplace, said
sellers by their reviews, licensing permissions, reputations and items.The business of providing a storefront for outside sellers is, as one
and Facebook, which are eager to expand similar businesses.Sales generated by Amazon's third-party vendors totaled $189 billion last year in
retail ecommerce sales, according to eMarketer data from Insider Intelligence.Amazon, which declined to verify these numbers, dwarfs
Walmart's marketplace and is estimated to have more than 3 million sellers on its U.S
third-party store at the end of 2022, and 7.5 million globally, according to Marketplace Pulse
But the lure of Walmart's over 5,000 stores and clubs - more important than ever as pick-up and delivery hubs take off due to the pandemic -
consulting firm Helium 10
"It's like the Holy Grail for vendors
Walmart's reinvention from digital also-ran to the No
The transformation began with the 2016 addition of serial entrepreneur Marc Lore to lead Walmart's U.S
By early October 2016, 17 days after joining Walmart, Lore laid out a strategy that included a plan to not only lure hipper, urban,
millennial shoppers to Jet.com and Walmart.com, but also to make both sites attractive to smaller merchants.Lore eyed an opportunity to lure
Some vendors described a rigorous process to get on Walmart Marketplace that can take weeks and includes submitting bank account
information, sales records and social security details.When Clementz, previously COO of Walmart.com, was put in charge of Marketplace, the
the process of connecting analytics and delivery firms for vendors, said sellers.Walmart spruced up its advertising platform, rolled out
software to protect sellers' intellectual property, launched a delivery and logistics service, and introduced its version of Amazon Prime,
On Tuesday, Walmart emailed vendors to apply for "a chance to win the opportunity to sell" U.S.-made products in stores.To sweeten the pot,
Walmart has also undercut Amazon on the commission it takes on sales of some items
The month Walmart opened its market to international sellers, new vendors were told they would not have to pay a commission at all for a
limited time.But concessions like this generate concern among some sellers
Walmart's expansion to foreign sellers
