With Walmart’s enormous resources and exceptional logistics experience behind WFS, it is a matter of time when Walmart’s WFS becomes a serious contender in the eCommerce space for sellers. So, what is WFS and why eCommerce merchants care about it? Read on!
In short, WFS is Walmart’s answer to Amazon’s FBA. However, there are significant differences more on this later. WFS allows sellers to store their inventory in one of Walmart’s warehouses, where Walmart receives and holds inventory on behalf of the seller. Once an order is received, WFS picks, packs, ships, and provides exceptional post purchase customer service to the buyer on the seller’s behalf in exchange for a nominal “fulfillment fee”. Sweet, isn’t it?
Order fulfillment woes
Order fulfillment is a costly and difficult operation for merchants. Warehousing and receiving, insurance, payroll, packaging, and shipping are costly and labor-intensive operations. These problems are further exacerbated in times like these, with rampant labor shortages and businesses vying to hire and retain qualified employees. This further increases the cost of hiring, training, and retaining employees.
WFS frees up the seller from order fulfillment worries and allows them to focus their energies on other, more important facets of their business. The seller sources and in many cases, ships their inventory directly from their source to a Walmart fulfillment center close to the source. Walmart even allows, like FBA, to prep and label the seller’s inventory at the time of receiving in their fulfillment center in exchange for a small fee. Since Walmart provides shipping and customer service, it allows the seller to meet and exceed Walmart’s performance standards requirements for sellers. Sellers using WFS typically see improved visibility (think BuyBox!) in the search results, faster shipping, and ultimately business growth.
WFS vs Amazon FBA
You need a professional selling account to take advantage of Amazon’s FBA which is currently $39 per month. Walmart has no monthly fees for WFS. Buyer’s need an Amazon prime account to avail of prime one or two-day shipping. Walmart offers free two-day shipping for all orders over $35, no membership required. Order fulfillment fees are simpler and based on product weight. Following are the fulfillment fees excluding apparel and hazmat items.
|
Shipping weight |
Fee |
|
1 lb. |
$3.45 |
|
2 lb. |
$4.95 |
|
3 lb. |
$5.45 |
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4 lb.-20 lb. |
$5.75 plus $0.40 for each lb. > 4 lb. |
|
21–30 lb. |
$15.55 plus $0.40 for each lb. > 21 lb. |
|
31–50 lb.* |
$14.55 plus $0.40 for each lb. > 31 lb. |
|
51–150 lb.* |
$17.55 plus $0.40 for each lb. > 51 lb. |
WFS has fixed monthly storage fees per unit cubic foot square of space occupied by your inventory. Unit cubic foot is computed as the product of length x width x height / 1728.
|
Length of time |
Fee |
|
January–September |
$0.75 per cubic foot per month |
|
October–December |
$0.75 per cubic foot per month for items stored for fewer than or up to 30 days. Add $1.50 per cubic foot per month for items stored for more than 30 days. |
|
>12 months |
$7.50 per cubic foot per month |
Program Eligibility
To be eligible for WFS, a seller needs to be an existing marketplace merchant. In addition, following are the product eligibility requirements.
- Products need to be shipped to a fulfillment center within the United States.
- No perishable or regulated products
- Product cannot weight more than 30 pounds
- Max product dimension not to exceed 25” x 20” x 14”.
Pros and Cons
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Pros |
Cons |
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· Simple price structure |
· WFS does not provide third party fulfillment services · Sellers have reported lengthy approval times post signing of the WFS agreement · If you are not the brand owner, then you are not allowed to make changes to existing listings. Walmart says the content is rendered based on its proprietary content ranking algorithm. |
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· Free 2-day shipping on all order over $35 |
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· Clear Reporting via reports that can be requested via SellerCenter. |
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· No additional monthly for WFS. · Increased search visibility. |
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Future
Launched in Feb 2020, Walmart has invested considerable resources in offering WFS as an option to eCommerce merchants. Adoption has been slow but is rapidly gaining momentum. The service is relatively new and is a good option for sellers trying to diversify their sales channel and customer reach. Although SellerCenter offers features that you can use, in our opinion it does not offer all the incredible options that their API offers. You need a toolkit in your repertoire that not only helps you manage your inventory, pricing and orders but also can help you automate your pricing and gain insights on trending items on Amazon. RockitSeller offers an automated re-pricing tool that you can use to keep competition at bay and improve your chances of getting the buyBox. If you have inventory in WFS that you are trying to get rid of, you can use RockitSeller’s AI based sales velocity pricing strategy to really amp up your sales based on rules that you configure. RockitSeller also provides insights based on data that is updated daily on top trending items on Walmart.