For a long time, retailers and marketplaces alike have been trying to beat Amazon at its own game. A famous showdown is the one between Walmart and Amazon.

Some folks think Amazon is on track to become the top dog, overtaking Walmart, while others are rooting for Walmart, especially with its recent wins in the online world. Because of the pandemic, sellers are starting to look more at Walmart’s online marketplace, realizing it’s risky to put all their eggs in Amazon’s basket. But, it’s important to note that selling on Walmart is a whole different ball game from Amazon.

In this blog, we’re diving into what sets these two giants apart. We’ll talk about how Walmart has been stepping up its game, and what sellers need to know about each platform. Can you use the same strategies on both? What does it take to make it big on Amazon or Walmart? Keep reading to find out.

Amazon is pretty much the king of online shopping, grabbing almost 40% of all online sales. Even when COVID-19 messed with its deliveries and made Prime orders late back in early 2020, Amazon still managed to pull off its biggest sales growth in over a year and a half.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Their operating profit in North America took a hit, dropping from $2.3 billion to $1.3 billion.

They spent a hefty $600 million just dealing with coronavirus stuff.
People raised their eyebrows when Amazon said it was going to drop a whopping $4 billion on things like better pay, safety gear, and other pandemic-related costs in the next few months.
Plus, most of the stuff people were buying were things with small profits, like snacks and disinfectants.
In the big picture, though, Amazon isn’t sweating it. While regular stores are taking a serious hit and some might never recover, Amazon is likely to keep its edge in the game for the foreseeable future.

Walmart hit a major milestone in 2020.
It looked like it was about to zoom past eBay and take the silver medal for online shopping in the U.S., right behind Amazon.

Its online sales shot up 74% at the start of 2020, with online grocery shopping being the star of the show.

It’s like grocery shopping online jumped ahead three or four years in just a few months. While Amazon Prime was struggling to deliver on time, Walmart’s online orders were through the roof, hitting a wild 300% growth in early April.

This boom shows just how big of a deal Walmart is in the real world of shopping.
With over 5,000 stores in the U.S. that can send out orders or let people pick them up (Amazon’s only got about 200 places), Walmart’s got a pretty sweet setup.

Harvard Business School’s own James Heskett gave a shout-out to Walmart for using its tech and stores to give Amazon a run for its money during the pandemic.

Walmart’s in a good spot to avoid the stock problems that Amazon’s still tangled up with.
While all this was happening, Walmart said it was time to say goodbye to Jet.com.

They bought Jet back in 2016 for a hefty $3 billion to help them step up their online game. After a bunch of trials and a lot of learning, they decided to focus on Walmart.com instead. This could be awesome for sellers aiming to jump onto Walmart’s online platform, which is finally picking up speed.
Ever since Walmart bought Jet.com, their online sales have almost tripled.

So, if you wanna sell stuff on Amazon, you gotta shell out $39.99 every month for their Professional selling plan.
You don’t have to pay to list each item, but they take a cut when you sell something—this “referral fee” is usually between 8% to 15%, but watch out because some things can go up to 20%. And they’ve got this minimum fee they’ll charge you no matter what.

On top of that, if you’re selling things like books or movies, you might get hit with extra fees. Most sellers on Amazon (like 73% of them) use Amazon’s FBA to handle shipping and stuff, which costs based on size or weight, and they charge you for storage space separately.

And that’s not all—there are a bunch of other costs for things like labeling, returns, and getting rid of old stock. These fees can add up fast if you’re not on top of things.

Over at Walmart Marketplace, they’re pretty chill—no fees to set up shop or any monthly fees. Just like Amazon, they take a referral fee when you make a sale, also between 8% to 15%.

Walmart has its own shipping service called Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), and they charge you for storage and shipping per item. Their fees are more straightforward than Amazon’s FBA.

But the catch is, it’s tougher to get into WFS—only sellers who are already doing well on Walmart’s Marketplace get to use it, and they’re not really looking for newbies right now.

Another thing to keep in mind with Walmart is that you need UPCs for everything you list. Getting these can be pricey—thousands of dollars for a big batch, plus the official place that hands these out, GS1, will also charge you a yearly fee starting at 50 bucks.

Now, here’s the tricky part:

Amazon likes to change the rules a lot. Take 2019, for instance, when they decided to change how sellers list shoe sizes without giving much heads up. Sellers had to hustle to update their listings with all these new details or risk getting their products yanked off the site.

Even the pros make mistakes when listing items on Amazon.

So, it’s smart to have a system that helps you spot, understand, and fix those weird error messages quickly.

If you don’t, not only could your listing be out of action, but you could also end up with products stuck in Amazon’s warehouses, and that’ll cost you.

Jumping into Walmart Marketplace takes a bit more elbow grease.
You’ve got to apply and pass their “trust and safety” check.
They want to see you’ve got some experience selling online, that you’re all about that professional life, and that you meet their standards.

This can take a good few weeks, but hooking up with a partner like Zentail can speed it up to just a couple of days.

Once you’re in, you’ll get a to-do list to help you set up shop.
You can list your products the old-fashioned way, pop them into an Excel sheet, use their API, or get some help from a tech partner.

Heads up,

though – Walmart’s tech can be a bit of a handful if you’re not up on how to format your product info or stay on top of their updates. It’s probably a good idea to work with some helpful software or check out if Shopify’s got your back with their Walmart thing.

And yep, you’ll need a UPC for every single product.
If you don’t have one, you’ll need to ask Walmart nicely to let you off the hook.
They’ll quiz you on why you need the pass, what kind of stuff you’re selling, a bit about your business, how much you think you’ll sell, and what products are involved.

This whole UPC thing can be a bit of a pain.
Sellers have grumbled about mix-ups like seeing their stuff listed twice or not being able to pick the listing they want to sell under.

And if someone’s snagged a dodgy UPC that’s not from GS1, it might get linked to your product by mistake.
If that happens, you need to hunt down the correct UPC and have a chat with Walmart Seller Support to sort it out.

Amazon wants to sell it all, so it’s got a huge marketplace that’s open to pretty much any seller who wants in.