Although Amazon is apparently considered to be on top of the e-commerce value chain, Walmart is busy ramping up its e-commerce presence to match. According to a report from emarketer, Walmart saw an unprecedented 207% growth in its e-commerce buyer base between 2017 and 2019. It was also reported by Business insider, in 2018, Walmart became the third-largest e-commerce retailer in the United States, with online sales growing 40% year-over-year.
As a business owner who plans to sell on Walmart Marketplace, optimizing your product listings can play a major role in your success. Relatedly, as a Walmart seller, you have an opportunity to optimize product listings and product visuals to create a better customer and brand experience in Walmart’s marketplace. From product titles, descriptions, images, to variants, and more – all these can impact your conversion rates, revenue, and even your product search rankings on Walmart.
Walmart creative options for product listings
There are two main pieces of content on a Walmart product listing:
- Written content
- Gallery images.
Written content includes keyword optimization for your product title and product details. An optimized product title looks like this:
Source: Tinuiti
Gallery images are all of the images included in your product listing:
Source: Tinuiti
Transferring listings from Amazon to Walmart
If you plan to expand your Amazon e-commerce business to the Walmart Marketplace, you’ll need to choose which products to list on Walmart. While there’s no guarantee, products that are already moving and have positive feedback on Amazon are more likely to succeed on Walmart. It is recommended that Amazon sellers expanding to Walmart should have at least a 95% feedback and seller rating on Amazon and at least 50 product reviews.
To upload your product listings to Walmart, you’ll need the following information on-hand to upload to your Walmart Seller Center portal:
- Product details
- Product images
- Pricing
- Reviews
- Inventory
- Promotions
How to upload product listings on Walmart
There are three different ways to do this:
- Via the Walmart API
- With a bulk upload using Excel spreadsheets
- Through a Walmart channel partner
Issues with Walmart Product listings
If you’re a seller with an extensive catalog, you may run into issues with Walmart product listings that you don’t run into with Amazon. A business with large product catalogs (1,000+ SKUs) usually struggles with manual multi marketplace management. Other common Walmart product listing issues might include poor images and descriptions, spelling errors, HTML errors, and even content that is entirely incorrect.
Fixing these issues as a Walmart seller is difficult compared to Amazon. While Amazon’s Brand Registry lets sellers request changes almost immediately; Walmart makes it more challenging to correct product listing issues.
Tips for optimizing your Walmart product listings
To make the most of your Walmart product listings, follow these three optimization tips.
- Optimize your written content
Optimizing your written content means sharing all of the information a shopper needs to know about your product and ensuring that your title and description are optimized for Walmart SEO. Detailed content is the best way to convey the value proposition of your product to the consumer. A Walmart shopper is much more likely to convert to a product online when it has clear and concise information regarding its use
To optimize your written content for SEO, search potential keywords using tools like Google Keyword Planner to see what potential customers are searching for. In your description, be conversational and authentic, provide valuable information about your product, and try to include your product name and related keywords for Walmart SEO.
- Choose the right images for your product listing
You’ll need an enticing hero image to make shoppers want to click on your product listing — but make sure you also include images that show your product at different angles, highlight core features, and show your product in action.
Some additional tips for choosing the right images for your Walmart product listings:
- Use a minimum of four images (we recommend 6 to 7)
- If your listing has multiple variations (like colors), you must include images for every variant
- All photos must be brightly lit
- Your hero image must be in color, on a white background, without any text or logos.
- Complete the product attributes for your listing
Last but not least, make sure to include as many product attributes as possible for your listing. For example, if you sell clothing, product attributes include details like Category, Fabric, Brand, Color, and Style.
Adding additional attributes helps more shoppers find your product listing in the first place. It also helps shoppers find you when they filter their search results based on one of these attributes. And the more potential customers who find your excellent product listing, the more shoppers you can convert.
Best Practices for Walmart Product Optimization
Here are some best practices for making the most of your Walmart product listing content:
- Be concise with your information
- Tell the value proposition of your products to make them stand out
- Utilize and repeat relevant keywords, but do not use the same keyword more than three times
- Use an active voice in presenting your content
- Include images that show your product in use
- Add video if your product category allows it
- Ensure to add product attributes, tagging, and backend keywords via Walmart Seller Center.
Conclusion
As a Walmart seller, you have an opportunity to optimize product listings and product visuals to create a better customer and brand experience on Walmart’s marketplace. From product titles, descriptions, images, to variants, and more – all these can impact your conversion rates, revenue, and even your product search rankings on Walmart.
Following through on the aforementioned tips goes a long way to help optimize your product listing and consequently improve your sales rate on Walmart.
