Walmart releases 2025 marketplace seller playbook
New guide reveals expansion plans, fulfillment services growth and seller savings programs for coming year.
Walmart Marketplace unveiled its comprehensive 2025 seller playbook in July, outlining strategic initiatives and tools designed to support marketplace sellers across multiple channels and international markets. The document provides detailed insights into the platform's growth trajectory and upcoming enhancements to fulfillment services, advertising solutions, and seller support programs.
The playbook comes as Walmart Marketplace demonstrates substantial momentum across key performance metrics. Site traffic has grown nearly 30% over the past two years, while U.S. eCommerce has achieved 21% growth and global eCommerce has risen 22%, driven by pickup, delivery and marketplace channels. The platform expects 95% of U.S. households will have access to same-day delivery by fiscal year 2026.
Summary
Who: Walmart Marketplace released the comprehensive guide for sellers, with insights from executives including Manish Joneja, Senior Vice President of Walmart U.S. Marketplace and Walmart Fulfillment Services, and Dave Guggina, Executive Vice President and Chief eCommerce Officer.
What: The 2025 Walmart Marketplace Seller Playbook outlines strategic initiatives including expanded fulfillment services, international expansion capabilities, new seller savings programs up to $75,000, category expansion into Premium Beauty and Collectibles, and enhanced advertising solutions through Walmart Connect.
When: The playbook was released in July 2025, covering strategies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year, with specific seasonal guidance for peak shopping periods from graduation season through holiday sales.
Where: The initiatives span Walmart's U.S. marketplace with international expansion across Canada, Mexico and Chile, plus integration with over 2,300 Auto Care Centers and 4,600 stores accepting returns.
Why: Walmart aims to strengthen its position against Amazon by offering lower fulfillment costs (15% less than competitors), faster growth rates (21% U.S. eCommerce growth), and comprehensive seller support tools as the platform targets 95% U.S. household same-day delivery coverage by fiscal year 2026.
According to the 2025 playbook, Walmart Fulfillment Services has experienced dramatic expansion, with year-over-year increases of 475% in GMV, 807% in units sold, and 413% in 2-day delivery promise capability. "WFS is not only efficient, but it's more cost-effective than the biggest online competitor that Walmart has," said Joey Thomas, Senior Director of eCommerce at DUDE Wipes. "We spend less on our order fulfillment through WFS than elsewhere."
The document reveals that Walmart Fulfillment Services rates average 15% lower than competitors, based on fulfillment cost per item analysis from February 2024 through December 2024. Sellers using WFS see average 50% GMV growth for items tagged with 'Fulfilled by Walmart' and '2-day shipping' designations, according to first-party data covering February 2024 through January 2025.
Multichannel Solutions represents a significant expansion of Walmart's fulfillment capabilities beyond its own marketplace. The service enables sellers to leverage Walmart's supply chain infrastructure to fulfill orders from other eCommerce platforms, including business websites, third-party marketplaces, and social media shops. This initiative costs 15% less on average than competitor offerings, based on fulfillment cost per item data from February 2024 through December 2024.
Walmart Cross Border provides port-to-door ocean transportation services from select Asian ports to Walmart Fulfillment Services facilities across the United States. The service offers both full-container load and less-than-container load support, with dedicated assistance available in Mandarin and English. "WCB is our preferred choice to support our business growth on the Walmart Marketplace," noted a representative from seller PAWZ Road. "It has helped us save a significant amount on logistics costs."
The platform's Pro Seller program maintains its tiered structure with incremental eligibility criteria that provide enhanced benefits as sellers scale their businesses. The Pro Seller badge continues serving as a conversion driver, while program participants receive benefits including reduced referral fees and various program credits.
Category expansion initiatives feature prominently in the 2025 strategy. Premium Beauty on Walmart.com now hosts over 60 new brands, including COSRX, LaRoche Posay, T3 and Beachwaver. The expansion includes custom storefronts and editorial content designed to create elevated digital experiences centered around each brand's unique identity.
Collectibles represents another growth area, with the platform enabling preorders to build customer anticipation for product drops, including releases exclusive to Walmart. The experience incorporates pre-owned conditions for collectibles under the "Resold at Walmart" designation.
The automotive category demonstrates omnichannel integration through tire fulfillment services. Customers can order eligible tires from Walmart Sellers and schedule installation at nearby Auto Care Centers across over 2,300 locations. Online and app tire purchases have increased 22% year to date, according to data from Walmart's Community Investment Meeting in April 2025.
LocalFinds enables local businesses to offer products to shoppers on Walmart.com through digital storefronts, providing same-day delivery and in-store pickup options using Walmart's delivery network. 1-800-Flowers.com was the first nationwide seller to join the program, with hundreds of local stores participating to increase visibility and reach.
New-Seller Savings provides up to $75,000 in discounts across referral fees, fulfillment services and advertising for qualifying sellers. The program includes 30% off base referral fees for the first $50,000 in GMV and 75% off base referral fees between $51,000 and $750,000 in GMV. Walmart Fulfillment Services offers up to $2,000 in credits with 25% off fulfillment fees and 50% off storage fees for eligible participants.
Global expansion capabilities enable sellers to manage multiple markets from unified accounts across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Chile. The platform now supports seamless international expansion, allowing sellers to add and manage multiple markets without requiring separate account setup processes.
Walmart Connect advertising solutions continue expanding, with sellers who advertised during fiscal year 2025 generating an average of seven times the sales compared to non-advertising sellers, based on data covering February 2024 through January 2025. The platform includes sponsored search advertising, display campaigns, and third-party website placements.
Search Engine Marketing capabilities allow sellers to drive traffic from Google Shopping Ads directly to their Walmart listings. KingChiiDirect reported significant results including 9:1 return on ad spend, over one million impressions, 17,000 clicks and $45,000 in GMV during 2024 testing. "Leveraging SEM has significantly expanded our reach beyond just Walmart.com," said Chenyu Zhu, CEO of KingChiiDirect.
The Review Accelerator program generates authentic customer reviews in exchange for Walmart.com digital rewards, charging sellers $10 per review. Reviews are identified with Incentivized Review badges. The Review Syndication Program allows sellers to share existing website reviews on Walmart.com without additional charges.
Brand Portal provides intellectual property management capabilities for brand owners, enabling control over reseller privileges and brand content consistency. The centralized system handles multiple claim types and user management from a single interface.
Seller Success Formula provides step-by-step guidance from initial setup through first sale and beyond. The framework includes best practices, tools and solutions for strategy implementation, along with resources to guide sellers through their marketplace journey.
Peak season preparation guidance outlines optimal timing for Sponsored Search campaigns and Walmart Fulfillment Services inventory management. Key events include graduation season in May-June requiring April advertising optimization, back-to-school season in July requiring mid-to-late June campaign preparation, and holiday seasons requiring mid-to-late October advertising setup with September inventory placement.
Why this matters
The Walmart Marketplace playbook represents significant competitive pressure on Amazon's fulfillment and advertising dominance in marketplace commerce. The announcement comes as cross-platform fulfillment policies have already begun shifting, with Walmart allowing Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment for orders under specific conditions as of May 2025.
Marketing professionals managing multi-channel brands face new opportunities to leverage Walmart's infrastructure for diversified fulfillment strategies. Previous announcements at Walmart's 2024 Marketplace Summit established the foundation for many initiatives detailed in the 2025 playbook, including the Multichannel Solutions program launch and expanded capital funding up to $5 million.
The advertising capabilities detailed in the playbook position Walmart Connect as a more serious competitor to Amazon DSP and Google Shopping campaigns. Walmart's evolution from launching basic ad platforms to comprehensive advertising solutions with first-party data integration represents a fundamental shift in retail media strategy.
Earlier marketplace integration efforts, such as connecting tire sellers with Auto Care Centers, demonstrated the potential for omnichannel fulfillment that the 2025 playbook now scales across multiple categories.
For agencies managing e-commerce clients, Walmart's pricing advantages in fulfillment services create new cost optimization opportunities, particularly as Amazon continues adjusting its fee structures. The ability to fulfill cross-platform orders through Walmart's supply chain reduces dependency on single-platform logistics while potentially improving margins.
Timeline
- July 2025: Walmart releases 2025 Marketplace Seller Playbook with comprehensive growth strategy
- May 2025: Walmart allows Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment for cross-platform fulfillment
- October 2024: Walmart releases holiday checklist emphasizing Pro Seller benefits and advertising solutions
- August 2024: Walmart announces major marketplace expansion and Multichannel Solutions at seller summit
- April 2024: Walmart integrates marketplace tire sellers with Auto Care Centers