Walmart Adds BigCommerce to Third-Party Marketplace

Need to Know

• Sellers on BigCommerce will now be allowed to use Walmart’s third-party marketplace.
• BigCommerce sellers will have access to Walmart’s 120 million unique monthly customers and will be given $0 commission rates for their first month.
• Walmart Marketplace is now available via BigCommerce Channel Manager.
• In 2020, Walmart welcomed Shopify sellers to its marketplace, and within a month the marketplace had doubled in size.

Analysis

BigCommerce and Walmart have entered into a partnership that will allow BigCommerce sellers to use Walmart’s extensive third-party marketplace.

The partnership, which was announced on February 24, has made Walmart Marketplace made available as a channel to BigCommerce vendors via BigCommerce Channel Manager, which is the SaaS giant’s selling platform. BigCommerce vendors will be able to sell to Walmart’s 120 million unique sellers per month using what Walmart Marketplace’s senior vice-president Jeff Clementz is calling a “new-seller discount.” In addition to an expedited application process, Walmart will be offering $0 commission rates to new platform sellers who join via BigChannel for their first month.

“After a year where our customers shopped online more than ever before, we are excited to partner with BigCommerce, an industry-leading e-commerce platform, to make it even easier for sellers to grow their online business,” Clementz said. “At Walmart, we’re always thinking about how to best serve the customer and this partnership will provide customers with an even greater assortment.”

By activating the Walmart Marketplace channel in BigCommerce Channel Manager, new merchants will have access to a number of sales and analytics tools, including order management and inventory tracking, as well as access to a network of partners, such as CedCommerce, Feedonomics, and Deliverr, to support their advertising, listing, and fulfillment needs.

In a press release announcing the partnership, BigCommerce merchant Vitabox was cited as an early success: the essential goods company was able to connect its 8,500+ strong product catalog to Walmart in two days and has increased sales by 25% since joining Walmart Marketplace. BigCommerce’s other brands include Ben & Jerry’s, Molton Brown, S.C. Johnson, Skullcandy, Sony, Vodafone and Woolrich.

“More than ever before, merchants need to get their products in front of shoppers in all the places those shoppers are discovering and making purchases. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to have that broad omnichannel presence,” said Russell Klein, chief commercial officer at BigCommerce. “Partnering with an industry leader like Walmart not only gives our merchants access to one of the world’s largest marketplaces, it also opens additional opportunities for them to strategically expand their e-commerce footprint.”

Walmart Marketplace, which the retail giant launched in 2009 has seen huge gains in recent months. In June 2020, Walmart partnered with Shopify in an e-commerce first that marked the retailer as Shopify’s first-ever commerce platform; a month later, Marketplace reported that it had doubled in size since July 2019, partly thanks to the Shopify deal. Walmart saw huge digital gains overall in 2020, with Walmart Canada, in particular, posting a 229% year-over-year uptick in digital sales for the quarter ending January 31.