How to Sell on Walmart in 2026: Approval to First Ads
Shrey Chaudhary
TL;DR
Key takeaways
To sell on Walmart, apply free at seller.walmart.com with a business tax ID (not an SSN), a selling history and GS1 barcodes.
Walmart says onboarding takes about 10 days on average. Most delays come from details that don't match your documents.
There are no monthly fees: you pay a 6% to 20% referral fee per sale, and new sellers get up to $75K in discounts until January 31, 2027.
Once live, you can sign in to the Walmart Connect Ad Center with your Seller Center login. Start Sponsored Products in the first month.
Walmart Marketplace is the second channel most of the Amazon brands we work with open. The application is where many of them stall.
This guide covers the whole path as of October 2026: requirements, each application step, fees and rejections.
It ends where a new seller's growth starts, with the route from first listing to profitable Sponsored Products ads.
How to Sell on Walmart: The Short Answer
To sell on Walmart, you register a business account on Walmart Marketplace, pass business verification, set up payouts and fulfillment, then list products with valid GTINs in Seller Center. Signing up is free, and Walmart charges a referral fee only when an item sells.
Walmart Marketplace is the third-party side of Walmart.com: you own the inventory, set the price and ship the order (or let Walmart Fulfillment Services ship it). That is different from being a Walmart supplier, where Walmart buys your products wholesale and sells them as the retailer.
In practice, the work splits into four stages:
Qualify. Meet Walmart's requirements before you apply.
Apply and verify. Create the account and pass business verification.
Set up the store. Payouts, fulfillment, catalog, then go live.
Grow. Listing quality, pricing, fast shipping and advertising through Walmart Connect.
Is Selling on Walmart Worth It in 2026?
For most brands already selling online, yes. Walmart's marketplace is growing faster than the retailer around it.
In its Q2 FY27 results, published August 20, 2026, Walmart reported global eCommerce sales up 23% and Walmart U.S. marketplace net sales up more than 50%. Nearly half of marketplace volume now flows through Walmart's fulfillment services.
Walmart's own Marketplace homepage puts the audience at about 280 million customers and members a week across its stores and websites. Sellers pay zero monthly or setup fees.
Advertising is growing with it. Walmart Connect in the U.S. grew 43% in the same quarter, excluding VIZIO, which tells you where Walmart expects sellers to spend.
The trade-offs are real, though:
Approval is selective. Walmart wants an established online seller, not a first-time founder.
Standards are strict. Late shipments and cancellations can get you suppressed or suspended.
Search is still smaller than Amazon's. Our Walmart vs Amazon comparison covers where each channel wins.
Walmart Seller Requirements in 2026
Walmart publishes its minimum requirements in Before you start selling on Walmart Marketplace, last updated September 1, 2026. These are the gates every application goes through.
Requirement | What Walmart accepts | What we see go wrong |
|---|---|---|
Identity | A copy of a personal ID for the applicant or legal representative | Walmart may also ask for a photo ID check with facial recognition |
Tax ID | A business tax ID (EIN in the U.S.) or business license number. SSN is not accepted | Sole traders applying with an SSN |
Entity type | A registered business entity of an accepted type | Entity type on the form doesn't match the IRS letter |
Name and address proof | Documents that verify the legal business name and address | A trading name instead of the legal name |
Track record | A history of marketplace or eCommerce success | Brick-and-mortar sales only, or a brand-new store |
Product IDs | GTINs/UPCs from a GS1 company prefix | Cheap resold barcodes that fail GS1 checks |
Catalog | Complies with the Prohibited Products Policy | Restricted items listed without approval |
Fulfillment | A B2C U.S. warehouse with returns capability, or Walmart Fulfillment Services | No U.S. returns address |
Three details trip people up most often.
You need a business, not just a store. Walmart verifies the legal entity behind the account. Every name, number and address has to match your official documents exactly, character for character.
Track record means online sales. Walmart doesn't publish a minimum, but in the applications we've seen, a few months of steady sales on Amazon, eBay, Shopify or your own site is what gets through.
Private label needs real barcodes. Buy GTINs from GS1. If a product genuinely has no barcode (handmade, some private label), Walmart lets you request a GTIN exemption.
Can International Sellers Sell on Walmart?
Yes. According to Walmart's New-Seller Savings FAQ, the U.S. Marketplace is open to sellers based in Canada, Chile, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and the U.S.
If you don't have a U.S. tax ID, you say so in the application and submit country-specific verification documents instead. You still need U.S. fulfillment and returns, which is why most international sellers start with WFS.
How to Get Approved to Sell on Walmart: Step by Step
The application itself takes minutes. Walmart's own onboarding guide, updated August 30, 2026, describes three stages after sign-up: Express setup, Business verification and Store setup.
1. Prepare Your Documents First
Have these open before you start, because the forms time out and a half-finished application is where mismatches creep in:
Legal business name, address and phone number, exactly as on your IRS or state documents
EIN confirmation letter (or business license number) and state business registration number
Personal ID of the applicant or legal representative
W-9 (or W-8 forms for non-U.S. businesses)
Links to your current store or marketplace storefronts
A product list with GS1 GTINs, categories and price ranges
2. Create Your Seller Account
Go to seller.walmart.com/signup and create the account with a business email. Walmart says this step takes about a minute.
Use an email on your company domain rather than a free webmail address. Walmart doesn't state it as a rule, but it is one less signal for a reviewer to question.
3. Use Express Setup if You Sell Elsewhere
Express setup is a one-time import of your business details and catalog from another marketplace, through Walmart's integration provider Versori. You log in to the other marketplace yourself, and Walmart never sees your credentials.
It saves hours for an Amazon seller with a large catalog. You still review every imported item and image before publishing, and you confirm you have the rights to use them.
4. Complete Business Verification
This is the step that decides approval. You enter your legal name, entity type, phone number, state registration number and the personal ID of the applicant.
Walmart says verification takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few business days. It may ask for more documents, or for the account holder to verify their identity with a photo ID and facial recognition.
If you see an EIN validation error, the fix is almost always formatting. Enter the business name exactly as it appears on your IRS letter, including "LLC" or "Inc." and punctuation.
5. Set Up Payouts Within 30 Days
Walmart no longer pays out by direct ACH deposit to your bank account. You choose the Marketplace Wallet or an approved third-party payout provider, and the options depend on your country of incorporation.
Watch the clock here. Once you finish business details, you have 30 days to complete payment setup, or the account is declined and you have to reapply.
If you plan to use WFS, add a billing method too. Walmart verifies it in two to three business days.
6. Set Up Your Store: Fulfillment and Catalog
In Store setup you add customer service details, then choose how you'll ship:
Ship with WFS: Walmart picks, packs, ships and handles customer service and returns. You add country of origin, dimensions and hazmat details for each item.
Ship yourself: With Simplified Shipping Settings, Walmart calculates transit times and you get protection against carrier delays. Manual shipping templates still exist if you want to set your own.
Then build the catalog: import it, upload a spreadsheet, or add items one by one by matching existing Walmart listings. Our Walmart listing optimization guide covers titles, images and attributes.
7. Go Live and Opt Into New-Seller Savings
Walmart says account setup can take up to four hours to finalize after you add inventory. Items publish on Walmart.com only once setup is complete.
After you go live, opt into New-Seller Savings from the payments page in Seller Center. Walmart's FAQ asks sellers to opt in there, so don't assume the discount is already applied.
How Long Does Walmart Seller Approval Take?
Walmart's answer, in its New-Seller Savings FAQ, is that onboarding takes about 10 days on average.
In the accounts we've onboarded, the spread is wide. A clean application with matching documents can be verified the same day, while one that triggers a document request can take two to four weeks.
Two other clocks matter after approval:
Payment hold. Under the New Seller Payment Hold Policy, U.S. sellers have a rolling payment delay of up to 14 days (21 days outside the U.S.). It ends once 90 days have passed since your first order and you've received $7,500 in payments.
Account inactivity. Since October 22, 2026, accounts inactive for 455 consecutive days may be suspended, per Walmart's release notes. An approved account you never use won't stay open forever.
Plan your cash flow for that first quarter. Inventory, WFS fees and ad spend all go out before most of the revenue comes back.
Why Walmart Applications Get Rejected (and How to Fix It)
Most rejections we see are not about the business being too small. They are about the application not matching the documents, or the catalog not meeting policy.
Rejection reason | Fix before reapplying |
|---|---|
Legal name, EIN or address doesn't match records | Copy every field from your IRS letter and state registration, including punctuation |
Applied with an SSN | Register an entity and get an EIN. Walmart does not accept SSNs |
Little or no online sales history | Build a few months of sales on another channel, then reapply with links |
Barcodes not from GS1 | Buy GTINs from GS1, or request a GTIN exemption where it applies |
Prohibited or restricted products | Check the policy and apply for category approval before listing |
No U.S. returns capability | Use WFS or a U.S. 3PL that handles returns |
Payment setup not finished in 30 days | Reapply and finish payouts the same week |
If Walmart declines you, open a case from the _Help_ button in Seller Center and address the specific reason with corrected documents. Don't resubmit the same application and hope a different reviewer sees it.
Be wary of anyone selling "guaranteed approval" or a special invitation link. Legitimate invitations come from Walmart, and paid guarantees are not an official route.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell on Walmart?
There is no setup fee and no monthly subscription. You pay a referral fee on each completed sale, and WFS fees if you use Walmart's fulfillment.
Referral fees vary by category and price. The official fee table runs from 6% (personal computers) to 20% (jewelry, on the portion up to $250), and 15% applies to "everything else".
Walmart adjusts category rates from time to time, so confirm your category's current rate in Seller Center before you price.
Category (examples) | Referral fee |
|---|---|
Home, Kitchen, Decor & Garden | 15% |
Beauty, Health and Personal Care | 8% up to $10 total price, 15% above |
Grocery | 8% up to $15, 15% above |
Apparel & Accessories | 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, 15% above $20 |
Consumer Electronics | 8% |
Personal Computers | 6% |
Toys & Games, Pet Supplies, Sports | 15% |
The fee is charged on the total sales price, which includes shipping and gift wrap. Our Walmart Marketplace fees guide has the full table and edge cases.
WFS fees start at $3.45 for a standard item with a shipping weight of 1 lb or less. Storage is $0.75 per cubic foot per month, with a peak-season surcharge from October to December for stock stored over 30 days.
New-Seller Savings 2026
Sellers who go live between February 2, 2026 and January 31, 2027 can opt into New-Seller Savings, worth up to $75K:
20% off base referral fees on the first $50K in GMV, 30% off from $50K to $500K, 40% off above $500K
10% off WFS fees, up to $2,000
Up to $1,000 in Search Engine Marketing credits after eligible spend
Up to $500 in Walmart Connect advertising credits
Here is what that does to the margin on one product, and to the most you can afford to pay for an ad-driven sale.
On a $30 kitchen item that costs $9 to make and ships under 1 lb through WFS, you keep $13.05 before ads. That is a break-even ACOS of 43.5%.
With the New-Seller Savings discount the referral fee drops to 12%, margin rises to $13.95 and break-even ACOS to 46.5%. Those are example numbers, but run the same math on your own SKUs before you set a single bid.
Your First 30 Days After Approval
Approval gets you a storefront. The first month decides whether Walmart's search ranks it.
1. Fix Listing Quality Before Anything Else
Seller Center's Listing Quality dashboard scores your items and lists what to fix. Weak titles, too few images and missing attributes cost you rank and ad relevance at the same time.
Start with your 10 to 20 best sellers from other channels rather than the whole catalog. Our guides to Walmart SEO and getting Walmart reviews cover the next layer.
2. Price to Win the Buy Box
Walmart's Buy Box goes to the offer with the best combination of price, shipping speed and seller performance. A listing that doesn't hold it gets little organic traffic and ads that don't convert.
Our Walmart Buy Box guide explains how Walmart compares competing offers on the same item.
3. Get Fast Shipping Tags
Walmart's Marketplace homepage says items with the "Fulfilled by Walmart" tag and delivery promises of two days or less see 50% GMV growth on average. WFS is the shortest route to that tag.
If you ship yourself, read our guide to the Walmart 2-day shipping program. Our WFS guide covers the trade-offs.
4. Meet the Seller Performance Standards From Day One
Walmart reviews every seller against the Seller Performance Standards, measured over 30 or 60 days. Miss them and items can be suppressed, or the account suspended.
Late Shipment Rate (5% or below) is the newest standard on the list. If you use WFS, Walmart meets most of these for you, except Negative Feedback Rate.
From First Listing to Sponsored Products on Walmart
Walmart Connect is Walmart's retail media business, and for a marketplace seller it is the fastest lever on visibility. Marketplace sellers sign in to the self-serve Walmart Connect Ad Center with their Seller Center account, so there is no separate application.
Walmart's own data is the argument for starting early. Marketplace sellers who advertised with Walmart Connect in FY26 averaged a 5:1 return on ad spend, according to the Marketplace homepage.
This is the sequence we use with new Walmart sellers.
1. Weeks 1 to 2: Retail Readiness
Don't advertise an item until it has a complete listing, a competitive price, the Buy Box, stock and a few reviews. Ads send shoppers to the page, and a weak page wastes every click.
2. Weeks 2 to 4: Launch an Automatic Sponsored Products Campaign
Sponsored Products are cost-per-click ads in search results, carousels and item pages. Walmart's auction weighs your product's relevancy alongside your bid.
Start with one automatic campaign on your 5 to 10 strongest items. Automatic targeting lets Walmart find the search terms, and those terms become your keyword research.
Our guide to Walmart Sponsored Products placements explains where each ad shows.
3. Month 2: Build Manual Campaigns and Add Negatives
Pull the search terms that converted in the automatic campaign and move them into manual campaigns with exact and phrase match. Our Walmart keyword research guide shows how to find more.
Since July 29, 2026, Walmart supports negative keywords in manual campaigns and in automatic campaigns using fixed bidding. You get negative exact and negative phrase match, which finally lets you cut irrelevant searches at the source.
Set bids from your break-even ACOS, not from Walmart's suggested bid. Our Walmart bidding strategies guide covers the options.
4. Month 3: Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos
Once your brand is registered in the Walmart Brand Portal, Sponsored Brands puts your logo and up to four products at the top of search. Walmart says 69% of marketplace sellers' Sponsored Brands orders from February 2024 to January 2025 came from new-to-brand buyers.
Sponsored Videos and Onsite Display come after that. Our Walmart Connect guide walks through every format.
What Changed for Walmart Sellers in 2025 and 2026
If you read a guide from 2024, several of its steps are now out of date.
When | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
Feb 2, 2026 | New-Seller Savings 2026 opens, up to $75K, running to Jan 31, 2027 | Walmart Marketplace |
2026 | Express setup imports your catalog from another marketplace through Versori | Marketplace Learn |
2026 | Payouts go through the Marketplace Wallet or approved providers, not direct ACH | Marketplace Learn |
2026 | Late Shipment Rate (5% or below) is now listed in the Seller Performance Standards | Marketplace Learn |
Jul 29, 2026 | Negative keywords launch for Sponsored Products | Walmart Connect |
Oct 7, 2026 | Easier migration from shipping templates to Simplified Shipping Settings | Release notes |
Oct 13, 2026 | Eight more approved parcel carriers for seller-fulfilled orders | Release notes |
Oct 19, 2026 | Brand Highlights: self-serve brand content on product pages | Release notes |
Oct 21, 2026 | Search themes in Search insights; WFS Multichannel Solutions app for Shopify | Release notes |
Oct 22, 2026 | Accounts inactive for 455 days may be suspended | Release notes |
Walmart publishes these in the Marketplace Learn release notes. It is worth a bookmark, because requirements and fees change several times a year.
Mistakes We See From New Walmart Sellers
Applying before the paperwork matches. One stray "LLC" or an old address on the bank account causes more delays than any other issue.
Listing the whole Amazon catalog on day one. Start with proven sellers, get them ranked, then expand.
Missing the 30-day payout deadline. The account is declined and you start again.
Shipping late in month one. New accounts have no buffer, and the performance standards apply from the first order.
Waiting months to advertise. New listings have no sales history, so organic rank is slow. A small automatic campaign gets the first sales and reviews moving.
Running ads without negatives. Since July 2026 there is no excuse. Review search terms weekly and negate the waste.
How We Run Walmart Ads in Adbrew
Everything above can be done by hand in Seller Center and the Ad Center. It gets slow once you manage more than a few dozen campaigns, or Walmart alongside Amazon.
Adbrew is an agentic retail media management platform for Amazon and Walmart, and Walmart Connect management is part of it:
Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos in one place, with reporting across campaigns, ad groups and keywords.
Rulesets you control. Raise bids on keywords under your target ACOS, pause ads that spend without converting, cap spend on terms with clicks and no orders. Our guide to Walmart automated rules shows the logic.
Bulk actions for bids, budgets, states and new keywords across campaigns.
Adbrew Intelligence and Adbrew MCP. Ask for "a summary of last week's Walmart spend by item against target ACOS" and an agent builds it from live data. Changes are drafted and applied only after you approve them.
Adbrew is recognized at Walmart Connect, and brands on Adbrew cut ACOS by 46% on average. When a new seller's account is ready, our Walmart PPC audit checklist is the first review we run.
Start With the Paperwork, Finish With the Ads
Walmart rewards sellers who show up prepared: matching documents, real barcodes, fast shipping and ads on day 30, not day 300.
When your Walmart Connect campaigns are ready to scale alongside Amazon, book a demo with our team and we'll walk through your account with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I start selling on Walmart Marketplace?
To start selling on Walmart Marketplace, create a free account at seller.walmart.com/signup, complete business verification with your EIN and documents, set up payouts within 30 days, choose WFS or your own fulfillment, then add your catalog. Walmart says onboarding takes about 10 days on average.
What are the requirements to sell on Walmart?
Walmart requires a personal ID, a business tax ID or business license number (no SSN), documents verifying your business name and address, a history of online sales, GS1 GTINs for your products, a catalog that meets the Prohibited Products Policy, and a U.S. warehouse with returns or Walmart Fulfillment Services.
How do I get approved to sell on Walmart?
To get approved to sell on Walmart, make every field match your official documents exactly, show an established online sales history, use genuine GS1 barcodes and avoid restricted products until you have category approval. Most rejections come from mismatched details, not the size of the business.
How much does it cost to sell on Walmart?
Selling on Walmart costs nothing to set up and has no monthly fee. Walmart charges a referral fee per sale, from 6% to 20% by category, with 15% the most common rate. WFS fees start at $3.45 per unit. New sellers in 2026 can get up to $75K in discounts.
Can I sell on Walmart as an individual?
No. Walmart Marketplace does not accept a Social Security number in place of a business tax ID. You need a registered business entity with an EIN or a business license number, and documents that verify its legal name and address.
How long does it take to get approved to sell on Walmart?
Walmart says onboarding takes about 10 days on average. Business verification alone can take from a few minutes to a few business days, and an extra document request can stretch the process to several weeks.
Do I need Walmart Fulfillment Services to sell on Walmart?
No. WFS is optional. You can ship from your own U.S. warehouse with returns capability. WFS does make the "Fulfilled by Walmart" fast-shipping tag easier to earn and covers most performance standards for you, which is why nearly half of marketplace volume now runs through it.
When should a new Walmart seller start advertising?
A new Walmart seller should start Sponsored Products within the first month, once the first items have complete listings, the Buy Box and stock. Begin with an automatic campaign on 5 to 10 strong items, then build manual campaigns and negative keywords from its search terms.
