To sell on Walmart, you apply through Walmart Seller Center as a registered business: a business tax ID (an SSN is not accepted), documents for your business name and address, a track record in ecommerce, GTIN/UPC codes for your products and a US warehouse that handles returns — or Walmart Fulfillment Services. There is no setup or monthly fee. Walmart takes a referral fee of 5% to 20% of each sale, 15% in most categories.
Most sellers stop at "no monthly fee" and price against it. The referral fee is charged on the total including shipping, apparel and several other categories jump to a higher rate above a price threshold, and new sellers wait for their money. Below: who Walmart accepts, including companies outside the US, the setup steps, the fees, and one $40 order worked through — you keep $14.00 shipping it yourself or $17.99 through WFS.
When people ask how to sell on Walmart
Usually you already sell — on your own website, on Amazon or eBay — and Walmart looks like a second large US marketplace with fewer sellers per product. The questions come in order: what are the requirements, how much does it cost, is it hard to get approved, and is it worth it compared with the marketplace you already use.
"Is it worth it" can't be answered before the other three. Walmart is selective about who it lets in, and its fee depends on the category and the order total. So check that you qualify, then run your own product through the fees.
Who can sell on Walmart Marketplace
Walmart Marketplace accepts businesses, not individuals with an SSN. The minimum list from Walmart's onboarding guide:
- Business tax ID or business license number. It has to match IRS records or your government documents exactly — a mismatch is the usual reason verification fails.
- Personal ID of the applicant, the business entity classification, and documents that confirm the business name and address.
- A history of marketplace or ecommerce sales. Walmart doesn't publish a minimum, so be ready to show where and how much you sell now.
- GTIN/UPC codes from GS1 for your products. Private-label and handmade items without them can request a GTIN exemption.
- A catalog that follows the Prohibited Products Policy.
- US fulfillment: your own or a third-party B2C warehouse in the US that can take returns and meet the performance standards, or Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS).
Selling on Walmart from outside the US
A company incorporated outside the US can sell on Walmart.com, but only through one of the tax routes Walmart supports. Which one applies depends on your country of incorporation and on whether you have an EIN (a US Employer Identification Number).
| Your situation | Tax form | What Walmart says |
|---|---|---|
| Incorporated in the US, with an EIN | W-9 | May ask for the IRS EIN letter (147C or CP 575) and a state business license or articles of incorporation |
| Incorporated outside the US, with an EIN | W-8ECI | Supported countries can verify with their local tax ID; for some countries Walmart may require a US tax ID |
| Incorporated outside the US, no EIN | W-8BEN-E | Only for China, Hong Kong, the UK, Japan, Canada, Mexico, India, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Vietnam, Thailand, Chile and Turkey |
| Sole proprietor, not incorporated | W-8BEN | Only Mexico (Mexico marketplace only) and India |
Each listed country has its own document list — for example a certificate of incorporation in the UK, a commercial registration and a recent utility bill or bank statement in Germany, a business license stamped with the company chop in China. W-8ECI and W-8BEN-E forms are renewed every three years; a W-9 doesn't expire. If your country is not on the list and you have no EIN, Walmart's tax page gives you no route — check the country list at sign-up before you spend money on GTINs or a US warehouse.
How to open a Walmart seller account in 5 steps
Signing up is free. You apply at seller.walmart.com and complete onboarding in Seller Center; business verification takes from a few minutes to a few business days.
- Verify your business. Enter the legal name, address and tax ID exactly as they appear on your documents, and upload the documents.
- Choose how you get paid. Walmart doesn't pay out by ACH directly to a bank account: you use Marketplace Wallet (US, China and Hong Kong sellers) or an approved payout provider such as PayPal (US only), Payoneer, PingPong or WorldFirst, depending on your country.
- Add market details — the business name shown to customers and customer service contacts.
- Set up fulfillment — shipping templates, ship-from location and returns, or enroll in WFS.
- Set up your catalog. Walmart identifies items by GTIN: if the product already exists on Walmart.com, your offer is matched to that item page. Walmart says account setup can take up to four hours after you add inventory.
Walmart seller fees: referral fees and WFS
Walmart charges a referral fee only when an item sells, as a percentage of the total sales price — item price plus shipping, handling, gift wrap and other charges. Most categories pay 15%; electronics and appliances pay less, jewelry pays more on the first $250.
| Category | Referral fee | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Home, Kitchen, Decor & Garden | 15% | — |
| Toys & Games, Pet Supplies, Tools & Home Improvement | 15% | — |
| Everything Else | 15% | — |
| Apparel & Accessories | 5% / 10% / 15% | Total up to $15 / $15–$20 / over $20 |
| Beauty, Health and Personal Care | 8% / 15% | Total up to $10 / over $10 |
| Baby Products | 8% / 15% | Total up to $10 / over $10 |
| Grocery | 8% / 15% | Total up to $15 / over $15 |
| Electronics Accessories | 15% / 8% | Portion up to $100 / portion above |
| Indoor & Outdoor Furniture | 15% / 10% | Portion up to $200 / portion above |
| Jewelry and Precious Metals | 20% / 5% | Portion up to $250 / portion above |
| Automotive & Powersports, Musical Instruments | 12% | — |
| Consumer Electronics, Camera & Photo, Major Appliances | 8% | — |
| Personal Computers | 6% | — |
Read the threshold column carefully. In apparel, beauty, baby and grocery the rate applies to the whole item once the total crosses the line. In electronics accessories, furniture and jewelry only the portion above the line gets the second rate. The full list of categories is on Walmart's referral fees page.
If you use WFS, Walmart also charges a fulfillment fee per unit sold and a monthly storage fee:
| Shipping weight | Fulfillment fee per unit |
|---|---|
| Up to 1 lb | $3.45 |
| 2 lb | $4.95 |
| 3 lb | $5.45 |
| 4–20 lb | $5.75 + $0.40 per lb over 4 |
- Shipping weight. Under 1 lb: unit weight plus 0.25 lb for packaging, rounded up to the next pound. From 1 lb: the greater of unit weight and dimensional weight (length × width × height in inches ÷ 139).
- Extra per unit: $0.50 for apparel, $1 for items priced under $10, $3 or $20 for oversize items; hazardous materials add a fee too.
- Storage: $0.75 per cubic foot per month; in October–December items stored over 30 days pay $1.50 more. Since 30 June 2026, items stored 366–450 days pay $2.25 and over 450 days $7.50 per cubic foot per month.
- Returns through WFS: from $4.70 per unit when the return is not Walmart's fault (wrong size, no longer wanted, not as described).
How much you keep from a Walmart sale: a worked example
What you keep = total sales price × (1 − referral rate) − fulfillment − product cost. For a 15% category that is total × 0.85, minus your shipping or WFS cost and the product.
Illustrative example for the arithmetic; the figures are not market prices. A set of silicone kitchen utensils (Home & Kitchen, 15%) sells for $40 with free shipping. It costs you $12. In the box it weighs 0.6 lb and measures 8 × 4 × 4 inches. Shipping it yourself, the label costs $7.50 and packaging $0.50. With WFS, getting one unit to the fulfillment center costs you $0.50.
| Line | Calculation | You ship, $ | WFS, $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total sales price | free shipping to the buyer | 40.00 | 40.00 |
| Referral fee | 40 × 15% | −6.00 | −6.00 |
| Shipping label and packaging | your cost | −8.00 | — |
| WFS fulfillment fee | 0.6 + 0.25 = 0.85 lb → 1 lb | — | −3.45 |
| WFS storage, one month | 8 × 4 × 4 ÷ 1,728 = 0.074 cu ft × 0.75 | — | −0.06 |
| Shipping to the fulfillment center | your cost per unit | — | −0.50 |
| Product cost | −12.00 | −12.00 | |
| You keep | 14.00 | 17.99 |
With WFS the costs are $3.45 for fulfillment plus $0.56 for storage and inbound shipping. On this light item that is less than the $8 label and packaging, and Walmart takes over most performance metrics. It works the other way when a return is your side's fault: Walmart charges a $4.70 return processing fee and keeps the $3.45 fulfillment fee, refunding only the referral fee. One such return costs $8.15 — almost half of what the sale made.
To price from the profit you want, turn the formula around: price = (product cost + fulfillment + profit) ÷ (1 − referral rate). Check: (12 + 8 + 14) ÷ 0.85 = 40. In a 15% category every $1 of profit needs about $1.18 of price. To run your own numbers, use the profit margin calculator.
Tiered categories need one more check. A T-shirt at $16.99 plus $3.99 shipping is a $20.98 order and pays 15%: about $3.15, leaving $17.83. The same shirt at $19.99 with free shipping pays 10%, $2.00, and leaves $17.99. The buyer pays less and you keep more, because shipping counts towards the threshold.
How you get paid on Walmart
Walmart pays out generally every 14 days to Marketplace Wallet or your payout provider, from where you move the money to your business bank account. While the new-seller hold applies, most orders are paid in the payout cycle after it ships or is delivered — about 28 days later.
- New-seller hold. A rolling delay applies to every order: up to 14 days for US-incorporated sellers, up to 21 days for others. It ends once 90 days have passed since your first shipped order and you have received $7,500 in payments. Plan stock purchases for roughly a month without Walmart money.
- Performance affects payouts. High return or chargeback rates and counterfeit or illegal items can lead to payment freezes or non-payment.
Walmart seller performance standards
After approval, Walmart measures every seller over the last 30 or 60 days. Missing a standard can lead to listings being suppressed, the account suspended or terminated, and a terminated account can't appeal.
| Metric | Standard |
|---|---|
| Valid tracking rate | 99% or above |
| Seller response rate, within 48 hours | 95% or above |
| On-time delivery rate | 90% or above |
| Return rate | 6% or below |
| Late shipment rate | 5% or below |
| Cancellation rate | 2% or below |
Item-not-received and negative feedback rates are measured too. With WFS most of these metrics are met for you; negative feedback stays with you. The cancellation standard is the one multichannel sellers break most easily: an item that sold out on another channel and has to be canceled counts against you.
Where new Walmart sellers lose money
- Counting the fee on the item price only. Referral fees apply to the total, shipping included. A $35 item with $5 shipping pays on $40.
- Charging shipping in a tiered category. In the example above, $3.99 of shipping moved the shirt into the 15% tier and left the seller $0.16 less than free shipping.
- Applying with mismatched details. The business name or address entered differently from the IRS letter or registration certificate is the usual reason verification stalls.
- Not planning for the payout delay. For the first 90 days and $7,500 in payments, money comes up to two to three weeks later than usual.
- Selling the same stock on several channels with separate counts. The last unit sells twice, and the cancellation goes into a metric where Walmart's limit is 2%.
When Walmart is one of several sales channels
If you sell only on Walmart, Seller Center is enough. Once the same products also sell on your website or other marketplaces, prices and stock have to come from one catalog. In Elbuz, Walmart orders arrive in the same order list as your other channels and are acknowledged on Walmart after they are saved, prices in US dollars and stock go back to Walmart on a schedule, and existing Walmart items are imported as product cards. New products are offered to Walmart by GTIN — as an offer on an existing Walmart item, or as a full item when the category is mapped to a Walmart product type.
One limit: a product without a GTIN is not sent, so items under a GTIN exemption are listed from Seller Center. How the connection works is on the Walmart integration page.
Walmart integration in ElbuzOrders, prices and shared stock with your other channels — 14 days free
Selling handmade goods as well? See how to sell on Etsy; for margins across a whole catalog, how to calculate markup.
Frequently asked questions
What are the requirements to become a seller on Walmart Marketplace?
A business tax ID or business license number (not an SSN), documents for the business name and address, a personal ID, a history of ecommerce sales, GTIN/UPC codes or an exemption, a compliant catalog, and a US warehouse with returns or Walmart Fulfillment Services.
How much does it cost to sell on Walmart?
There are no setup or monthly fees. You pay a referral fee on each sale — 15% in most categories, from 5% to 20% depending on category and price — plus WFS fees if Walmart ships for you.
What percentage does Walmart take from sellers?
Usually 15% of the total sales price including shipping. Personal computers pay 6%, consumer electronics 8%, and jewelry 20% on the first $250 of the price.
Is it hard to get approved to sell on Walmart?
It depends on your documents and track record. Walmart verifies the business against IRS or government records and asks for proof of ecommerce sales; verification itself takes from a few minutes to a few business days.
Can I sell on Walmart from outside the US?
Yes, if your company is incorporated in one of the countries Walmart supports — including China, the UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, Mexico and India — or has a US EIN. You still need US fulfillment: your own US warehouse or WFS.
Is selling on Walmart worth it?
It is if the product still makes money after the referral fee and fulfillment, and you can wait out the new-seller payment hold. Run your price through the formula above: at 15% and $8 shipping, a $40 item that costs $12 leaves $14.
Sources
- Walmart Marketplace, "Referral fees" — rates by category, total sales price includes shipping, no setup or monthly fees — marketplace.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace, "Seller registration guide" — requirements and onboarding steps — marketplace.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace Learn, "Before you start selling on Walmart Marketplace" — marketplacelearn.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace Learn, "Tax classifications and documentation" — W-9, W-8ECI, W-8BEN-E, W-8BEN, supported countries and documents — marketplacelearn.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace Learn, "WFS fees" — fulfillment, storage, returns — marketplacelearn.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace Learn, "Payment processing" — payout options and cycle — marketplacelearn.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace Learn, "New seller payment hold policy" — marketplacelearn.walmart.com.
- Walmart Marketplace Learn, "Seller performance standards" — marketplacelearn.walmart.com.
Checked 1 November 2026.
