Introduction
The Walmart Marketplace is more than just a selling platform; it’s a gateway to millions of customers searching for products like yours.
But, are you doing everything you can to stand out in this competitive marketplace?
If you’re ready to unlock your full sales potential, we’ll discuss 5 strategies that will help you boost your sales and maximize your success. So, let’s get started!
Strategy 1: Increasing Sales Organically
Achieving strong sales on Walmart requires driving organic traffic straight to your product listings.
Walmart’s ranking algorithm depends on finding keywords your products are relevant for and then determining how high you should rank on those keywords based on your listing content as well as your product’s performance.
So, how can you influence your organic rank? Always be on the lookout for the keywords where you have a high possibility of ranking for.
You can look for relevant keywords using third-party tools such as Helium 10 Cerebro or Walmart’s Keyword Planner. We’ll now cover how to use both, so follow along!
Keyword Research using Helium 10 Cerebro
You can use the Helium 10 Cerebro tool to conduct keyword research to help you know the keywords your competitors are outranking you for.
For example, say you’re selling garlic mincers on Walmart and want to determine which keywords your competitors are outranking you on. Here’s how you can do this using Cerebro to help you find these keywords:
Step 1: Select two competing products you want to track.
Step 2: Head over to Helium 10 Cerebro to put your product ID and the product IDs of the two other products.
Step 3: Put “3” as your relative rank, which means you’ll be in the last place compared to those two products.
In the screenshot above you can see that our product is ranking 29th on the keyword “garlic mincer tool” whereas the two competing products are ranking 1st and 6th respectively.
From here, you can focus on this keyword and optimize your listing by including it in your title, description, and bullet points to drive more organic traffic.
Another way to discover the keywords you should rank for is by using Walmart’s Keyword Planner.
Walmart’s Keyword Planner
With Walmart’s Keyword Planner, you can uncover the popular search terms customers use, which can be capitalized on to rank higher. Let’s find out how it works!
Step 1: Access the Keyword Planner
Head to your Walmart Dashboard and click on the “Keyword Planner” under tools.
Step 2: Add your product
Click on “Add Items” to enter your product ID.
Step 3: Understand the data
Once you’ve added your product, you’ll see four key columns: raw query, normalized query, the traffic keyword frequency, and the item keyword frequency.
Raw Query vs. Normalized Query:
- Raw Query: This column shows the exact search terms customers entered. It includes any misspellings, grammatical errors, or variations in phrasing. Raw queries are valuable because they reveal customer behavior and the terms customers typically use when searching for products.
- Normalized Query: This is a cleaned-up version of the raw query, where errors, redundancies, and inconsistencies have been removed. Walmart’s system standardizes these terms to match product catalog descriptions or categories.
Traffic Keyword Frequency vs. Item Keyword Frequency:
- Traffic Keyword Frequency: This column indicates how popular a search term is. It is categorized as High, Medium, or Low based on search volume.
- Item Keyword Frequency: This shows how frequently your product appears in search results for a specific keyword.
Step 4: Analyze your product’s performance
Let’s elaborate through the screenshot below: After we entered the product ID, we can see the third search term is a popular one that customers frequently use, so its traffic keyword frequency is high.
Yet, the product isn’t showing up for these search terms as it should which makes its frequency medium.
This presents an excellent opportunity to start targeting this search term and incorporating it into product listings to drive more organic traffic to this product.
Having touched on listing optimization in this strategy, it’s time to dive deeper into it.
Strategy 2: Listing Optimization
Your product listing is more than just a page—it’s your first impression on customers, making it either a dealmaker or a dealbreaker.
So, one of the keys to standing out and boosting your sales is getting the hang of your listing optimization, which we’ll cover next.
Listing Quality Score
To kick off things, it’s useful to know how Walmart measures any product listing’s performance.
It does so through the Listing Quality Score, which provides a breakdown of areas where your listings excel and where they need improvement.
You can find your score on the Listing Quality Dashboard, where you’ll see Walmart’s Optimization Triangle in action: content, offer, and performance.
It goes without saying that the higher your Listing Quality Score, the better your chances of getting indexed and climbing higher in Walmart’s search rankings, which means bringing more eyes (and wallets) to your products.
For this article, we’re zeroing in on the “content” side of the triangle and how optimizing it can drive more traffic to your listings. Let’s dive in!
Mastering Listing Content: Crafting Titles, Images, and Descriptions That Sell
Being descriptive and relevant in your product listings isn’t just smart—it’s a game-changer.
So, we’ll cover examples of top-performing Walmart listings that hit the sweet spot for both the algorithm and customers alike.
Title
A strong title ensures your listing pops up exactly when customers search for the products they need.
It might sound counterintuitive, but Walmart prefers concise product titles—ideally 50-75 characters. This means no keyword stuffing; so keep it sharp and focused!
For example, here’s a bike brand that does a good job of writing a concise product title with relevant keywords.
What this brand does so well with this product title is calling out the age range that the bike is intended for, taking into consideration how parents will likely include this detail directly in their search query.
Images
Great images don’t just showcase your product—they sell it, capturing attention, building trust, and driving clicks faster than words ever could. Take for example the images the same bike brand is using.
They’re not just showcasing real kids riding the bike—they’re also highlighting its actual size, comparing it to other bike sizes for better clarity.
Plus, it’s a clever way for the brand to showcase its full collection of bikes in various sizes that are suitable for different family members.
Description
As customers search, they’ll gravitate toward listings that have more descriptive information.
Again, this bike brand knows how to use the product description to address potential customers’ questions or pain points.
Moreover, the brand speaks to parents by cracking jokes like, “Not even a full diaper is enough to slow down the 12 Pro” and connecting the dots between biking and child development “We help create kids who have the moxie to say, “Bring it on, world. Challenge me. I’m ready”.
Attributes
Attributes are values used to organize products in site navigation and on shelves, and they also help make listings more visible when customers search and browse products using filters on the left-hand navigation.
These attributes can be anything from size and color to dimensions and materials.
So, as you can see with this listing, Gillette is nailing this product’s attributes by offering tons of detailed and thorough item specs.
This further ensures that this product will appear in filtered search pages, which may showcase products made with a specific material or for a specific skin type.
Strategy 3: Run effective ads
Creating ads that truly boost your sales requires strategy and precision.
In the following sections, we’ll guide you step-by-step—from keyword research and selecting the right ad type to fine-tuning your ad performance. Let’s dive in!
Step 1: Keyword research
The importance of targeting relevant keywords in your ad campaigns can’t be overemphasized.
One popular way of doing so is using tools such as Walmart’s Related Keyword report as well as Helium 10 Cerebro to uncover the keywords your competitors leverage in their sponsored ads.
Let’s start with Walmart’s Related Keyword Report to see how it works.
Walmart’s Related Keyword Report
The Related Keyword report helps you discover popular keywords related to ones you might already be using for your product.
For our purpose here, we’ll use it to find new keywords and see the most clicked-on products for each keyword. So let’s get to it!
Step 1: Log in to your Walmart’s “Seller Center”, then head to “Search Insights” under the “Analytics” section. Click on “related keyword reports”.
Step 2: Type the most basic search term into the “Query” field that describes your product—for example, “essential oils.” You’ll end up with a list of all the related keywords Walmart has and the current most-clicked-on products for these keywords.
Step 3: Determine the most relevant keywords for you based on the current most-clicked products and how similar they are to your product.
Helium 10 Cerebro
Another way of finding relevant keywords is to use Helium 10 Cerebro. All you have to do is find a few competitors on Walmart and copy their product IDs into Helium 10 Cerebro.
What you’ll see is a list of keywords that you can use; we recommend that you focus on keywords where your competitors are ranked in the first, second, and third positions since these are the most relevant keywords.
Once you select your keywords, you can add them to your sponsored ad campaigns.
Step 2: Choose the right ad type
Choosing the right ad type for each purpose is a big part of getting the most out of your Walmart ads.
There are three sponsored ad types available on Walmart: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Videos.
Whereas sponsored products are ideal for showcasing individual products, sponsored brands highlight your entire product range and direct traffic to your Walmart Brand Shop for enhanced brand visibility.
Sponsored videos, too, are useful for capturing customers’ attention through videos that can showcase your products in real time.
Now, it’s important to know where your ads might appear with every type of sponsored ads.
For example, sponsored brands ads get the top spot on the search results page.
Example of sponsored brands ads showing up for the keyword “skincare”
Now, if you’re running sponsored products ads, your ads will appear on different placements such as the Search In-grid, Product Carousel, or Buy Box.
Here are the differences between each one, as well as a few examples:
Search In-grid: Sponsored ads appear along with organic product listings on relevant search results. They are typically featured in the first four slots and shown again a few times within the rest of the search results.
Product Carousel: Your ads may appear on carousels at the bottom of a search page or on item pages of similar products.
Buy Box: Ads may appear in Buy Box banner ads on product detail pages.
Example of sponsored products ads with Search In-grid placement
Example of sponsored products ads with Product Carousel and Buy Box placements
Finally, if you’re running sponsored videos, your video ad can pop up at the very top of the Search In-grid.
Example of a sponsored video ad that appears at the top of the Search In-grid
Now that you know about where ads can appear on Walmart, let’s find out when to use each of these ad types.
For example, sponsored products ads are the basis for most of Walmart’s ad accounts. We usually see over 80% of the average Walmart sellers’ ad spend going to this type of ads.
This is because they appear in the Search In-grid placements which means that most customers don’t understand that they are ads and click on them as frequently as they would on non-advertised placements.
Plus, they show up on more placements, giving sellers a higher chance of being seen and making sales with these placements. So most of your budget will be spent there.
As for sponsored brands, these are useful in driving more traffic to your store as well as showcasing multiple products. This contributes to increased brand awareness and sales.
Sponsored videos are useful if you have engaging content, whether with influencers or high-production-value videos, or if your products’ features are best showcased through video ads.
One caveat, however, is that running Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos ads will be more costly than Sponsored Products. So, deciding whether to use them depends on your business goals and ad budget.
Step 3: Fine-tune your ad performance
Having your ad campaigns running is only half the battle; regularly monitoring their performance and making adjustments is what drives tangible results.
A good way to start is to pinpoint the underperforming keywords in your ad campaigns, so here is how you can do it:
Step 1: Head to your Campaign Manager dashboard, then click on the “All Keywords” option.
Step 2: Scroll down until you land on the “Manage your Keywords” section.
Step 3: Head to the RoAS column which will show you the return on your ad spend that you are getting from each keyword. This return on ad spend shows you how many dollars you’re making in revenue for each dollar of ads you’re putting in. The lower the RoAS is, the lower the keyword’s performance is.
So, you need to double-click on the RoAS column shown in the screenshot above to view your targeted keywords ranked from lowest to highest performance. Then, start lowering your bids on the underperforming keywords.
Step 4: Review Walmart’s Placement Report & Optimize Your Bids
To boost your ad performance, you’ll need to dive into Walmart’s Placement Report, which shows where your ads are being displayed and how well they’re performing in those locations.
You can achieve this by downloading your “Placement Report” from Walmart and then analyzing the data there. Let’s see how it works!
Step 1: Go to your Walmart Dashboard and select “On-Demand Reports”. Click “Request Report” and choose “Placement Performance”. Then, select your attribution window to view ad performance across different placements over the last 14 days.
Step 2: Once you request your report, download it as an Excel file. The data will be at the campaign level, but you can drill down to the product level and sift your data using a PivotTable.
To use the PivotTable, put “Campaign Name” and “Placement” under “Rows” while putting “Sum of Total Attributed Sales” and “Sum of Ad Spend” under “Values” just like the screenshot below shows.
Step 3: Analyze the data to find which ad placements drive the most sales and highest RoAS.
The screenshot above shows that the Search In-grid placement is a clear winner for products like the first one, which is making $123.89 in total attributed sales.
Meanwhile, the Carousel placements delivered zero sales for the fourth and fifth products in the screenshot above.
Step 4: Based on your analysis of the placements’ performance, navigate to the relevant ad campaign and apply a bid multiplier to the high-performing placements.
The Bid Multiplier option can be found on the campaign dashboard; it lets you increase your base bid for specific placements by a set percentage. For example, setting a 50% multiplier for Search In-grid raises, say, a $1 base bid to $1.50 for that placement.
Given that the Search In-grid performs better than the other two placements, it makes sense to use the bid multiplier there.
As for the underperforming placements such as Carousel, you may want to decrease your bid multiplier if it already exists or decrease your bids on that keyword while raising your bid multiplier on other placements to direct your ad spend toward them instead.
Strategy 4: Create a Compelling Brand Shop
Sellers who offer a brand-focused shopping experience forge stronger connections with customers, outshine competitors, and drive stronger sales.
If you’re not offering your customers this kind of experience yet, it’s time to tap into Walmart’s Brand Shop tool. Let’s dive in!
What is a Brand Shop?
Think of the Brand Shop as your very own mini-website on Walmart. It’s your space to tell your brand story, showcase your product range, and curate collections to captivate customers.
Example of a Brand Shop
Can’t wait to create your own Brand Shop? Here’s how you can set it up.
Creating your Brand Shop
Step 1: Head to the Walmart Brand Portal to register your brand with Walmart. After submitting your business registration details and any required trademark documents, Walmart will confirm your registration via email. This ensures you have access to Shop Builder, the tool for creating your Brand Shop and Shelf.
Step 2: Go to the Walmart Ad Center and log in to your account. Then, head to the Sponsored dropdown menu and select “Shop Builder.”
Step 3: Hover over “Create a Page” and select “Brand Shop”.
Step 4: Design your Brand Shop using Hero Banners, Category Hubs, Item Carousels, and Promo Cards.
Here’s the difference between each of these sections with examples:
Hero Banner: It’s the first thing your customers see once they land on your brand shop.
Category Hub: The category hub lets you present your top categories and items within each category.
Item Carousel: An Item carousel allows you to present top items related to the Brand Shop.
Promo Cards: Promo cards allow you to promote new collections, highlight seasonal items, and run offers and promotions.
Step 5: Add your content and images.
Step 6: Review and save your changes.
Step 7: Submit your shop for review by Walmart.
Once approved, make sure to link your Brand Shop or Shelf to Sponsored Brands ads to drive more traffic and attract customers.
Simply select the “Brand Shop or Shelf link” option when setting up your Sponsored Brands ad, and you’re good to go!
Strategy 5: Increase Conversion Rates
A high conversion rate is key to boosting sales and staying competitive. Conversion rates reflect how effectively you turn browsing shoppers into paying customers, and improving it requires a strategic, data-informed approach.
We’ll walk you through actionable steps to identify and fix low-converting products and leverage Walmart’s tools to maximize conversions. Let’s dive in!
Step 1: Detect Low-Converting Products
At the very outset, you need to identify which products are underperforming. A useful tool to use is Walmart’s “Search Catalog Performance” report.
This report provides insights into your products’ performance throughout the shopping funnel.
To find this report, head to your “Seller Center” dashboard and hover over “Analytics”. Next, click on “Search Insights” and then the “Search Catalog Performance” report.
As the screenshot shows, the “Added to Cart” metric—an essential conversion indicator is very low. All the products have a “Very Low” rate, meaning that even when customers click on these listings, they are not following through with adding the products to their carts.
Once you’ve identified underperforming products, it’s time to adopt the following steps.
Step 2: Leverage Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
One of the ways to increase your conversion rate is by using Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), which lets Walmart handle the shipping of your products, returns, and customer service.
Participating items are displayed with “2-day shipping” and “Fulfilled by Walmart” tags, increasing customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
Example of the WFS badge on the Search In-Grid
With the WFS badge on your listing, you stand a better chance of ranking higher on the search results page.
Plus, WFS is extremely important because customers often filter results to show only WFS-labelled products, giving you a competitive edge over seller-fulfilled products.
Step 3: Earn the Pro Seller Badge
The Pro Seller Badge signals to customers that you are a trusted and reliable seller, increasing conversion rates and sales.
The Pro Seller Badge appears to customers visiting your listing, and similar to WFS, customers can filter the results for products sold by pro sellers.
Filtering the search results by “Pro Sellers”
Example of a listing with the “Pro Seller Badge”
The Eligibility Criteria
If you’re trying to earn the Pro Seller Badge, you need first to meet these criteria:
- On-Time Delivery Rate: Sellers must maintain an on-time delivery rate of 95% or higher over the past 90 days. This ensures that customers receive their orders promptly.
- Cancellation Rate: The seller-accountable cancellation rate must be 1.5% or lower in the past 90 days. This helps maintain reliable order fulfillment and minimizes customer dissatisfaction.
- Order Volume: Sellers must process at least 250 orders in the past 90 days. This demonstrates consistent sales activity and operational capacity.
- Seller Response Rate: A response rate of 95% or higher to customer inquiries within the past 30 days is mandatory. Quick responses improve customer satisfaction and trust.
- Delivery Accuracy: The gap between the actual delivery date and the promised delivery date must be 2 calendar days or less to ensure reliable and accurate shipping performance.
- Weekend Delivery Enabled: Sellers must enable weekend delivery, which provides greater convenience for customers and increases competitiveness.
- Lag Time: Sellers must ensure that lag time is one business day or less on all items. This means orders are processed and shipped quickly, reducing delays.
- Activity: Sellers must be active on Walmart for at least 90 days to be eligible for the badge.
Once you earn your Pro Seller Badge, you can go to the “Growth” section on your “Seller Center” account to ensure you’re consistently meeting these criteria to ensure you don’t lose it.
Wrapping Up
In summary, boosting sales on Walmart Marketplace requires a multi-faceted approach: optimize your listings with relevant keywords and engaging content, leverage Walmart’s ad tools strategically, create a compelling Brand Shop, and enhance conversion rates with services like WFS and Pro Seller badges.
So, don’t hesitate to implement these strategies to unlock your full sales potential and drive lasting success!
