How The Pandemic Helped Walmart Battle Amazon Marketplace For Sellers

Walmart Marketplace grew to an estimated 70,000 sellers in 2020, fueled by a surge in online shopping due to Covid-19 and a series of investments in technology, vendor relationships

Between 2009 and 2014, Walmart's Marketplace business, where outside merchants hawk everything from baby blankets to power tools, counted no more than six sellers, and was described by one expert as “in limbo.” But what was treated as an afterthought for years has emerged as an important leg in the world's biggest retailer's long-term strategy to take on Amazon Inc, which it is battling for advertising and ecommerce dollars. Walmart Marketplace grew to an estimated 70,000 sellers in 2020, fueled by a surge in online shopping due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a series of investments in technology and vendor relationships reported here for the first time. That is expected to rise 146 per cent by the end of 2022, according to projections by data firm Marketplace Pulse that have not yet been published. The rapid growth is starting to stress the system, some merchants said, a growing number of whom worry that if the pace picks up, Walmart risks damaging its reputation as a haven for quality sellers. Reuters spoke with vendors from Walmart.com and Amazon, analytics companies that help merchants sell on both marketplaces, industry experts, consultants and executives. "A year or two ago, every brand on Walmart.com would be trustworthy but now it's getting very similar to Amazon and that's a huge risk," said Cal Chan, who sells supplements and skincare products on both Walmart and Amazon. "Amazon let everyone under the sun in - that helped them grow, but now they're trying to clean up the riff-raff and it's very hard to close Pandora's Box." Amazon disputed the characterization by merchants and said it has a thorough vetting process designed to help honest sellers set up accounts quickly. The company employs more than 8,000 people to remove counterfeit products, false listings and identify intellectual property theft. In 2019, Amazon stopped over 2.5 million suspected bad actors from opening Amazon selling accounts, and blocked more than 6 billion suspected bad listings, an Amazon spokesman said in an email.