All You Need to Know About Promotions on Walmart

Have you ever bought something you might not have even needed, just because it was on sale? Everybody loves to get a good bargain – it makes buyers feel special because they are making smart spending decisions. 

From this perspective, running promotions is not rocket science. Now and then, sellers should offer sale prices to attract new customers and reward existing, loyal buyers. Promotions, offline or online, are among the best organic marketing tools that all sellers can utilize to increase their conversion rates.

If you’re selling on Amazon, check out our Guide on Seller Central and Vendor Central Promotions. Below I will be focusing on the Walmart marketplace. 

The Types of Promotions

Walmart’s process for setting up promotions is a little different from other marketplaces. Walmart’s Seller Center has two types of promotion: Clearance and Reduced Price. 

Reduced Price – the savings offered must be $5 or greater for items that cost more than $100 or 5% or greater for items less than $100, and a ‘Reduced Price’ flag is displayed in the top left corner of the product image. There is no fee associated with running a Reduced Price promotion, which can last up to 365 days. An Excel spreadsheet must be downloaded for the promotion to be created, which can be found in your Seller Center.

Clearance – a ‘Clearance’ badge is displayed in the top left corner of the product image when the saving is over 10% on the item, though there is no minimum discount. There is no fee associated with running a Clearance promotion and, again, an Excel spreadsheet must be downloaded for the promotion to be created. 

Promotional Rules

• Up to 5 promotions can be created or scheduled for an item. The promotions cannot overlap.
• You must provide Promotion Status, Promo Price, Promo Start Date, and Promo End Date information.
• The promotions can be set for up to 365 days.
• Walmart uses  UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) for scheduling promotions; do not try to use your local time zone when scheduling the promotion’s start and end date.
• Promotions should be created at least 4 hours before the start date. If the promotion is set to begin less than 30 minutes in advance, it may not go live at the scheduled time.
• The price, type, and date of all promotions can be updated.
• You can delete promotions that are currently active as well as future promotions that are scheduled.
• To create or update any promotion, you must download the Spec Template that can be found in Seller Center in the Bulk Updates section. This must be downloaded in Excel as macros are required to validate the information.

How to Create a Promotion 

• Download the Price and Promo Spec template.
• Populate all necessary information.
• Validate and Upload.
• Track the status to ensure the promotions are accepted.
• Check your listings to ensure the promotions are running correctly.

Best Practice and Tips

• When creating promotions, you must save the templates and keep track of the promotions scheduled or currently running – there is no way to monitor this.
• Currently, there is no reporting for promotions, so you must track the performance yourself by downloading sales reports regularly.
• Promotions are available for all shoppers, and cannot currently be created for a specific audience. 
• The ‘Rollback’ badge is only available for items sold by Walmart directly. They will not show on your Price Reductions or Clearance items.
• Allow Walmart’s system up to 4 hours for the promotions to display properly.

Walmart’s marketplace is still under-utilized and less saturated than Amazon. Although Walmart has attempted to make its dashboard and selling platform feel familiar to Amazon sellers, its systems and style remain different and unique. 

If you have additional questions or need help with selling on Amazon or Walmart, reach out to Bellavix, the digital marketing agency that is a true partner on your journey to success in online marketplaces. 

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