Walmart sells collectibles through its marketplace and today invited sellers to a special new “Collectibles Experience” in conjunction with a selling promotion. Eligible sellers have a chance to earn zero referral fees from July 1 through September 30, 2024.
“As a trusted Walmart seller specializing in collectors’ items, your business could be a great candidate for our new Collectibles Experience.” In addition to the 3-month promotion, sellers who qualify can get the following perks:
Flexible return policy: “Choose between accepting: no returns, a 15-day return with sealed policy, or our standard 30-day Walmart return policy.”
Ability to offer preorders: “Build the anticipation around a new drop by offering pre-orders for your products.”
New grading system: “List trading cards and comic books with new, graded condition options coming soon.”
Sell pre-owned: “Collectibles come in all conditions. Let your customers know that your products are vintage and pre-loved, making them one-of-a-kind.”
Eligible categories include Toys (Figures, Dolls, Trains, Plushies, Games, LEGO, Funko, Diecast Cars & Hot Wheels); Media & Music (Movies, Vinyl, Music, SteelBooks, Musical Instruments & Entertainment Replicas); Trading Cards; Comic Books & Books; Sports Memorabilia; and Coins.
Sellers can learn more on the Walmart Marketplace landing page.
Spokesperson John Forrest Ales told EcommerceBytes that Walmart has offered collectibles through its Marketplace for years and has continuously enhanced the experience for both customers and sellers. “Our customers are looking for collectibles and with this limited time offer, now’s a great time for sellers to bring their items to Walmart.com.” He confirmed Walmart recently launched pre-owned for collectibles.
I can attest another way in which Walmart is imitating Amazon — in its customer service for sellers. You meet now exactly the same stupidity there as at Az. You cannot get the simplest thing done without great perseverance. You get paste and copy replies that show the sender did not even read your message, only scanned it for a keyword.
“I see you mentioned being sick and tired. Here is a helpful page of mental health advice.”
Only it’s not really stupidity; the people running WM like those running Az have decided it’s better to hire the cheapest people you can, train them hardly at all and tell them they may take no more than 4 seconds to answer each query, than to provide actual help. That’s the calculation they have made.
Walmart may like to note that there is an increasing number of Amazon sellers who absolutely hate and despise everything Az stands for, to the extent of no longer buying anything on Az of any kind.
The other thing Amazon are doing is trashing their catalog, when many intelligent people would curate it for them, with a little help and respect.
Is that the road Walmart really wishes to go down?
For any sellers considering selling on Walmart, you should think twice. We started putting a few thousand listings at the start of 2024. In the beginning sales were decent. After three months we started getting an inordinate amount of product returns – no longer needed, changed mind… These returns were off the charts compared to what we would get on eBay where we have been selling for over 20 years.
When I spoke with our account rep she explained that Walmart offers a no hassle 30 return policy. OK, I can live with that. The problem is with the ease of returns, you get the product in the mail and then for returns, it can be done at any Walmart store. How easy is it for a buyer to use the product for a few weeks and then just decide to return it – most people will visit a Walmart store once a month. From Walmart’s point of view, you are penalized (think Amazon stats) and you pay the return shipping.
For all the issues with eBay, at least they make the buyer go through more steps to complete a return which lowers that statistic.