Walmart suppliers are constantly seeking new avenues to grow their online sales. Increasing conversion rates on Walmart.com (whether you’re a large supplier or an independent Marketplace seller) may start with a few item page tweaks to improve SEO. From there, sellers may look at additional marketing strategies provided through services like Walmart Connect.
Another way to drive conversions and grow sales is to achieve the Walmart Pro Seller Badge. In this article, we will explore the significance of the Walmart Pro Seller Badge, how to qualify, and what benefits it brings to sellers on Walmart.com
What Is Walmart’s Pro Seller Badge?
The Walmart Pro Seller Badge is a graphic awarded to sellers on Walmart.com who meet Walmart performance and service standards, setting them apart from other sellers.
Achieving the Walmart Pro Seller Badge lets online shoppers know the seller is a preferred seller on Walmart.com. For the seller, being a Walmart Pro Seller can result in better visibility, higher online conversions, and discounts on Walmart’s referral fees.
Walmart Pro Seller Badge Criteria
To be automatically eligible for a Pro Seller Badge, a supplier must meet Walmart’s set qualifications. The specific criteria include:
- Activity – the supplier is required to have been active for at least 90 days.
- Orders – more than 250 orders must have been processed in the previous 90 days.
- Weekend deliveries – delivery options for Saturday and/or Sunday must be enabled.
- High response rate – the seller response rate needs to be 95% or greater for the previous 30-day period.
- Low cancellation rate – the seller-accountable cancellations need to be at 1.5% or lower for the previous 90-day period.
- Lag time – lag time must be at one business day or less on the entire catalog.
- On-time delivery – the seller-accountable on-time delivery must be at 95% or higher for the previous 90-day period.
- Delivery day accuracy – the actual vs. promised delivery days must be two calendar days or less.
- Adherence to Walmart Standards – the supplier must not be in violation of Walmart’s Trust & Safety or Performance Standards.
Once a supplier has met the criteria above, they will be automatically eligible for a Walmart Pro Seller Badge. Walmart will grant the Pro Seller Badge to a supplier’s entire catalog with no need for an application.
How to Earn Walmart’s Pro Seller Badge
The Pro Seller Badge is awarded to suppliers who maintain specific Walmart performance metrics. In addition to the criteria listed above, Walmart will monitor a supplier’s performance in the following three areas. By maintaining high performance in the following, suppliers will have no issue in retaining their Walmart Pro Seller Badge status:
1. Customer Service
In order to qualify for a Pro Seller Badge, a supplier needs to prioritize one of Walmart’s founding principles: excellent customer service.
When evaluating the quality of customer service, Walmart will review the supplier’s speed in customer response time and accuracy of processing orders. The more a supplier improves their customer satisfaction, the better status they receive from Walmart (resulting in the Pro Seller Badge).
Specifically, Walmart is looking for a Seller Response Rate of 95% or greater in the previous 30-day period and no violations of the Trust and Safety or Performance Standards.
2. Fulfillment
Part of achieving good customer service is maintaining efficient fulfillment practices. The fulfillment criteria issued by Walmart are imperative to obtaining a Pro Seller Badge and improving sales on Walmart.com.
Fulfillment requirements to be in good standing with Walmart include a supplier’s actual delivery being two days or less of the promised delivery date, lag time of one business day or less, delivery on Saturday and/or Sunday, and on-time delivery of 95% or greater.
3. Cancellation Rates
The lower your cancellation rates, the better. Walmart expects the seller-accountable cancellations to be at 1.5% or less for the previous 90-day period.
A high cancellation rate can easily ruin your Walmart.com reputation, decrease sales, and give you no chance of obtaining a Pro Seller Badge.
How to Check Your Pro Seller Badge Status
Whether you already have a Pro Seller Badge, or if you just need to check your metrics to improve them, all the details are in the Seller Center. After you log into the Seller Center, simply:
- Navigate to Analytics & Reports and select Growth Opportunities.
- Go to the Listing Quality Dashboard.
- Review the section labeled Pro Seller Badge.
If you have earned the Pro Seller badge, it will appear in this section. From here, you can review your performance metrics. Additionally, you can pinpoint areas where your performance needs to improve to keep from losing your Pro Seller status (see the section on Maintaining Walmart Pro Seller Badge Status below).
If you follow the steps above and are unable to locate the Pro Seller badge, it could be that you have not yet met all of the criteria needed for Walmart to grant you the Pro Seller Badge. Review the requirements again and see where you need to improve in your performance to earn the badge.
Benefits of Walmart’s Pro Seller Badge
Is it worth it to try and achieve the Walmart Pro Seller Badge? The short answer is YES! The Pro Seller Badge carries benefits for Walmart.com sellers to aid in sales performance. Some benefits include:
Improved Search Placement
The Walmart Pro Seller Badge is more than a simple graphic next to your products. Sellers achieving the badge can have their items rank higher in Walmart.com search results. Increasing the visibility of your products and the number of shoppers clicking on your item pages will lead to more sales.
Greater Visibility
The Pro Seller Badge lets customers on Walmart.com know that you are trusted by Walmart. Once customers understand your items meet Walmart standards, it sets you apart from your competitors who have not achieved the Pro Seller Badge, giving you better visibility and a greater chance at winning the sale.
Shopper Confidence
Building trust with the customer is essential to winning the sale; even more so with online customers. The Walmart Pro Seller Badge lets a potential customer know that Walmart trusts your business practices with their customers. This will automatically drive your presence on Walmart.com and boost your credibility to keep customers coming back to your item pages.
How to Use the Walmart Pro Seller Badge
Once Walmart has granted you the Pro Seller Badge, your work is not over! Now is the time to optimize this new online status. In addition to standing out from competitors on Walmart.com who have not received the badge, here are a few tips to ensure the badge is being used to better convert new sales:
Make Improvements to Item Pages
While the Walmart Pro Seller Badge will make your listing stand out, it’s your item page where the conversion happens. With the additional attention brought from the badge, details on your item pages need to be enhanced to get into the shopper’s cart. Images are key; make sure they are high quality and capture details to visually please the shopper. Work on well-worded descriptions, bullet points for important product stats, and explore new ways of using dynamic content to make the listing stand out.
Stay Competitive on Price
When a shopper goes to Walmart.com, they are expecting low prices on the products they want. It’s part of Walmart’s founding principles and commitment to its customers. While the Pro Seller Badge shows the shopper that Walmart values your service level, price is still a major factor in winning the sale. Constantly review your pricing strategy. Monitor the competition on Walmart.com and other websites. Any steps you can take to win on price will help win the buy box and drive revenue.
Better Customer Communication
One of the best ways to grow online sales is to build a loyal repeat customer base. After achieving the Walmart Pro Seller Badge, sellers can take advantage of follow-up opportunities with customers. This is much more than addressing issues or confirming delivery. This is an opportunity to solicit reviews, build trust, offer incentives for repeat purchases, and put a personal touch on the seller/customer relationship.
Maintaining Walmart Pro Seller Badge Status
After you are awarded the Walmart Pro Seller Badge, you do not want to lose it. Maintaining your status requires reviewing your performance at Walmart.com to ensure you have not fallen below the required standards.
An easy way to check your status is to use Walmart’s Seller Analytics tool. Seller Analytics is provided for Marketplace sellers to keep up with performance metrics, track sales, and collect data to develop better sales and marketing strategies. Some of the data provided in the Seller Analytics tool includes:
- Customer metrics: The Customer Metrics information provides sellers with information on return rates, cancellation rates, and overall customer satisfaction.
- Sales reports: Walmart.com sellers have in-depth reports covering sales and revenue. This includes breakouts of gross sales, net sales, and volume of orders.
- Inventory management: The Inventory Management section allows sellers to not only monitor inventory levels but also set notifications when it is time to restock items or review an item’s price.
- Pricing metrics: Winning the sale comes down to an item’s price many times. In this section, sellers can better understand their own pricing metrics and how they rank competitively. Metrics here include how their item price stands against other sellers, their position in the buy box, and the price of their items over a given time period.
How 8th & Walton Can Help
Improving your performance with Walmart to earn the Pro Seller Badge may be as simple as communication tweaks or as complex as supply chain adjustments. Whether you need help with analytics, accounting, item setup, or just have questions about online reporting, our team of experts can help.
Just submit the form below to request a free 15-minute consultation.
The Bottom Line
To get in front of the millions of Walmart.com shoppers, Walmart holds sellers to high standards. As a benefit, Walmart rewards top sellers with the Pro Seller Badge to let its shoppers know they can trust their business to these sellers. High effort from sellers results in high effort from Walmart to boost their items and drive more sales on the platform.
Seasoned online sellers and those new to Walmart.com as well can benefit from using the tools in this article to achieve the Walmart Pro Seller Badge for better sales, expand their customer base, and lock in a great relationship with Walmart.
