A guide to Walmart 2-day shipping
by November 1, 2023
This post is from our friends at Deliverr. Please note: This blog was originally published in 2020. It’s since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
We’ve seen marketplaces across the board focusing more on customer experience and fast shipping in order to boost conversions, protect profit margins, and compete with Amazon Prime. These include eBay Guaranteed Delivery, premium subscriptions at Newegg, and Jet’s free 2-5 day shipping program on orders over $35.
Walmart’s fast shipping program launched in January 2017 as the retail giant’s response to Amazon Prime. However, it just opened up to marketplace sellers this October 2018.
Walmart free 2-day shipping offers free expedited shipping with no minimum order requirement for marketplace listings. Like with Amazon Prime, they promise a quick, hassle-free shipping experience, but unlike Amazon Prime, Walmart doesn’t require any membership or fees.
Customers benefit from free shipping, in-store returns at any Walmart location (even when it’s a third-party merchant product), and faster shipping. Sellers benefit from improved conversion, higher placement in search, fast shipping tags across the site, and filtering options that reduce competition.
At the same time, enrolling in 2-day shipping can be costly for sellers, as the program means meeting strict account metrics or going through Walmart’s third-party fulfillment provider, Deliverr.
This guide will take you through the pros and cons of getting your items into Walmart’s fast shipping program, as well as the logistics of how to do it.
4 Benefits of fast shipping tags
Implementing free 2-day shipping could be costly for eCommerce businesses, and meeting Walmart’s speed metrics can be complex unless you outsource to a fulfillment partner. However, fast shipping tags come with large payoffs. Here are some of the results we’ve seen among our sellers.
1. Increased conversions
The biggest overall benefit by far we’ve seen with fast shipping tags is that they get conversions. Psychologically, people don’t like to wait…especially with today’s modern technology, which can deliver everything from endorphins to tissue paper with the press of a button.
Providing items that will get to your buyers within 48 hours means you’ll capture more last minute shoppers, the shoppers who don’t want to wait 5 business days for their order, and you’ll provide an overall better customer experience. That’s good for conversions, and great for repeat business.
One Deliverr seller saw a 500% increase in sales after getting on Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping, and another saw their boardgame sales shoot up 200%. When we look at other marketplaces, the same holds true. We’ve seen eBay sales doubleafter enabling eBay Guaranteed Delivery.
In addition to fast shipping, Walmart’s fast shipping program is also free. Studies show that free shipping affects 25-36% of purchase decisions and is a prime purchase consideration for as many as 90% of consumers.
2. Win the buy box
Walmart has an Amazon-style buy box, wherein one product is featured and the other sellers are listed as additional options that the shopper has to click on to view.
In the image above, we see that there are 16 other sellers with the same item. This Walmart marketplace seller has the free 2-day shipping tag, whereas many of the competitors (including one that’s a lower price) do not.
Fast shipping has been a constant key to winning the buy box across marketplaces, including Amazon and eBay.
3. Stop competing on price
As featured in the case study above, price is no longer the deciding factor in what buyers want, and what marketplaces want to feature.
A survey from Dropoff found that 43% of consumers expect “much faster” delivery times, 47% have paid extra for same- or next-day delivery, and 53% have abandoned a shopping cart due to slow delivery times.
According to Internet Retailer, “over one-third (35%) of shoppers said they were willing to pay for greater delivery convenience and speed when it suits them.”
Providing that convenience, sometimes at an additional cost, is beneficial to sellers and marketplaces as well, because it means healthier profit margins. Not only does fast shipping programs provide a better customer experience, it also protects your bottom line as sellers.
We’ve seen sellers beat lower prices with faster shipping speeds, and predict the trend will continue.
4. Rank higher in search
Walmart is heavily promoting their fast shipping offering, meaning that marketplace sellers who opt into the program are heavily promoted around the site.
One of the most obvious places is in search, where filters allow (and even encourage) shoppers to remove any products without Free 2-Day Shipping from search results.
As a seller, this can greatly improve your competitiveness across the site, because most Walmart marketplace sellers still don’t offer 2-Day shipping.
Similarly, Walmart promotes 2-Day Free Shipping products across the site with a landing page, banners, and more prominence in category searches.
How to get on Walmart free 2-day shipping
If you’d like to enable Free 2-day shipping tags on your Walmart.com listings, you have two options:
- Seller Fulfilled, where you handle all items yourself
- Third-Party Fulfilled, where you work with Deliverr, Walmart’s fulfillment partner, to fulfill on your behalf
Seller Fulfilled free 2-day shipping
To qualify for Walmart’s fast shipping tag, your account must meet specific health metrics and you must have been a marketplace seller for at least 90 days.
- On-time shipping >95%
- On-time delivery >95%
- Accurate products shipped > 99.5%
- Valid Tracking > 95%
- Cancel rate <1.5%
- Generous returns policy
Once you meet these metrics, you can apply for 2-Day Free Shipping through Seller Central.
After you request access, the Walmart team will determine eligibility within 48 hours, and your approval/denial message will be displayed within your Seller Center.
During setup, sellers can specify which regions they can deliver within 2 days to.
For many sellers, self-fulfillment may be more expensive, simply because the infrastructure, automation, and warehousing required to process orders and deliver them within 2-days can be significant.
Summary
- Meet certain account health metrics
- Request access in Seller Center
- If approved, configure settings (set assortment and region/states you can support)
- Update lag time for participating SKUs
Third-Party Fulfilled free 2-day shipping
Deliverr is Walmart’s approved fulfillment integration partner, and the fastest and easiest way to begin offering Free 2-Day Shipping. All Deliverr sellers are pre-approved for Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping, and can fulfill within 2 days nationwide (instead of just certain regions).
Create your Deliverr account, go to the fast tags section, and activate Walmart 2-day shipping. Your Deliverr representative will set your account up for you, which will enable you to immediately begin displaying fast shipping tags on your listings once your items arrive and are processed at a Deliverr warehouse.
Deliverr manages the entire fulfillment process from order to delivery, and will handle meeting all of Walmart’s performance requirements. With a hassle-free onboarding process and transparent pricing, it’s a streamline way to enable fast shipping tags on your Walmart listings.
Tip: Calculate your fulfillment costs with Deliverr, and compare them to multi-channel FBA and a typical 3PL.
Summary
- Sign up for Deliverr (2 minutes)
- Activate fast shipping tags in your dashboard
Overall, free 2-day shipping has many seller benefits, including increasing your ability to compete across the marketplace. Walmart Free 2-Day Shipping also works to move attention away from lowball prices, can help you to win the Buy Box, and boosts your listings in search.
Enrolling in the program will help you to get exposure for products while boosting conversions, which can help you to earn more. At the same time, it’s crucial to pay attention to costs, whether self-fulfilled or outsourced, to ensure that whichever option you choose remains profitable.
