Walmart Marketplace Fees 2026: Guide for Amazon Brands
By Rahul Bisht · Cotasks IT Solutions · Updated October 17, 2026 · 15 min read
Quick answer: Walmart Marketplace has no monthly fee. You pay a referral fee on each sale, from 3% to 20% of the total sales price depending on the category, with most categories at 8% or 15%. Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) is optional and starts at $3.45 per unit up to 1 lb. Walmart Connect ads are optional too, and a realistic test budget is $1,500 to $3,000 a month. If you already sell on Amazon, your products, UPCs and brand carry over. Your reviews, listing copy and ad history don't.
You already run a working Amazon business, so you don't need Walmart explained from scratch. You need to know what it costs, what you can reuse, what you'll have to rebuild, and whether the numbers justify the effort. That's what this guide does, with fees checked against Walmart's own pages and every assumption in the margin example labelled.
The timing matters more than usual. Walmart is running a New-Seller Savings programme for sellers who go live after February 1, 2026, and it runs until January 31, 2027. If you've been putting off expansion, there's a financial reason to stop.
Is expanding from Amazon to Walmart worth it?
For most established Amazon brands, yes, as a second channel and not a replacement. Walmart gives you a different shopper, a less crowded search results page in many categories, and a fee structure with no subscription. The catch is that it isn't copy-paste. Content rules, the Buy Box, ads and fulfillment all behave differently, and sellers who treat Walmart as "Amazon with a different logo" tend to burn their first quarter learning that the hard way.
The honest test is simple. If your product has solid margin after a 15% referral fee, a UPC you own, and inventory you can ring-fence for a second channel, Walmart is worth a 90-day trial. If your margin only works with Amazon's economics, fix that first.
Walmart Marketplace fees in 2026: what you actually pay
There's no monthly subscription and no listing fee. Walmart charges a referral fee per sale, and Walmart's own referral fee schedule (last updated March 9, 2026) sets it by contract category. For comparison, Amazon's Professional plan costs $39.99 a month before any referral fee.
| Category | Referral fee |
|---|---|
| Personal Computers | 6% |
| Consumer Electronics, Camera & Photo, Video Game Consoles, Major Appliances | 8% |
| Plumbing, Heating & Cooling; Tires & Wheels | 10% |
| Automotive, Industrial & Scientific, Musical Instruments, Base Power Tools | 12% |
| Home, Kitchen, Decor & Garden; Pet Supplies; Toys & Games; Tools; Books; Office; Software | 15% |
| Everything Else | 15% |
| Apparel & Accessories | 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, 15% above $20 |
| Beauty, Health & Personal Care; Baby | 8% up to $10, 15% above $10 |
| Grocery | 8% up to $15, 15% above $15 |
| Electronics Accessories | 15% up to $100, 8% above $100 |
| Indoor & Outdoor Furniture | 15% up to $200, 10% above $200 |
| Jewelry & Precious Metals | 20% up to $250, 5% above $250 |
| Watches | 15% up to $1,500, 3% above $1,500 |
The schedule lists more categories than this table, so check yours. Two details catch people out. The fee is charged on the total sales price, which includes shipping and handling and gift wrap, not only the item price. And Walmart uses contract categories from your Marketplace Retailer Agreement, which can differ from the category you picked at item setup.
The New-Seller Savings programme
For sellers who go live after February 1, 2026, Walmart's New-Seller Savings page lists the following, subject to eligibility and conditions:
- Referral fee discounts of 20% on your first $50K of GMV, 30% on $50K to $500K, and 40% above $500K, calculated on base referral fees
- WFS credits of up to $2,000, delivered as 10% off fulfilment fees
- Ad credits of up to $500 for new Walmart Connect advertisers and up to $1,000 in SEM reimbursement
- Runs from February 2, 2026 to January 31, 2027, and you opt in after going live
Eligible countries include the US, Canada and the UK. Australia isn't on the published list, so Australian sellers should check their eligibility in Seller Center before planning around the discounts. Walmart's page is also inconsistent on whether the referral discount is automatic or needs an opt-in, so confirm in your account.
Costs that don't show up in the referral fee
- WFS fulfilment, storage and returns (next section)
- Prep and labelling chargebacks if inbound units arrive wrong
- Advertising, which is optional on paper and close to mandatory in competitive categories
- Listing and content work, because you can't paste Amazon copy across
- Currency and payout costs if you're outside the US, which depend on your payment provider and are worth pricing before you commit
For a side-by-side view of fulfillment costs, our breakdown of Walmart WFS fees vs Amazon FBA goes further than this guide does.
WFS requirements and fees: Walmart's version of FBA
Walmart's requirement is that you need a B2C US warehouse with returns capability, or you use Walmart Fulfillment Services. Most brands coming from FBA pick WFS, because it earns the fast-shipping badge and takes most delivery metrics off your plate. Per Walmart's performance standards, WFS sellers are still measured on negative feedback rate, but Walmart handles most of the other metrics for them.
What WFS actually asks of you
Walmart's fee page doesn't publish a single eligibility checklist, so the practical requirements come from its inbound and fee rules:
- Item limits. Standard items must weigh 150 lb or less including packaging, with a longest side of 108 inches or less and longest side plus girth of 165 inches or less. Bigger goes into the big-and-bulky programme, up to 500 lb.
- Proper product IDs. Walmart matches on GS1 UPCs and similar codes, not ASINs, so you need barcodes you own.
- Inbound prep and labelling to Walmart's routing and packaging guide. Get it wrong and you pay chargebacks of $0.65 per unit for a missing or incorrect label and $0.80 per unit for a missing or incorrect poly bag.
- Clean inventory planning. Storage fees climb in peak season and punish old stock (below).
WFS fees at a glance
From Walmart's WFS fee page, last updated May 27, 2026:
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fulfilment, up to 1 lb | $3.45 per unit |
| Fulfilment, 2 lb | $4.95 per unit |
| Fulfilment, 3 lb | $5.45 per unit |
| Fulfilment, 4 to 20 lb | $5.75 plus $0.40 per lb over 4 lb |
| Surcharges | Apparel +$0.50, hazmat +$0.50, retail price under $10 +$1.00, Oversize 1 +$3, Oversize 2 +$20 |
| Storage, January to September | $0.75 per cubic foot per month |
| Storage, October to December | $0.75 up to 30 days, then $2.25 in total beyond 30 days |
| Long-term storage, 366 to 450 days (from June 30, 2026) | $2.25 per cubic foot per month |
| Long-term storage, over 450 days (from June 30, 2026) | $7.50 per cubic foot per month |
| Returns processing, up to 1 lb | $4.70 per unit, waived when Walmart is at fault |
Shipping weight isn't just the scale weight: items under 1 lb get 0.25 lb added, and heavier items use the greater of actual or dimensional weight (length × width × height ÷ 139). Weights above 20 lb have their own tiers on Walmart's page.
The lesson for Amazon sellers is the same as with FBA: slow-moving stock gets expensive fast. The new long-term storage rates mean anything you park for over 450 days costs $7.50 a cubic foot per month. If you're planning Q4 stock, our holiday inventory planning guide for US sellers covers the timing, and our FBA and inventory management service handles it across channels.
Walmart Connect ads cost: what to budget
Walmart doesn't publish a price list, because ads run on bids. There's also no platform-enforced minimum budget, so the cost question is really "how much do I need to spend before the data means something?" Here's what the third-party benchmarks say. Treat them as directional: they come from agency accounts and tool vendors, not from Walmart.
| Benchmark | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CPC, low-competition categories (grocery, basic household) | $0.40 to $0.95 | SellTru, May 2026 |
| CPC, moderate competition (home, kitchen, personal care) | $0.95 to $1.50 | SellTru |
| CPC, competitive categories (health, beauty, electronics accessories) | $1.50 to $2.50+ | SellTru |
| Average Sponsored Products CPC | $0.50 to $1.00, with minimum bids of $0.20 (auto) and $0.30 (manual) | PPC Ninja, Feb 2026, no stated source |
| Practical monthly floor to learn anything | $1,500 to $3,000 | SellTru |
| Ad spend as a share of revenue | 10% to 15% | Feedvisor |
| ROAS, first 60 to 90 days | 1.5x to 2.5x | SellTru |
| ROAS once optimised (90 to 180 days) | 2.5x to 4x | SellTru |
The ranges overlap but don't agree exactly, and that's the honest picture: your category and your listing quality will move the numbers more than any benchmark.
The formats you can use
Sponsored Products is where nearly everyone starts: Search In-Grid, Browse In-Grid, Item Page Buy Box and carousel placements. Sponsored Brands needs Brand Portal registration, so file for that early. Sponsored Video, Onsite Display and offsite or SEM options exist, but they make sense once Sponsored Products is working, not before.
How it differs from Amazon PPC
- Ads only serve when you hold the Buy Box. No Buy Box, no ad impressions.
- Listing quality affects ad performance more than you'd expect from Amazon. Fix the content first.
- The attribution window is longer. PPC Ninja reports a default of 14 days against Amazon's 7, which can make Walmart ROAS look better than it is. Compare like with like.
- Negative keywords have been reported as unsupported. That's from a February 2026 source, so check Campaign Manager before you plan around it.
- The auction model is disputed. One 2026 source says Sponsored Products moved to a second-price auction in 2023, another says first-price. Check how your bids are charged before you scale.
A sensible starting plan
Start with automatic Sponsored Products campaigns on three to five of your best-selling Amazon SKUs, keep budgets modest, and let them run three to four weeks before building manual campaigns from the search term data, a workflow Canopy Management lays out in its 90-day checklist. One common rule of thumb is to start bids at 50% to 60% of what you pay on Amazon for the same keywords, then adjust. If you want help doing this properly, our Walmart account management service is where to start, alongside our Amazon PPC management.
What transfers from Amazon to Walmart (and what doesn't)
The short version: the asset side of your business moves across, the Amazon-specific side doesn't. Here's how it breaks down, drawing on Walmart's own pages plus practitioner guides from Zentail and Canopy Management.
| Your Amazon asset | Does it transfer? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Products and UPCs | Yes | Walmart matches on GS1-issued GTINs, not ASINs. Bundles and kits need their own UPC |
| Brand and trademark | Partly | Apply to Walmart Brand Portal separately. You need it for Sponsored Brands, and approval takes time, so apply in your first two weeks |
| Product images | Mostly | Reuse good photography, but check Walmart's image requirements and make sure every variant has an image |
| Listing copy | No | Rewrite titles, descriptions and bullets for Walmart. Pasting Amazon copy word for word is flagged as against Walmart's rules |
| Categories and attributes | No | Walmart's taxonomy differs. Pick the single best-fit category, avoid "other", and complete every relevant attribute |
| Reviews and rating | No | Your Amazon reviews stay on Amazon. Keep variations in one Walmart listing so new reviews pool together |
| Keyword research | As a starting point | Use your best Amazon terms to seed automatic campaigns, then let Walmart search data decide |
| Bids, ROAS and ad history | No | Walmart's auction, attribution and Buy Box rules differ, so start fresh |
| Pricing | With care | Walmart expects your total landing price (price plus shipping) to be competitive with other online offers |
| Inventory | Allocate it | WFS units sit separately from FBA, so decide which SKUs and how many units go where |
Walmart's performance standards compared with what you're used to
Amazon sellers tend to know their account health numbers by heart. Walmart has its own set, listed on its seller performance standards page (last updated July 28, 2026):
| Standard | Target |
|---|---|
| Cancellation rate | 2% or below |
| On-time delivery rate | 90% or above |
| Valid tracking rate | 99% or above |
| Seller response rate (within 48 hours) | 95% or above |
| Negative feedback rate | 2% or below |
| Return rate | 6% or below (9% for resold inventory) |
| Item not received rate | 2% or below |
| Late shipment rate | 5% or below |
Fail a standard and Walmart warns that you may face suppression, suspension or termination. The tracking target in particular is tighter than many Amazon sellers expect. If you're also protecting an Amazon account, our guide to Amazon account health and suspension recovery covers the other side of the coin.
Getting approved: requirements for US, UK, Canadian and Australian sellers
Walmart is more selective than Amazon at the door. Signing up is free, but according to Walmart's onboarding requirements you need all of the following:
- A business entity type Walmart accepts, plus a history of marketplace or ecommerce success
- A personal ID and documents verifying your business name and address
- A business tax ID or business licence number (a Social Security number isn't accepted)
- A B2C US warehouse with returns capability, or enrolment in WFS
- GS1 GTINs or UPCs for your products
- The ability to meet Seller Performance Standards, and a catalogue that complies with the Prohibited Products Policy
Walmart doesn't publish a review timeline. Third-party guides put approval anywhere from 24 hours to several weeks, and the delays almost always come from documents that don't match each other. Walmart's own tip is to enter your business details exactly as they appear on your documents, especially if you hit an EIN validation error.
By country
| Where you are | What we can verify |
|---|---|
| USA | The standard route above. An existing Amazon track record helps with the marketplace-history requirement, but mismatched paperwork is what stalls most applications |
| UK | Listed by Walmart as an eligible country for its 2026 New-Seller Savings programme. A 2023 Carbon6 write-up lists a Company Registration Number, a Certificate of Incorporation and a utility bill or bank statement as the documents, so confirm current requirements in Seller Center |
| Canada | Also an eligible country on the same list. Separately, US sellers can apply for the Canadian marketplace after completing its setup. Canadian sellers on Walmart.com have historically needed a Canada Business Number and incorporation documents |
| Australia | Not on the eligible-country list we found. Australian brands should check eligibility in Seller Center before planning around Walmart, and ask a specialist about workarounds such as a US entity and US fulfilment |
Walmart says sellers without a US business tax ID can submit a different business verification form, which is the option to ask about if you operate outside the US. If you sell from the UK, Canada or Australia and want help comparing channels, our regional teams cover the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA. For the basics of registration and setup, see our Walmart Marketplace seller guide and our marketplace onboarding overview.
A worked margin example (assumptions labelled)
Numbers on a fee page don't tell you whether a product works, so here's one SKU run end to end. Every input marked "assumed" is an illustration, not Walmart data. Swap in your own.
| Line | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Total sales price | $30.00 | Assumed, home and kitchen item |
| Referral fee (15%) | −$4.50 | Walmart schedule for Home, Kitchen, Decor & Garden |
| WFS fulfilment, up to 1 lb | −$3.45 | Walmart WFS fee page, assumes 0.7 lb item (0.95 lb shipping weight) |
| Storage, one month at 0.12 cubic ft | −$0.09 | $0.75 per cubic foot, January to September rate |
| Advertising (12% of revenue) | −$3.60 | Assumed, inside the 10% to 15% benchmark |
| Product cost | −$8.00 | Assumed |
| Returns and damage allowance (5%) | −$1.50 | Assumed |
| Profit per unit | $8.86 (29.5%) | Before inbound freight and prep |
Two things to notice. First, ads are the swing factor: at 12% they cost almost as much as WFS. Second, if you qualify for the New-Seller Savings referral discount (20% off on your first $50K of GMV), the referral fee drops from 15% to an effective 12%, which lifts profit to about $9.76 per unit (32.5%). That's real money, but only for a limited window and only if you're eligible.
The test to run on your own SKUs: if the margin disappears when you add ads and returns, the product isn't ready for Walmart yet.
Recommended resource
Want your own SKUs run through this margin model before you commit to Walmart? Talk to our team.
Talk to CoTasksYour first 90 days on Walmart
This follows the sequence in Canopy Management's 90-day checklist, adjusted with what we've covered above.
| Window | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 30 | Foundation | Choose WFS or your own US warehouse before you list. Build listings in Walmart's format, with complete attributes. Apply to Brand Portal in the first two weeks if you hold a registered trademark |
| Days 31 to 60 | Baseline | Check prevailing Walmart prices and price competitively. Account for referral fees by category. Check your seller scorecard weekly. Run automatic Sponsored Products on three to five top SKUs with modest budgets |
| Days 61 to 90 | Scale | Pull search term reports, move converting terms into manual campaigns, and review listing quality scores by product before adding spend. Decide which extra SKUs justify WFS stock |
One caution on benchmarks. Canopy suggests targets such as a listing quality score above 80 and Buy Box eligibility on your top five SKUs by day 90. Those are the author's own yardsticks, not Walmart's, so use them as direction, not a pass mark.
Do you need a Walmart agency?
Some Amazon brands run Walmart in-house without trouble, especially with one or two SKUs and a spare pair of hands. A Walmart agency starts to earn its fee when the work is competing with your Amazon priorities: listing rebuilds across a large catalogue, Brand Portal and trademark paperwork, ad setup, WFS inbound planning, or selling across several countries.
What does it cost? As a benchmark, SellTru reports agency pricing of $750 to $1,500 a month when Walmart is added to an Amazon account, $1,500 to $3,500 a month for dedicated Walmart management, and 10% to 15% of ad spend above roughly $10,000 a month. These are one agency's figures, so compare quotes, and see how we price Amazon work in our guide to Amazon agency pricing for the same logic.
Questions worth asking any agency:
- Who builds the listings, and are they rewritten for Walmart instead of copied from Amazon?
- How do you set ad budgets and bids in the first 90 days, and what do you report?
- Do you guarantee results? (If yes, be wary.)
- Who owns the Walmart account and the creative when we finish?
We cover this in more depth in how to choose an Amazon marketing agency. If you'd like help running Walmart alongside Amazon, that's what our Walmart account management service is built for, and as an Amazon SPN Partner agency we already work across the other half of your business.
Frequently asked questions
Tap a question to open the answer.
The short version
Walmart is a sensible next channel for an Amazon brand, as long as you go in with open eyes. The fees are simple on paper: a referral fee of 8% or 15% for most categories, optional WFS from $3.45 a unit, and ads you need to budget for. The work is in the rebuild: new listings, new category mapping, new ad habits and a tighter set of performance standards.
If you want a second opinion on whether your catalogue is ready, talk to the Cotasks team and we'll run the numbers on your SKUs with you. Our wider US ecommerce services cover the rest of the picture.
Recommended resource
Ready to run the numbers on your SKUs? Book a free consultation.
Book Free ConsultationSources
- Walmart Marketplace Learn: Referral fee schedule for contract categories (last updated March 9, 2026)
- Walmart Marketplace Learn: WFS fees (last updated May 27, 2026)
- Walmart Marketplace Learn: Seller performance standards (last updated July 28, 2026)
- Walmart Marketplace Learn: Before you start selling on Walmart Marketplace
- Walmart: New-Seller Savings 2026
- SellTru: How much does Walmart advertising cost (May 2026)
- PPC Ninja: Walmart Connect PPC guide (February 2026)
- Feedvisor: Walmart seller fees (updated March 2026)
- Zentail: How to transfer Amazon listings to Walmart (May 2026)
- Canopy Management: Amazon to Walmart expansion checklist (updated October 2026)
- Carbon6: International sellers can now sell on Walmart (February 2023)