Whether you’re a Walmart Warehouse Supplier, Drop Ship Vendor, or third-party Marketplace Seller, the vendor portal where you set up and manage your partnership with Walmart. 

Read on to learn more about the Walmart vendor portal, how to access and navigate it, and how to use it to your best advantage.

What is Walmart’s Vendor Portal?

A vendor portal (aka supplier portal) is a platform a business uses to connect, communicate, and collaborate with suppliers. It’s an online hub where suppliers can enter, edit, and manage their information, add or remove items/merchandise, submit documents and invoices, and otherwise communicate with the business or retailer. 

Walmart’s vendor portal is called Retail Link. It’s invite-only—meaning it’s locked to the public, and you can only access it after becoming a Walmart supplier.

3 types of Walmart suppliers

Warehouse/Owned Supplier	Drop Ship Vendor	Marketplace Seller
A supplier who ships items to a Walmart warehouse. Walmart houses the inventory and ships it to customers.	A supplier who ships items directly to customers (or Walmart stores).	A third-party seller offering their products for sale on Walmart.com (online only, not in-store). (Walmart Marketplace is the community hub for third-party sellers—not a separate ecommerce marketplace.)

Within Retail Link, there are two hubs: Supplier Center and Seller Center. Supplier Center is for Warehouse Suppliers and Drop Ship Vendors. Seller Center is for Marketplace Sellers.

What You’ll Need to Access Seller Center

Because Retail Link is only available to Walmart suppliers, you cannot access it without a Walmart supplier number—which you receive after becoming a supplier. (How many times can we say “supplier” in one paragraph?) Once you have that number, you can create an account and access Retail Link. 

Want to become a Walmart supplier? Check out our deep dive—we cover everything you need to know about the Walmart vendor application process, including a full list of information you need for the required forms. 

That said, Retail Link isn’t the only place you can find information about being a supplier and navigating the vendor portal. SupplierHelp.Walmart.com and SellerHelp.Walmart.com are both great resources for answering any questions you have about the supplier process. They also have publicly available guides for navigating the Supplier and Seller Centers.

Navigation and Settings

In the Seller Center, your navigation menu looks like this:

The Administrator Options dashboard in Seller Center is where you can manage users and roles, manage email notifications for open orders, create message templates for customer responses, view your Marketplace agreements, verify account details, and link your US account with other Walmart markets.

Setting up Products

Seller Center gives you the option to add items in bulk—i.e., importing your full product catalog in one go. (You can also add individual items one at a time.) All you have to do is navigate to the Product Catalog section on your dashboard and select Items. Then select Add Items. Walmart provides documents, guidelines, and reference sheets for importing your items in the proper format. 

Once you’ve added your product catalog, you can view your products on the Items page.

The Items page is divided into three sections:

• Insights: Quickly view information on the status of your items
• Actions: Search for and manage specific items in your catalog
• Grid: View a list of the items in your catalog

This way, you can easily manage, add, and remove SKUs.

Fulfilling Orders

You can manage your order fulfillment and shipping via the Shipping Profile dashboard—see the navigation menu above. Suppliers and Sellers have the option of using Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) or partnering with a trusted 3PL (third-party logistics) provider. 

If not using WFS, it’s easy to set up your order fulfillment information in the Supplier or Seller Center. After completing your onboarding training (on Retail Link), simply navigate to your Shipping Profile and set up a distribution facility (location, contact information, etc.) that you’ll be shipping orders from. Then, set up your EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) connection and test to make sure it works—that it can successfully send electronic documents such as Purchase Notifications and Advance Shipment Notifications to Walmart’s system.

Walmart Fulfillment Services

Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) allows third-party sellers to store their inventory at Walmart fulfillment centers. Walmart handles pick-pack-ship order fulfillment, customer service, and returns for these orders. 

You must be a Marketplace Seller to enroll in WFS—Warehouse Suppliers and Drop Ship Vendors handle their own shipping/transport and fulfillment. 

Walmart Fulfillment Services product requirements

There are limits to the types of products WFS can ship:

• Products must ship to Walmart fulfillment centers from within the United States
• No temperature-regulated products 
• No prohibited products (see Walmart’s Prohibited Products)
• Maximum product weight is 150 lb
• Maximum product dimensions are 108″ in length and 165″ in length + girth

WFS uses a pricing structure based on item weight, with add-on fees for apparel, hazardous materials, items with low retail prices, and oversize items. 

In addition, they recommend WFS sellers bring only their best-selling items to Walmart.com, set up a minimum of 50 SKUs, and keep inventory continually replenished. The ideal item assortment is priced competitively, and features only items that are new to Walmart.com—i.e., items that aren’t being sold by any other sellers. 

Looking for a different solution? You’re in the right place. EcomHalo has partnerships with 25+ of the world’s largest retailers, including Walmart—and we’re proud of our ability to meet Walmart’s strict drop ship and ecommerce fulfillment requirements. 

We’ll go into who we are and how we help later on.

Analytics

On the Order & Fulfillment dashboard, you can find detailed metrics for your Seller Performance Standards, Shipping Performance, Carrier Performance and Regional Performance. There, you can check how you’re measuring up to Walmart’s performance metrics in areas like On-Time Delivery, SKUs sold, and more.

FAQ

How do I become a supplier or seller with Walmart?

You can submit an online application to be a Walmart supplier or seller on Supplier.Walmart.com.

You can also leverage a retail accelerator like EcomHalo.

What We Provide

Direct buyer introduction	Fast-tracked onboarding	Full-service fulfillment
No need to submit your Supplier Application online and hope for a response. We directly introduce you to a Walmart retail buyer, then handle digital content creation, EDI integration, and all other requirements so you can start selling fast.	Become a supplier in days, not weeks, by leveraging our decades of connections in the big-box retail space. Import your products and channels into our easy-to-use cloud-based platform, then watch orders flow into your digital dashboard in real-time.	We fulfill all orders across all your channels—and help you optimize your omnichannel logistics so you can cut costs, save time, and launch into the future of your brand. Go ahead and hit new heights—we’ll make sure you stick the landing.

What’s the difference between a Supplier and a Seller?

A Supplier (Warehouse Supplier or Drop Ship Vendor) sells inventory to Walmart, then Walmart sells that inventory to customers in-store and/or online. A Seller is a third-party retailer who sells products on Walmart.com. 

How do I access Retail Link (the Walmart vendor portal)? 

You need a password to access Retail Link. But you can find a lot of information on SupplierHelp.Walmart.com and SellerHelp.Walmart.com. 

Can I import my product catalog directly from an external marketplace?

Yes—you can import your product catalog to Supplier/Seller Center from any external marketplace.

Conclusion

In this article, we covered the basics of the Walmart vendor portal (aka Retail Link). 
Want to sell products at Walmart? Connect with an EcomHalo Guardian to learn more about our retail acceleration and ecommerce fulfillment services.