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What was once considered a brick-and-mortar store, Walmart is emerging as a key player in today’s ecommerce landscape. Although Amazon continues to dominate US ecommerce, Walmart has been growing quickly over the past five years, according to a Marketplace Pulse report. It achieved $100 billion in global ecommerce sales in 2023 and even overtook eBay as the second most important ecommerce channel.
Amidst this increased competition, big retailers, like Walmart and Amazon, have turned to affiliate marketing to expand their reach. Walmart's affiliate program provides individuals and creators with a great opportunity to earn commissions and grow their business by promoting Walmart products.
We created this handy guide to help you tap into the growth opportunities that this program offers. We’ll also be sharing some tips on how you can make the most out of being a Walmart affiliate.
Walmart.com’s affiliate marketing program lets you earn commissions for promoting Walmart products on your website. By doing so, you’re also helping your audience get access to Walmart’s expansive product selection.
Say, you have a website or a blog that focuses on health and beauty. If you want to take your marketing efforts a step further while building alternative sources of income, you can sign up for Walmart.com’s affiliate program. Once your application is approved, Walmart will provide you with text links or professionally designed banners that you can use on your website to advertise their products.
You can then start recommending Walmart’s health, wellness, and beauty products to your audience through guides, reviews, and articles published on your website. When your readers make a purchase using your Walmart affiliate links, you earn a commission.
In doing so, you become a trusted voice in your niche, connect your audience with relevant, value-added products, and leverage the trust people have in the Walmart brand. Walmart's unique selling point, compared to other retailers, is its leadership in pricing. They offer their customers a variety of products at "everyday low prices" (EDLP).
Like other affiliate marketing programs, Walmart’s program lets you earn a commission for every successful sale.
Walmart.com has partnered with Impact Radius as its Affiliate Service Provider, allowing you to access a dedicated interface where you can track all your sales, as well as other key metrics like impressions, click-throughs, and commissions. As a Walmart affiliate, you also get special text links and professionally designed banner ads that are shared with you via weekly newsletters.
Walmart offers a range of links for affiliates to use. These include:
Aside from new creative assets, you also get access to Walmart’s archived banners and newsletters. Best of all, Walmart lets you generate specific text links for its products. To start promoting Walmart products, you simply need to place the banners on your website or incorporate the text links into your content.
When visitors use your links to purchase a product and complete the qualifying purchase on the Walmart website, you’ll be credited with a commission.
The Walmart affiliate program has a relatively low barrier to entry. You get free membership and access to creative assets. Furthermore, as a Walmart affiliate, you also get access to the following:
What sets Walmart.com’s affiliate marketing program apart from others? Why should you become a Walmart affiliate? Here’s a rundown of all the benefits of this fast-growing affiliate marketing program.
Walmart is a well-known brand and your audience will likely be familiar with it. For instance, when it comes to brand awareness for online grocery users, Walmart scores 94%. Furthermore, 54% of US online shoppers like Walmart, while another 54% use Walmart.
Leveraging the retail giant’s reputation and consumer trust can help elevate your marketing efforts. Moreover, Walmart's competitive pricing strategy allows you to offer excellent deals to your audience.
Walmart has over 200 million customers weekly. This expansive customer base means you have the potential to promote its products to a lot of online consumers and earn commissions from successful sales. And because it’s performance-based, the more customers who make purchases using your affiliate links, the more you earn.
Another thing that sets Walmart.com’s affiliate program apart is its straightforward onboarding process. There’s no need to meet metrics or requirements, like having a certain number of website visitors. This lowers the barrier to entry and allows more beginners to sign up for the program.
The program has a 3-day cookie window, which is longer than Amazon’s and eBay’s 24 hours. This gives you a larger window to potentially earn commissions.
Walmart’s affiliate platform is also easy to use. Once you sign up, you get access to a dashboard that displays your sales and analytics data. This lets you track your campaign’s performance and provides an overview of product performance and your potential earnings. Moreover, the platform gives you access to creative assets like offer banners and product links.
According to data from Marketplace Pulse, Walmart has over 400 million products listed online, with its marketplace making up 95%. Half of its sales are from stores, while the other half comes from a combination of its marketplace and first-party vendors.
With a wealth of products to choose from, you can recommend a wide variety of products to your audience. From home goods to groceries, their extensive product catalog also allows you to find products that fit your niche and cater to the different needs of your audience.
Some of the products you can promote include:
Like any other affiliate marketing program, this one has some drawbacks too. Before diving further into how you can be a Walmart affiliate, let’s look at some of the program’s cons.
Walmart offers a maximum commission rate of 4%. Meanwhile, other retailers with affiliate programs offer higher rates. Amazon, for example, offers fixed commission rates that go as high as 20%.
Walmart’s program has a lower conversion rate of 6.8%. This is lower than Amazon’s 11.1% conversion rate. This may be due to the large number of physical Walmart stores that allow customers to physically assess each product before making a purchase.
Despite these drawbacks, Walmart remains one of the fastest-growing ecommerce sites in the US so it would be great if you could utilize its features to help your website earn more revenue.
Walmart lets different types of websites, such as product reviews and travel sites, join its affiliate program.
When you sign up to become an affiliate, Walmart carefully reviews your website to determine your eligibility. You’ll then be notified if your application is accepted or rejected. To boost your chances of being approved, you need to meet the following criteria:
Note that meeting these requirements won’t guarantee approval as Walmart has sole discretion when it comes to accepting or rejecting applications.
To sign up for the program, visit the Walmart Affiliates website. Click the signup button and fill out the form. Aside from basic information, you must also provide your tax information and business model. Alternatively, you can sign up to become a member using this link by Impact, Walmart’s affiliate program tech provider.
Make sure to provide accurate and up-to-date information to allow Walmart to verify your identity. After filling out the form, you’ll need to agree to Walmart’s Participation Agreement. The Agreement covers key areas, such as requirements on the use of Walmart’s trademark and creative branding assets and compliance with the company’s guidelines and policies. After signing up, it may take up to 24 hours for you to receive a response from Walmart.
To get a more comprehensive view of the Walmart affiliate program, you can read its full terms and conditions here. Wait for Walmart’s confirmation. If you’re approved, you’ll get access to Walmart’s affiliate resources.
How much does Walmart pay its affiliates? Before we dive deep into Walmart’s commission structure, below are some things that are worth looking into.
Walmart affiliates can potentially earn up to 4% on each sale. It also holds occasional sales contests as well as other events that allow affiliates to earn additional commissions. Walmart pays commissions on monthly net sales. However, commissions don’t include the following:
If a customer returns a product and requests a refund, or if credit card charges are reversed, the commission earned from that specific transaction will be deducted from your account.
The Walmart Creator Page lets you create affiliate links as well as your own personalized storefront. It also lets you access a dashboard where you can monitor your performance. To qualify for this program, you need to be a US-based content creator. If you’re not a seasoned creator, don’t worry as Walmart welcomes both aspiring and professional content creators.
Not a content creator? No problem. Walmart can give you access to resources to create your unique tracking links. When making your affiliate links, keep the following tips in mind:
The highest commission rate, which is 4%, applies to the following categories:
All other categories offer commission rates between 1% and 3%. To give you an idea of which categories are eligible for a particular commission rate, check out our list below:
The payout threshold is at $10 and affiliates get paid via PayPal or electronic funds transfer. Note that Walmart implements a last-click attribution model. This means you’ll only be credited if the click on your affiliate link translates to a successful purchase. If a visitor clicks your link but doesn’t make a purchase, and then they check out another affiliate’s link instead, then you won’t be credited with the sale.
Walmart’s default payout is $2.00 per order (Walmart Business account). It also takes up to two months before you can view your commissions.
Refer to the table below for a more comprehensive view of payout details. You can also find the payout groups and conditions here.
Walmart’s program offers a better cookie window compared to Amazon’s 24 hours. Its affiliates have a 3-day cookie duration and when someone makes a purchase using your affiliate link within this period, you’ll be credited with the sale. After this period, any purchase made will no longer be attributed to you.
Now, if you’re interested in becoming a Walmart affiliate, here are some actionable tips to help you maximize your affiliate income.
Walmart’s affiliate marketing program allows you to leverage your online presence to earn commissions. It’s a great program that banks on Walmart’s brand reputation, wide selection of products, and easy-to-use platform for affiliates. Plus, as a Walmart affiliate, you get access to resources designed to help you maximize your affiliate marketing efforts. Although it has some drawbacks and limitations, the benefits that the program offers outweigh all these.
If you’re planning to expand your business and venture into becoming a Walmart seller, Threecolts offers several Walmart seller tools to take your business to even greater heights. From profit recovery and analytics to product research and ecommerce customer service, Threecolts’ Walmart seller tools will help you gain better insights, make data-driven decisions, and maximize your profitability.
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