Walmart Marketplacevs Amazonin 2026

Walmart Marketplace vs Amazon is the question we hear most from sellers who already have one channel working and want a second. The short version: Amazon has far more buyers and the most mature fulfilment network, but it also has the most competition and a monthly fee. Walmart has fewer sellers, no subscription and a tougher application, but less traffic per listing. Most sellers who qualify for both should eventually sell on both.

This guide compares the two on the things that change your margin: fees, fulfilment (WFS vs FBA), approval, competition and advertising. Every figure below was checked against Amazon’s and Walmart’s own seller pages in November 2026; both change their fee schedules, so confirm in Seller Central or Seller Center before you price a product.

Walmart Marketplace vs Amazon: the short answer

Choose Amazon first if you are a new seller, you need volume quickly, or your product depends on Prime delivery to convert. Amazon is open to almost anyone with a business and a bank account, and FBA removes the logistics problem on day one.

Choose Walmart first only if you already have a trading history on another marketplace, a US return address or a WFS plan, and products that suit Walmart’s value-focused shopper. Walmart vets applicants and expects to see that history, so it is rarely a first marketplace.

Choose both once you have a product that sells. The same listing content, supplier and inventory strategy carries across, and Walmart often costs less per unit to run because there is no subscription and WFS fees run slightly below FBA for comparable items.

Walmart Marketplace fees vs Amazon fees

Both marketplaces take a referral fee (a percentage of the sale) and both charge separately for fulfilment if you use their warehouses. The differences are in the subscription and in how category rates are set.

On referral rates alone, the two are closer than most comparisons suggest. A $25 kitchen gadget pays 15% on both. The real gap for a small seller is the $39.99 a month Amazon charges whether or not you sell, and the fact that Walmart advertises “zero setup, monthly, or hidden fees” on its referral page. For a seller moving 40 units or fewer a month, that subscription is a visible slice of profit.

Two Walmart quirks matter. First, Walmart charges the referral fee on the total sales price including the shipping you charge, so free shipping and a built-in price are usually cleaner. Second, the fee follows the contract category Walmart assigns during item setup; if it is wrong, you pay the wrong rate until you dispute it. Check the category and percentage on your Statements page in the first week.

Walmart also runs New-Seller Savings offers that discount referral fees for a period after you go live. The terms change from year to year, so read the current offer in Seller Center rather than relying on a blog figure.

Walmart Marketplace vs Amazon FBA: WFS vs FBA

Fulfilment is where “Walmart Marketplace vs Amazon FBA” becomes a fair comparison, because Walmart Fulfilment Services (WFS) is Walmart’s equivalent to FBA. You send inventory to Walmart’s fulfilment centres; Walmart picks, packs, ships, handles customer service and processes returns for those orders.

Walmart’s WFS rates were published as effective April 2025 and the page was last updated in May 2026; Amazon adjusts FBA fees most Januarys. Neither table above is a quote. Run the same SKU through Amazon’s Revenue Calculator and Walmart’s WFS Cost Estimator and compare the landed margin, because dimensional weight is treated differently and a light, bulky product can land on a different tier on each platform.

For a deeper look at whether FBA pays at all for a new seller, read Is Amazon FBA worth it?. The same logic applies to WFS: the service is worth it when your margin after fees is still above your target, not because it is convenient.

Getting approved: Seller Central vs Walmart’s application

Amazon’s onboarding is identity and bank verification. It can be slow and documents get rejected for small mismatches, but Amazon does not ask whether you deserve to be there. Anyone from Pakistan, the UK or anywhere on Amazon’s accepted-countries list can register; see how to sell on Amazon from Pakistan for the paperwork.

Walmart’s application is a review. Its own checklist asks for a business tax ID or licence (a personal SSN is not accepted), documents proving your business name and address, products with GS1-registered GTINs, a catalogue that passes the prohibited-products policy, and a “history of Marketplace or eCommerce success”. You also need a US warehouse that can take returns, or a commitment to use WFS.

International businesses can apply directly only if incorporated in one of the countries Walmart supports for its W-8BEN-E tax route. The UK, Canada, Germany, India and a dozen others are on that list; Pakistan is not, so Pakistani sellers reach Walmart through a US LLC and EIN. We cover the route country by country in our Walmart seller account guide.

Competition, traffic and advertising

Amazon’s scale is the reason to be there. Third-party sellers accounted for 60% of paid units on Amazon in the first quarter of 2026, according to Marketplace Pulse’s reading of Amazon’s earnings, and that is on a catalogue and customer base no other marketplace matches. The flip side is that every good keyword has dozens of sellers bidding on it.

Walmart is smaller and growing faster. Marketplace Pulse estimated around 200,000 active sellers in mid-2026 and reported that Walmart’s US marketplace sales grew nearly 50% year on year in the quarter to April 2026. Fewer sellers per category means a decent listing can hold page one for keywords that would cost real ad money on Amazon.

Advertising follows the same pattern. Amazon Ads offers more formats and better targeting, and costs more per click in crowded categories. Walmart Connect’s Sponsored Products are simpler and generally cheaper, but the smaller audience caps how far a campaign can scale. Sellers who move a winning Amazon product to Walmart often see lower ad cost of sale on the Walmart listing from the first month.

Is Walmart Marketplace worth it in 2026?

Yes, for the right seller. Walmart is worth it if you already have a US-fulfilled product with repeatable sales, your category is one where Walmart’s shopper buys (home, kitchen, baby, pet, tools, everyday consumables), and you can price at or below your Amazon offer. Walmart’s systems compare your price with other sites and can unpublish listings that look expensive.

It is not worth it yet if you are still testing products, if your margins only work because of Prime’s conversion rate, or if you cannot show a trading history. Applying early and being declined costs time, and a denied application is harder to overturn than a well-prepared first attempt.

• Worth it: established products, US stock or WFS, margins that survive a 15% referral fee, a brand that benefits from a second storefront.
• Not yet: untested products, no e-commerce history, no US returns solution, prices that are higher than your own listings elsewhere.

Selling on both Walmart and Amazon

Running both is less work than it sounds because the second marketplace reuses most of the first. Your GTINs, images, bullet copy, supplier terms and reorder maths are the same. What changes is the operational layer: separate inventory pools (or a multichannel fulfilment setup), separate ad accounts, and Walmart’s stricter shipping-time and cancellation standards.

1. Stabilise on Amazon first: steady sales, healthy account health, a clear picture of unit margin after FBA fees.
2. Apply to Walmart with your Amazon storefront as the trading history and WFS as the fulfilment answer.
3. Launch your top ten SKUs on Walmart, matched or slightly below your Amazon price, with free shipping built in.
4. Split inventory deliberately: send Walmart a conservative first shipment and reorder from sell-through data.
5. Compare margin per unit per channel monthly and shift ad budget toward the cheaper conversion.

Next step

If you want a second opinion on which marketplace suits your products, or you want the Walmart application handled by people who have done it many times, Empowers Zone manages Walmart seller accounts and Amazon seller accounts for clients from Islamabad, Liverpool and Brooklyn. Get in touch with your product list and current numbers and we will tell you honestly which channel to open next.