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How to Expand Your Amazon Brand to Walmart.com

Most brands that come to us about Walmart are already doing well on Amazon. They've got a few products ranking, solid reviews, decent velocity — and they've started wondering whether they're leaving money on the table by ignoring the second-largest marketplace in the country. The short answer is yes. But the mistake most of them make is treating Walmart like Amazon 2.0. It isn't. The platform works differently, the algorithm thinks differently, and the brands that figure that out early are the ones that actually build something real there.

Here's exactly how we approach taking an Amazon brand live on Walmart.com — from the first readiness check to what success actually looks like a year in.

First: Are You Actually Ready?

Before we do anything else, we look at the Amazon account. This isn't just a formality — it matters because Walmart's algorithm actively pulls data from your Amazon listing. When you enter your ASIN into Walmart's backend, Walmart uses that data to understand your product's sales history and pricing. A weak Amazon presence doesn't just mean you're starting from scratch on Walmart; it means Walmart has less to work with when deciding where to rank you.

The benchmarks we use before recommending a brand make the move: at least six months of sales history on Amazon, a minimum of one to two organic sales per day, and at least 10 reviews on your listing. You don't need to be a category leader, but you need to have proven the product converts. Walmart is not the place to figure out whether your product works — that discovery process belongs on Amazon.

Step One: Get a Walmart Account Manager

This is the first call I make — before we even start setting up the seller account. Walmart assigns account managers by category niche, and getting the right one on your side early makes an enormous difference. Account managers have capabilities that no amount of self-managing can replicate. They can place your product on virtual shelf categories — think of it like being merchandised into a specific aisle in a physical Walmart store. Shoppers browsing that category see your product without ever typing a search term. It's a visibility lever that most self-managed Walmart sellers don't even know exists.

The second reason to get your account manager involved early: they're going to push you to run promotions and daily deals, and you want them in your corner when they do. More on that in a minute.

Setting Up the Account and Getting Your Listing Right

Once the account is created and business documentation is submitted, the next major step is product listing — and this is where brands make the most expensive mistake in the entire process. They take their Amazon listing, copy it wholesale into Walmart, and call it done.

Amazon and Walmart are two completely different search engines. The keywords that drive traffic on Amazon are not necessarily the keywords shoppers are using on Walmart. We use Helium 10 to do Walmart-specific keyword research for every listing we set up, separate from whatever Amazon keyword work has already been done. What you rank for on one platform may not even be a searched term on the other.

The other critical backend step: make sure your Amazon ASIN is entered into your Walmart listing. This isn't optional — it's what allows Walmart to pull in your Amazon sales data and use it as a ranking signal. Products that are already selling well on Amazon get a head start in Walmart's algorithm because of this data connection. And one more thing Walmart offers that Amazon doesn't: if you have reviews from a Walmart-verified source, you can import them directly onto your Walmart listing. Starting with social proof already on the page — instead of building from zero — is a significant advantage that brands routinely miss.

Once the listing is live, we immediately launch a small Sponsored Products campaign to start generating daily sales and build ranking momentum. You don't need a large budget at this stage. The goal is consistent daily sales activity, not scale. For a deeper look at how Walmart advertising works, see our guide on Walmart Connect ads and what to expect from them.

The First 90 Days: Set the Right Expectations

Walmart growth is slow at first. That's not a failure — it's just how the platform works. Even well-established brands typically see something like an 85/15 split between Amazon and Walmart in their first several months. The exception is food brands. Walmart is the largest grocery store in the world, and consumable food products can ramp significantly faster than general merchandise.

In those early months, your Walmart account manager is going to ask you to participate in daily deals and promotional discounts — often 15% or more off your regular price. The instinctive reaction from most brand owners is to decline because of margin concerns. That's usually the wrong call.

Here's the part most people don't know: when Walmart asks you to run a 15% promotional discount, they frequently offset that by returning a portion of their referral fee — typically around 8%. So your effective discount is closer to 7%, not 15%. The ranking gains you get from the promotional sales velocity are real and they compound. The brands that say no to early deals because the math looks bad in month two are the ones still sitting at marginal Walmart revenue in month twelve.

What Success Looks Like at Six to Twelve Months

Once things are working, Walmart success has a distinct shape — and it doesn't look like a smaller version of your Amazon business. A few things that consistently surprise brands that have been on the platform for a while:

First, fewer SKUs do more of the work. You don't need a massive catalog to build real Walmart revenue. Focus your best-performing Amazon products, get those ranking, and let them carry the account. Second, advertising is simpler and cheaper. Cost-per-click on Walmart is materially lower than Amazon, and you don't need complex campaign structures to see results. A handful of tightly-managed exact-match Sponsored Products campaigns with modest budgets can drive meaningful sales. The platform rewards efficiency over complexity.

Third — and this is the one that surprises Amazon sellers most — organic rankings are stickier on Walmart. Once you've earned a position for a keyword and picked up the Pro Seller badge, you tend to hold that position longer than you would on Amazon, where rankings shift constantly. The platform is less volatile. That stability creates compounding organic returns that are genuinely hard to replicate on Amazon.

For a full picture of how the two platforms compare strategically, see our breakdown of Walmart vs. Amazon in 2026.

What Quietly Kills Walmart Accounts

The number one account killer is pricing. Specifically: trying to sell at a higher price on Walmart than on Amazon. Walmart's system monitors this and will suppress your listing without warning. No error message, no notification — your product just stops appearing in search. If your Walmart sales suddenly drop to zero for no obvious reason, the first thing to check is whether your pricing has drifted above your Amazon price.

The second thing that stalls accounts is not using Walmart Fulfillment Services. WFS works almost identically to Amazon FBA — you send inventory to Walmart's fulfillment network and they handle storage, pick-pack, and shipping. Walmart heavily prioritizes WFS products in their search algorithm. Brands that ship orders themselves are competing uphill on every ranking factor from day one. In 2026, WFS isn't optional if you're serious about building Walmart revenue — it's the baseline.

If you're ready to take your Amazon brand to Walmart and want to do it right the first time, our Walmart marketplace management service covers everything from account setup and listing optimization to WFS strategy and advertising — with a dedicated account manager relationship from day one.