Scale

Walmart Marketplace vs Amazon: Which Is Better for Sellers?

There isn't a universally "better" platform — Walmart Marketplace and Amazon serve overlapping but different customer bases, have different competitive intensity, and different approval processes. Amazon offers far more reach and a mostly self-serve signup but heavier competition; Walmart offers a smaller but fast-growing customer base with less competition per category, at the cost of a more selective, manual approval process. Most established sellers ultimately treat this as "both, sequenced" rather than an either/or choice.

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Customer base and reach

Amazon has a significantly larger overall customer base and more mature marketplace infrastructure, which generally translates into more total demand available to sellers — but also far more sellers competing for that demand.

Walmart's online marketplace customer base is smaller in absolute terms but has been growing, and Walmart's shoppers tend to skew toward value-focused, everyday purchases — a good fit for categories like household goods, apparel basics, and practical products rather than premium or impulse-driven items.

Competition and saturation

Because Amazon has so many more active sellers, many categories are heavily saturated, and winning visibility often requires either strong organic listing optimization, advertising spend, or both.

Walmart Marketplace, with fewer total sellers, tends to have less competition within a given category — though this varies a lot by niche, and some categories on Walmart are becoming more competitive as more sellers migrate over from other platforms.

Approval process and barrier to entry

Amazon's seller signup is largely self-serve for most categories, with additional approval gates only for specific restricted categories. Walmart Marketplace, in contrast, reviews essentially every applicant's business, catalog and often their selling history before granting marketplace access at all.

This means the practical time-to-first-sale is usually faster on Amazon simply because you can start listing sooner, while Walmart requires clearing an approval process first — which can take anywhere from about a week to several weeks depending on category and documentation completeness.

Fees and cost structure

Both platforms charge category-based referral fees and offer optional fulfillment programs (FBA and WFS) with their own fee structures based on size, weight, and storage duration. Neither platform is categorically cheaper than the other across the board — it depends heavily on your specific product's category, size, and price point.

The only reliable way to compare true cost is to run your actual product numbers through both platforms' current fee schedules and calculators rather than relying on general reputation about which platform is "cheaper."

How to decide where to focus

If you're brand new with no marketplace history anywhere, starting on Amazon is often more practical simply because the barrier to entry is lower, letting you build sales data and account history you can later use to strengthen a Walmart application.

If you already have an established, healthy store on Amazon or elsewhere, expanding to Walmart is usually a genuine growth opportunity rather than a replacement decision — you're adding a second demand channel for products you've already sourced and validated, at a relatively low incremental cost.

Official Walmart Source Information

Examples

A seller with a saturated Amazon category checks the same product on Walmart and finds noticeably less direct competition, shifting more inventory there.
A new seller starts on Amazon to build initial sales history, then uses that track record six months later in a successful Walmart Marketplace application.
A seller running the same product's fees through both platforms' calculators finds Walmart's referral fee slightly lower for their category, adjusting where they prioritize inventory allocation.

Common Mistakes

Treating the decision as either/or when, for most established sellers, running both channels in parallel is the more common and often more profitable approach.
Assuming one platform is always cheaper without checking your specific product's fee numbers on both.
Underestimating how much longer Walmart's approval process can take compared to Amazon's self-serve signup.
Ignoring category-level competition differences and assuming your experience on one platform will be identical on the other.

FAQ

Is Walmart Marketplace easier to sell on than Amazon?

Not exactly easier — the approval process to get onto Walmart Marketplace is more selective than Amazon's largely self-serve signup, but once approved, many sellers find less competition per category on Walmart.

Should I choose Walmart or Amazon as my only platform?

Most established sellers don't choose one exclusively — they use both as complementary demand channels once they're approved on Walmart, since the same sourced products can typically be listed on both.

Which platform has lower fees?

It depends on your specific category, product size, and price point — neither platform is uniformly cheaper. Running your actual numbers through both platforms' fee schedules is the only reliable comparison.

How long does it take to start selling on each platform?

Amazon's self-serve signup generally lets you start listing sooner. Walmart requires an application review first, which can take roughly a week to several weeks depending on your category and how complete your documentation is.