Having been a Walmart Marketplace seller for about 9 months we have had just a few items returned… AT OUR EXPENSE.
When onboarding, I did not realize the seller pays for a $23.00 call tag plus all return shipping costs, not to mention the original outbound shipping costs as well.
This is brutally unfair and today we have initiated pulling out.
Are you talking about walmart fulfillment fees?
I don’t see why you would think you wouldn’t be responsible for the costs of having stuff returned to you. There’s no 3PL service in the world that wouldn’t charge you for this.
$23 Fee + the return costs? Assuming you are FBM Walmart and not WFS Walmart?
Can you post a screenshot of the fee structure? Was this a domestic shipment / return? Something doesn’t seem right here.
Walmart is most certainly more expensive than Amazon when it comes to returns (FBM or WFS) but what you are describing is quite nuts…
According to their returns page:
Return Processing Fee
No shipping fees will be charged to the customer. Walmart will cover the cost of return shipping for any returns identified as Walmart at fault (such as damaged in shipment, arrived late, lost in transit, and wrong item received).
Sellers are responsible for paying the return processing for any returns that are not identified as Walmart at fault. See WFS Fees for return processing fees.
Yeah, you’re on the hook for returns unless Walmart determines they caused the issue.
That is correct… we are not doing WFS as we have far better discounts and oversize waivers that Walmart gives it’s sellers. Here’s how it plays out.
Oh, and if you add the carton costs having to replace, add another $2.94 now totaling $64.18 all of which we have to eat.
This is just for 2 cushions…12 pounds. You don’t even want to know the return costs for a 48 pound chair… double that.
This appears to be the WFS returns page, not the FBM returns page.
Sadly yes, Walmart always withholds the cost of the return label. In some cases you can open a case with support to get reimbursed for, similar to a SAFE-T claim on Amazon, but it only works in certain circumstances and is not a solution for general return policy problems.
I also offer free shipping on Amazon and Walmart, when buyers return items I have to eat this cost. This is known and expected and we factor that cost into our pricing. At this point every seller should understand that “free shipping” means free for the buyer, even if they return it, and make sure they cover those costs.
This is the part I don’t understand. Where is this call tag fee coming from? When I first read your post I thought you meant that the return shipping cost $23, but then you said
You are charged a fee for Walmart issuing a return label, on top of the cost of the label? I have never seen this before. I don’t have many Walmart returns, but I have not seen this on any of my returns, although it is possible the fee is there and I just never noticed it.
Just to add… we were a top 25 vendor for Hayneedle.com based in Omaha, NB and we had a great 21 year business with them. Returns… the customer paid hands down and never any issues.
Walmart bought them out and in Jan. 2022 let/fired 85% of that work staff which was some 700+ employees. The remaining 15% had to go to Little Rock, AR to keep there job. Here it comes… then in October 2023 completely closed Hayneedle, fired the remaining 15% and it’s 21 year website forcing vendors to come to them. We were one of them loosing hundreds of thousands in sales.
Now that we’ve tasted how Walmart operates, we made the decision to implement our exit plan from Walmart.
Nice products and website!
It would be a shame to lose what’s left of this momentum.
Can you do as @HobbesIsMyTiger says
Perhaps limit the sku’s on Walmart to your lighter weight/smaller size items?
I am wondering how many Walmart shoppers are your target market. Have you tried Houzz or Home Depot?
I’m not on Walmart so I cannot comment on their fees.
Welcome to SAS
This is typical for selling large items on a marketplace. You would experience the same costs on Amazon, but probably with a higher return rate than Walmart.
You just need to increase prices to account for returns. Remember it’s the customer that eats the cost at the end of the day, not you.
Seems like excellent customer service to require a call tag as well as a prepaid shipping label if the product cannot be dropped off at Walmart.
I do not buy FBM items from Amazon. which arrive by other than USPS because a return would require a special trip to a nearby town if I had to drop off at a UPS store. I rarely travel in that direction.
Seems like another rational customer service decision which requires one plan for. It is often hard to accept how many rational customer service requirements are not planned for by online sellers.
Depending on the margin structure, you have, and you will need to do the arithmetic, if your returns rate is low, a refund without return might be the way to go.
It is amazing the number of sellers who opt for “free shipping” who do not consider refund without return. Some for good and valid financial reasons, some because it goes against their sense of justice.
It should be really straightforward.
If the cost of return shipping + return processing + potential the product isn’t resellable anyway due to damage by customer/in transit >= COGS of getting a new unit, you should do a returnless refund.
For most of the stuff I sell, it would be a huge loss to make customers ship things back since often times the return label cost in itself is roughly = COGS without even considering other costs associated with returns processing.
We considered raising prices, but 1. it’s not fair to others, 2. the items would then be greatly overpriced.
If we raised pricing vs. just removing altogether we loose more than we gain.
If we raise pricing it will be so high we’d price ourselves out of the market so we are leaning more towards just removing all together. We have already begun placing inventory at 0 on some items so as they are unable to order.
Since this post, I have learned WM has lost a lot of great sellers on Marketplace.
Sure it is. If you’re a customer who wants to shop on a platform that offers free returns, that’s gotta come at a cost.
If you need to raise prices so much that the price is a problem then that’s a different story
I’m not surprised to learn this. They went from being very restrictive to allowing anyone to sell.
Check out this assortment - Every single label of theirs is ripped off for branding with AI swapping in their no-name brand. Seller is in China of course. It’s incredible.
Here’s the sad part. I’ve alerted everyone I know at Walmart (supposed executives). They have done nothing to stop it and they keep adding more and more items that look exactly like actual brands.
All of our Products are labeled as Made in the USA. Even all of our cartons are printed “Proudly Made in USA”
I take less issue with the fact it’s made in china, and more with the 3 week delivery issue. If I order from walmart.com taking more than a week to deliver is completely unacceptable.
Allowing FBM from outside the US is kind of crazy. Amazon allows this too.
The issue with this particular “seller” is they are shipping what people buy in un labeled bottles. That was in another review.
And that’s not the worst of it - look at that poor woman holding her chest because she ate some of the garlic pills - her chest is GLOWING, so she’s gotten a clearly fatal dose of radiation from those pills. Now radioluminescence is only going to happen if she was bombarded with alpha particles or gamma rays, so those vitamins must contain high-level nucear waste!