Walmart's new omnichannel platform is here: the Walmart.com and Online Pickup & Delivery platforms have been combined into a new, unified Walmart.com!
This is big news for Walmart suppliers & sellers of all sizes, but don’t worry! SKU Ninja is here to help you understand the changes that are coming and nail the transition. As Walmart Connected Content Partners, it’s our job to ensure suppliers & sellers are able to set up their pages to succeed on the newly combined Walmart.com.
Naturally, this update will change the way that Walmart.com shoppers find items on the site but there are steps Walmart sellers and suppliers can take to ensure their item listings are displayed and indexed correctly on the new platform.
Let’s take a look at some of the most significant changes, what items they affect, and how you can use SKU Ninja to identify major changes to your catalog:
How to Prepare for the New Walmart.com
Not every item will see a shakeup in its search ranks, but it's possible that the way that search works on the new site can cause an item not to show up at all for certain keywords. This can be a significant issue for specific item-keyword combinations.
If you can find these item-keyword combinations where an item isn't as discoverable on the new Walmart.com as it was on the old site, you can contact your Walmart merchant to see what needs to be done to show up in search using the new platform.
The best way to transition your items to new Walmart.com is proactive account management and item setup that ensures your new place in search results will not be a step down. Suppliers and sellers can check search results on the new sites to find places where specific items aren't showing up anymore.
Need access to new Walmart.com search data? Want help verifying that your items are showing up correctly in the newly unified search results? Contact SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder today and learn how you can nail the transition to the new Walmart.com!
What Items Will Be Impacted Most?
Walmart items can be divided into three categories: items sold only in physical Walmart locations or Pickup & Delivery, items only available to be shipped through Walmart.com, and those that can be bought or ordered from both.
On the combined Walmart.com, these distinctions still exist, but are not represented to shoppers in the same way. A shopper looking for an item that can either be picked up in the store closest to them or ordered with 2-Day Shipping will be able to use filters on their search results to receive the item how they want to.
Our team has found that items sold both in-store and online (including Drop Ship Vendors) will have the biggest opportunity for a significant shake-up of their search grid on the new Walmart.com. This is because these items are now competing with in-store only and online-only items in the same search results.
In-store only and online-only items will see comparatively fewer changes to their category’s search results. However, the newly combined site will have adjusted search algorithms for all items, so it’s still important to monitor search results for your items to ensure your brand doesn’t lose discoverability.
The Importance of Monitoring Keywords
While some suppliers & sellers will see few changes to their position in much of the search results on the newly combined site, the impact on search results will vary greatly from keyword to keyword.
When working with search data for the new platform, our Insights team has found specific item-keyword combinations that vary greatly between the new site and Walmart.com as it was before.
For brands that aren’t monitoring search results across multiple different keywords, these changes may come as a surprise. Even if an item’s position remains strong on some keywords or search terms, it can lose visibility to new competitors in other high-value searches.
It’s essential to keep up with exactly what search terms your item should be appearing for, and adjust your strategy to target high-value keywords used by many shoppers. While the new site may result in a loss of visibility for some item-keyword combinations, it can also present new opportunities for some items to compete where they previously couldn’t.
SKU Ninja on the New Walmart.com
As stated above, the SKU Ninja team is actively working with data from the new platform to ensure our users won’t be caught off-guard by any significant changes to their search grid. All SKU Ninja tools that show paid and organic search data have been updated to include the new platform’s search results.
SKU Ninja users can also compare search results on the new Walmart.com with legacy search data to see exactly what changes have been made to their items’ positions.
SKU Ninja is the best way to monitor your item pages to find issues as they arise and get actionable insights on how to improve. Our team is constantly enhancing SKU Ninja’s ecommerce tools and honing them into the exact solutions Walmart sellers need to succeed.
Do you want help ensuring your items make the transition to the new Walmart.com successfully? Email info@whytespyder.com or fill out the contact form below to get in touch with a member of our team. We’ll be in touch to learn more about your items and see how we can put our team of Walmart experts to work on your Walmart.com catalog!
About SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder: SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder is an ecommerce software + digital marketing company and Walmart Connected Content Partner with more than a decade of experience helping brands win online. We combine years of ecommerce expertise with innovative and precise software to create solutions to the challenges facing omnichannel professionals today.
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