Walmart is in the process of introducing new Style Guides for every category and product type group in stores and online. These Style Guides are being created to help Walmart and its suppliers integrate best-in-class content and provide a great Walmart omnichannel experience for shoppers. These Style Guide processes are required of all suppliers and sellers.
As Walmart Connected Content Partners, SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder is here to help you navigate these style guides and optimize your product pages for Walmart. Read on for some general information on the new Walmart Style Guides to help Walmart suppliers get started. Remember, every category and product type group has its own style guide with unique specifications.
Walmart Retail Link Training Module: Style Guide 101
Walmart just released a new training module on Retail Link called Style Guide 101 to help their suppliers understand how to use the new Style Guides to build best-in-class content for their items! For more information, click here! (You must be logged in to Retail Link to view the training module.)
What is a Walmart Style Guide?
A Style Guide is a document created by Walmart containing guidelines for Walmart.com or Pickup & Delivery items’ omnichannel content. There will soon be a unique Style Guide for every item category or product type group. Walmart is providing these style guides to suppliers so that they can provide complete and accurate content for their items on Walmart eCommerce.
What Does This Change about Style Guides and Content on Walmart?
The biggest takeaway from Walmart releasing Style Guides for each category and product type group is that there is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution for Walmart content. Depending on an item’s product type, best-in-class recommendations for its title, description, images, and attributes can vary greatly. Providing the right content for your catalog of Walmart items requires careful attention to their category and product type group's style guides.
Walmart has continued to change and update the new Style Guides they release to reflect the current best practices for Walmart.com. It's important to stay informed about your category or product type group's Style Guide recommendations to ensure your product pages are correctly optimized for search and conversion.
What are the Benefits of Following Walmart’s Style Guide Recommendations?
Style Guides help Walmart and its suppliers provide a best-in-class experience for Walmart shoppers in-store and online. Walmart’s Omnichannel strategy requires complete and accurate ecommerce content to make items more discoverable and provide a seamless shopper experience.
Here are some of Walmart's listed benefits for following their Style Guide Recommendations:
Complete and consistent high-quality content drives sales.
Accurate & robust content decreases bad reviews and returns by increasing customer satisfaction.
Adhering to content standards gives shoppers a seamless shopping experience that increases the likelihood for repeat purchases on Walmart.com.
Product content is essential for helping customers make informed purchase decisions.
Your product detail page is the equivalent of product packaging in-store, and is the most important part of the conversion funnel.
To ensure that the most useful and relevant content shows up in search results, Walmart’s search engine places product pages with complete and compliant content higher in search results. Providing content according to Walmart’s style guide will make your product pages more discoverable through Walmart’s search engine for the correct product type.
Walmart Style Guide on Image Guidelines
A product page's images are one its main features covered by Walmart's Style Guides. High quality imagery on your product page increases conversion and lowers the rate of negative reviews and returns. Having an optimized image count for Walmart.com and OPD can improve search rank and bring more shoppers to your page! Images that do not meet the specifications outlined in Walmart's Style Guides may not be published to Walmart.com, and can appear distorted when uploaded.
Walmart Style Guide on Copy Guidelines
Great copy on your product pages can not only make them more discoverable via SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but can also help the customer convert and prevent returns. Some of the guidelines for copy outlined in Walmart's Style Guides are to meet legal requirements for selling the product, and other formatting requirements are to ensure shoppers have a cohesive experience on Walmart.com. Failure to comply with Walmart's copy standards will result in delays and rejection of new items, and may result in the removal of existing items.
Walmart Style Guide on Attribution Guidelines
Searching and browsing functionality on Walmart.com is based on the values entered as attributes for each product page. If these attributes are not completed during item set up, items will not be optimized for search and will not appear when a shopper uses filters related to that value. There are also required attributes that allow shoppers to add your item to their cart on the website. If any of the required fields for your item are empty, your item will not be published. A list of attributes and their acceptable values are listed in each product type or category's Style Guide.
Add the Right Content for Your Items with SKU Ninja
As Walmart Connected Content Partners, SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder receives all new Style Guides for each category and product type group from Walmart.
With a SKU Ninja Content Center subscription, you can easily update the images, copy, and attributes of your item pages on Walmart.com according to the retailer's content guidelines. Our excellent Customer Success team can help you get your items compliant with Walmart's requirements, and our Helpdesk is ready to support you with any ingestion issues when submitting.
Want to learn more about how SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder can help you navigate Walmart’s style guide changes? Fill out the contact form below, or email info@whytespyder.com get in touch with our team right away!
About SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder: SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder is a digital merchandising company and Walmart Connected Content Partner with more than a decade of experience helping brands win online. We combine our years of ecommerce expertise with innovative and precise software to solve the unique problems facing omnichannel professionals today. For more information, a free Walmart Content Quality Score assessment, or to schedule a demo or call, email info@whytespyder.com.
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