What messages did the Walmart Global E-commerce Peak Season Conference convey to merchants?

This is an era that inspires brands to expand globally.

From the perspective of market matching on the supply and demand sides, this year, more merchants are focusing on the vast global market. At the same time, almost all global e-commerce platforms are recruiting merchants on a large scale. This is not accidental. The two-way pursuit between them is actually the search for a balance between supply and demand. Therefore, selling goods globally has become inevitable, and going global has also become one of the essential characteristics of most outstanding enterprises.

However, today's "going global" is different from the past "exporting". It involves in-depth overseas local operations, the establishment of overseas marketing capabilities, global brands, and other comprehensive aspects. Facing an unfamiliar market, enterprises going global often need to confront various "unknown problems" in the early attempts.

So, is there a shortcut on this adventurous road to a larger market? And how can merchants quickly bridge the information gap in an unfamiliar market? Perhaps the methodology can be found from three aspects: finding a massive customer base, optimizing the input-output ratio, and understanding local consumers to enhance the brand effect.

For example, everyone knows Walmart, as one of the largest retail e-commerce companies in the United States and also one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms in the United States. In September, Walmart Global E-commerce held its peak season summit in Shenzhen. It is reported that this is the largest summit in the history of Walmart Global E-commerce, with a crowded and fully occupied venue. The core messages that the summit wants to convey are as follows:

1. Walmart's MultiChannel Solutions officially launched, which can provide merchants with a full-chain service including warehousing, packaging, and delivery orders for cross-platform orders;

2. The Chinese version of the Walmart Ad Center is launched, allowing Chinese sellers to enjoy the convenience of Walmart Connect's advertising and optimize the peak season sales strategy;

3. Merchants can establish connections with Walmart Global E-commerce and the 145 million weekly omni-channel consumer groups in the United States. Not only can they directly track a huge customer base, but also achieve coordinated online and offline operations to strengthen the brand effect. 1

That is to say, Walmart Global E-commerce has the largest common divisor of customer base, the optimization of the input-output ratio, and the brand effect.

Today, as more enterprises going global are also accelerating onto the global stage, global e-commerce also needs more forces from different markets. This two-way pursuit is an opportunity, but it is also slightly anxious. Merchants try to learn to run fast and find the mast when the tide is surging. This is also an effective way not to get stranded when the tide recedes.

The Marketing Philosophy of Walmart Global E-commerce: Peak Season + Advertising

This year, Walmart Global E-commerce opened its third office in the Chinese market in Hangzhou. Walmart Global E-commerce has formed a powerful service network covering the whole country in Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, aiming to provide more efficient and localized support to merchants, which shows Walmart E-commerce's emphasis on merchants.

It is not difficult to see that Walmart E-commerce is constantly making small but rapid progress and opening its arms to international merchants.

At this summit, Walmart Global E-commerce conveyed a greater support for merchants: a 15% discount on WFS fees, exemption from peak season storage surcharges, and a 50% commission discount for the first 90 days. For merchants, this can be regarded as an era bonus that cannot be missed.

Opportunities are not to be missed. On the one hand, as countries begin to attach importance to their manufacturing capabilities, with the digital trend, having a strong supply chain of manufacturing categories will become a new force in globalization; on the other hand, when the new generation of young consumers becomes the main force of the era, the pursuit of personalized and innovative products is almost inevitable, which also enables efficient and high-capacity products to accurately reach consumers.

Time waits for no one. After the supply is available at the front end and the demand is known at the back end, how to find the bridge between the two and embark on the fast lane of high-speed growth?

Walmart Global E-commerce may be one of the platforms that is most likely to bring high-speed growth. Judging from the policies of Walmart Global E-commerce this year, for online growth, Walmart Global E-commerce has its own growth philosophy of "advertising + peak season".

Ryan Mayward (Senior Vice President, Retail Media Sales, Walmart Connect) said at the Walmart Global E-commerce Peak Season Summit, "In the first 5 months of 2024, sellers who advertised through Walmart Connect had an average total merchandise volume that was 6.6 times that of sellers who did not use Walmart Connect for advertising."

In addition, Walmart Global E-commerce has also specially added support for Chinese advertisers. By launching the Chinese version of the Walmart Ad Center, more and more merchants can more conveniently use, publish, and manage advertising campaigns.

This means that merchants no longer need heavy translation work and can use multiple self-service solutions of Walmart Global E-commerce, including search advertising (Sponsored Search) products such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Videos.

The effect of advertising is more important in the current trend of personalized products. It is reported that 56% of the surveyed Walmart consumers said that the advertisements or promotions they saw online or in stores would inspire them to try products that they or their families are not familiar with; at the same time, as many as 65% of the surveyed Walmart e-commerce consumers said that they usually know what products they need and do not need to make a detailed list, but are willing to try products that they or their families are not familiar with.

This shows the importance of precise advertising. Walmart E-commerce also said that the average advertising return on investment for e-commerce merchants who advertise on the platform is as high as 4:11.

Currently, Walmart Connect has launched Dynamic Bidding service, which can achieve real-time automatic optimization of bidding; Walmart Global E-commerce also revealed at the summit that Target ROAS will be launched later this year, and the advertising system will intelligently adjust the bidding strategy in real time to achieve the ROAS target set by merchants when creating advertising campaigns.

In addition to advertising, what merchants are also concerned about is how to prepare for the peak season. Because according to past experience, the peak season can be said to be the annual major test for merchants, and preparations usually need to be made 1 - 2 quarters in advance.

At this conference, the omni-channel merchants of Walmart Global E-commerce also shared their peak season experience at the summit. Alex from Zhejiang Kaluote Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. said that because in the trial sale process in 2022, it was found that the explosion of Walmart Global E-commerce in the fourth quarter was very large. Therefore, during the peak season last year, the stocking was increased, and finally, the GMV of the Walmart online store achieved a year-on-year growth of more than 10 times.

Inventory planning and marketing methods are two key points worthy of attention in the peak season. Jam, the operations director of Shenzhen Comfort Space Home Furnishings Co., Ltd., revealed, "When we first participated in Walmart E-commerce's 'Black Friday and Cyber Monday', we did not know that it would be such a traffic feast. We were relatively conservative when stocking, so from the second year, we stocked enough inventory for the entire 'Black Friday and Cyber Monday'. Because the warehouse space for the entire Black Friday is very tight, the inventory should be planned in advance."

In terms of marketing, Mike from Ningbo Haomi provided some experience. They regard Walmart E-commerce as a strategic platform and will communicate, set the event time, event layout, and participating products earlier. But in terms of advertising strategy, Haomi has some differences from most merchants. They chose to burn advertisements frantically before 'Black Friday and Cyber Monday' and harvest when 'Black Friday and Cyber Monday' comes. Mike believes that this can allow consumers to add to the cart in advance, which is in line with the consumer's decision-making cycle. At the same time, since more merchants choose to invest heavily in traffic on the day of 'Black Friday and Cyber Monday', resulting in a high CPC, off-peak advertising is also an optimization of the input-output ratio.

In response, Walmart E-commerce has also launched the "Peak Season Think Tank" on its official website, which will continuously update the latest peak season information and training courses, and can serve as a reference for merchants during the peak season.

In addition, Walmart Global E-commerce has launched the Assortment Recommendations panel function, which can recommend new products or high-demand products with price competitiveness, and can unlock up to 75% of the new product sales commission discount according to the required gradient, which can better help merchants select products during the peak season and not miss any potential growth opportunities.

Supporting Business Flow with Logistics to Enhance Outbound Brands

Advertising and the peak season determine whether there is growth, while the infrastructure logistics determines whether merchants can go further.

Those who gain logistics gain the world. Competing for speed in logistics is like the price competition in the entire e-commerce circle. Purely competing for speed and price is savage growth and is not sustainable. The ultimate value should still return to the user experience. 2

The importance of logistics for e-commerce is self-evident, as it directly determines the user experience. Every link of logistics is a heavy asset investment, but every investment can generate value for the user experience.

A perfect logistics system determines the first impression of merchants for users, but for Chinese merchants, the long cross-border logistics chain also means that more rigorous cost control is needed.

In fact, at the logistics level, looking at the world, there are very few e-commerce platforms that are capable of building and serving a comprehensive logistics system, because the entire link from the first-mile logistics to the last-mile delivery is not a result that can be built overnight. But what makes merchants relieved is that Walmart can do it.

As one of the largest global supply chains, Walmart's WFS (Walmart Fulfillment Service) delivery service can bring merchants a one-stop logistics solution of "warehousing - picking - packaging - shipping". Merchants will enjoy novice discounts, multi-channel delivery solutions, and the timeliness of two-day delivery in the United States. At the same time, with the support of the platform, concerns about reliability and safety are also correspondingly reduced.

This year, Walmart E-commerce has updated three actions at the logistics level -

In July, the "Ship with Walmart" small package direct delivery logistics solution from China to the United States was launched. For self-delivery orders directly from China to American consumers, Walmart E-commerce cooperates with high-quality logistics service providers to provide fast, reliable, and preferential online shipping services;

In August, Walmart Imports' first-mile service was officially opened to Chinese sellers. Merchants can apply to the platform. Walmart Imports, with the supply chain advantage of Walmart E-commerce, enjoys a one-stop official first-mile logistics solution tailored for sellers from the entire container port to the door;

In September, Walmart E-commerce launched the Multichannel Solutions. Sellers can take advantage of Walmart's supply chain to have WFS responsible for warehousing, packaging, and delivering orders.

This marks a new milestone in Walmart E-commerce's logistics services. Manish Joneja (Senior Vice President, Walmart US Marketplace and WFS) said that Walmart E-commerce's multi-channel logistics and distribution solution has a price advantage of about 15% lower than that of competitors, and provides unbranded packaging, simplifies the seller experience, and has a fast and reliable transportation capacity.

Shenzhen Comfort Space Home Furnishings Co., Ltd. is one of the beneficiaries of Walmart's logistics services. Its main business is large home furnishing products, which is a category that needs to be carefully calculated in the first-mile costs. After choosing Walmart's first-mile service (WI project), they can clearly feel the help of Walmart's first-mile service and WFS in reducing the cost of the entire supply chain.

Jam, the operations director of Comfort Space Home Furnishings Co., Ltd., said, "Walmart Connect's advertising and first-mile service (WI project) are superior to many competing platforms. This is also one of the factors that attract us to continue to develop on Walmart E-commerce."

The greater role of improving logistics is to help maintain consumers' feelings towards merchants and further generate a long-term brand effect. As an enterprise that focuses on brand power, Comfort Space expressed the assistance that Walmart E-commerce brings to brand building. In addition to logistics, Jam believes that Walmart E-commerce integrates online and offline channels and has a powerful data system in the world, which can bring merchants comprehensive product selection insights, and expressed the expectation of jointly promoting products with Walmart E-commerce.

"We have a big move this year, which is the brand differentiation strategy, making different brands for different groups of people. We have also created a new brand specifically for Walmart, focusing on cost-effective products, in line with Walmart's every day low price concept." Jam said.

The omni-channel ecology of online + offline is a big gift package for outbound brand parties from Walmart E-commerce.

The Omni-Channel Ecology, Only Look at Walmart Global E-commerce

For brands, online and offline channels play different roles. Although the development of e-commerce is continuing to accelerate, to this day, the offline channel still occupies the main purchasing power of more consumers in the global market.

Zhejiang Kaluote Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. is one of the omni-channel merchants of Walmart E-commerce. Regarding the channel layout, they adopt the online platform to increase sales and achieve the sales goal; the offline channel is customer-oriented, and based on the understanding of consumer needs, develops and innovates products.

"The product strategies for online and offline are different. Because online needs to bear the last-mile cost, the profit of pushing a single product is very low, but by packaging and combining it into a multi-piece set, the profit can be increased by increasing the total value of the set. There is no last-mile freight for offline stores, and consumers directly enter the store to shop, which is more suitable for pushing single products. Coupled with the brand influence of Walmart, consumers have more trust in the products in Walmart stores. Because the pricing range of a single product is more abundant, it brings a higher profit margin." Alex from Zhejiang Kaluote Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. said.

More importantly, in the long-term journey of the brand, brands that can become friends of time usually also build a moat in the offline channel. Alex also mentioned that after Zhejiang Kaluote Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. entered the offline stores, the overall brand awareness of consumers has increased, and the search terms and popularity of its brand on various platforms are also increasing year-on-year, and the online exposure has also increased significantly.

However, compared with the online channel, the overseas offline channel is also a difficult place for new brands to conquer. How to occupy a place in the limited shelf space is a practical problem that new brands need to face.

And this is the "unique gift package" that only Walmart E-commerce can give to merchants. Achieving excellent results in Walmart's 3P online e-commerce means having the privilege of being seen. If we look at the commonalities of successfully entering offline retailers from Walmart's online mall 1P, they include excellent online mall results, a mature supply chain, and excellent products that win consumer recognition.

At present, Zhejiang Kaluote Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. has successfully entered more than 1,300 stores. Walmart has approximately 255 million consumers and members who visit more than 10,500 physical stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries every week. 1. In other words, to become a global brand, Zhejiang Kaluote Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. has proudly obtained the admission ticket.

In fact, in today's market environment, merchants are facing consumers who are increasingly difficult to please.

Judging from the search frequency of Walmart E-commerce consumers, consumers are more willing to try new products from new brands. This is an opportunity for new brands, and the Walmart E-commerce platform also shows the stage built for small and medium-sized enterprises under the new brand trend as the platform side.

According to relevant data from Walmart E-commerce, during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period in 2023, more than 40% of Walmart E-commerce platform orders included products sold by small and medium-sized enterprises, which is sufficient to prove that small and medium-sized enterprises have an excellent performance in placing orders on the Walmart E-commerce platform, which is also in line with the purpose of "Walmart is committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow".

Recently, Ryan Mayward (Senior Vice President, Retail Media Sales, Walmart Connect) expounded on the four core needs of Walmart consumers: the pursuit of a shopping experience that offers value for money, the desire for a rich and diverse selection of goods and services, the enjoyment of a convenient and pleasant shopping experience, and the tendency to trade with trustworthy enterprises.

During the past 60 years of development, Walmart has long adhered to and is committed to improving the quality of life of global consumers, which has allowed Walmart to gradually grow. Up to now, it has become a global enterprise that conducts business in countries with 40% of the world's population and has established connections with 145 million weekly omni-channel consumer groups in the United States.

The accumulated stickiness with consumers has enabled Walmart E-commerce, which has a huge consumer volume, to reach a wealth of first-hand consumer insight data, unique store business and digital coverage, allowing merchants to better understand consumers.

But this is not the final form of a large company. Looking to the future, Walmart will still show a larger market space. According to the FY25 second-quarter earnings report data, Walmart's global e-commerce sales increased by 21%, which is a new growth line for Walmart. 1

At the summit, Zac Jacobson (Vice President, Seller Performance Management Walmart U.S. eCommerce) said, "In the process of building the future e-commerce platform, one thing remains constant, and that is our commitment