Sell on Walmart Marketplace from India
Walmart Marketplace is the second-largest US online marketplace and far less crowded than Amazon, which makes it one of the best diversification moves an Indian seller can make in 2026. But Walmart is stricter about who it lets in. Here is exactly what you need to get approved, how the fees and fulfillment compare to Amazon, and a realistic timeline from application to first sale.
The opportunity: less competition than Amazon, strong US shopper trust, and a growing third-party marketplace.
The catch: Walmart vets applicants — you generally need a US business entity, a US address, an EIN, and ideally a marketplace track record.
Fulfillment: use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) or a US 3PL that ships fast domestically.
Timeline: 2-6 weeks from a clean application to live listings, longer if approval needs a second pass.
What's in this guide
Why Walmart is worth it for Indian sellers
Most Indian sellers default to Amazon because it is the obvious choice, and that is exactly why Amazon categories are saturated. Walmart Marketplace carries a fraction of the third-party sellers Amazon does, which means less competition for the buy box and more room for a new brand to be seen. Walmart shoppers also skew toward trust in the Walmart name itself, so a well-listed product on a clean storefront can convert strongly. For a seller who has already built a US supply chain to serve Amazon, adding Walmart is largely incremental work on infrastructure you already paid for.
Can an Indian seller actually get approved?
Yes, but Walmart is more selective than Amazon. Where Amazon will open an account to almost anyone with documents, Walmart reviews applicants and historically preferred sellers with an established US presence and a marketplace track record. In practice the sellers who get approved smoothly share a pattern: a registered US business entity, a US business address, a US EIN, a functioning website or existing sales history, and clean catalog data. Approval is not guaranteed on a single try, and a thin or inconsistent application is the most common reason for rejection.
What you need before you apply
Treat the application as something you prepare for, not something you rush. The essentials are a US LLC or corporation, an EIN for that entity, a US business address that is not obviously a freight forwarder, and bank details that can receive US payouts. Beyond the legal basics, Walmart wants to see that you are a real operator: a professional product catalog with accurate GTIN/UPC codes, competitive pricing, and a fulfillment plan that delivers domestically within the windows US shoppers expect. If you have existing Amazon US sales, surface that history — it strengthens the application considerably.
If you do not yet have the US foundation, our US LLC + EIN service sets up the entity, EIN, and a usable US address, which is the same base you need for Amazon — so one setup serves both marketplaces.
Walmart fees vs Amazon
Walmart does not charge a monthly subscription the way Amazon Professional sellers pay, which lowers the cost of simply being present. Instead Walmart takes referral fees that vary by category, broadly comparable to Amazon referral rates. The headline difference for a new seller is the absence of a fixed monthly fee, so listing a smaller catalog to test the channel costs less to start. Where the numbers get real is fulfillment, which is where most of your controllable cost sits regardless of marketplace.
Fulfillment: WFS or a US 3PL
Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) is Walmart's equivalent of FBA — you send inventory to Walmart's warehouses and they pick, pack, ship, and handle returns, which also unlocks faster delivery tags that boost conversion. The alternative is shipping from your own US warehouse or a 3PL, which gives you cheaper long-term storage and lets you serve both Walmart and Amazon from one stock pool. For most Indian sellers the strongest setup is a US warehouse holding buffer inventory that feeds both WFS and Amazon FBA in batches, so you are never paying premium marketplace storage on slow stock.
A US warehouse plus cross-border freight from India lets you supply Walmart and Amazon from a single inventory pool instead of duplicating logistics.
A realistic launch timeline
With the US entity and EIN already in place, a clean Walmart application typically moves to approval in two to four weeks, and live listings follow within days of catalog upload. If you are starting from zero — no entity, no EIN — add the time to form the LLC and obtain the EIN first, which realistically extends the whole project to six to eight weeks. The single biggest accelerator is having your documents and catalog ready before you apply, so the review has nothing to bounce back.
Common reasons applications get rejected
The usual culprits are avoidable: an incomplete business profile, a US address that reads as a forwarder, mismatched entity and tax details, a catalog with missing or invalid GTINs, or a fulfillment plan that cannot deliver domestically fast enough. Walmart is essentially asking whether you can give its shoppers an Amazon-grade experience; a tidy, consistent application that answers yes is what gets approved. If a first attempt is declined, fixing the flagged gaps and reapplying is normal, not a dead end.
Want both channels live without the trial and error? Get a free quote and we will map your Walmart and Amazon launch off one US setup.