Amazon and Walmart, these retail giants have revolutionized the way we shop and offer unparalleled opportunities for sellers like you to tap into a massive customer base. However, it’s crucial to carefully choose the platform that aligns best with your business goals, considering their unique platforms and cost structures. In this article, we will tackle a burning question that many sellers have been pondering: Amazon Selling Fess vs Walmart Seller Fees – Which one is Cheaper?
Amazon Fees VS Walmart Fees
Amazon, the e-commerce titan boasting a staggering 300 million active users, has emerged as the go-to platform for countless sellers. With its exceptional visibility and established customer trust, it has become a haven for product sales.
However, Walmart, the renowned retail giant, has been making significant strides to enhance its online presence. Walmart has a large customer base and offers sellers lower costs, Walmart presents a promising opportunity to boost your income.
By the end of this article- you will come to know how much you need to pay to sell on Amazon and Walmart.
Let’s delve into a detailed analysis of the fees involved and compare them head-to-head.
Account Fees
First, the account fees for both marketplaces. To sell on Amazon and Walmart you need to create a seller account. So, let’s compare the Amazon professional seller account to the Walmart Seller account. Both offer comparable advantages to their sellers, such as promotion on their websites.
Amazon charges $39.99 as a monthly subscription cost for a seller account, however, Walmart does not charge any fees for its seller account. As a result, Walmart retains the edge over Amazon.
Referral Fees
Amazon and Walmart both charge referral fees for items sold on their marketplaces. The referral fee is a percentage of the sale price that is paid to the marketplace by the seller. The referral fee percentage varies depending on the product category.
On Amazon, the referral fee ranges from 8% to 15%. The lowest referral fee is 8% for product categories such as Camera & Photo, Cell Phone Devices, and Consumer Electronics. The highest referral fee is 20% for product categories such as Jewelry and Musical Instruments.
At Walmart, the referral fee ranges from 8% to 15%. The lowest referral fee is 8% for product categories such as Grocery, Health & Beauty, and Home & Garden. The highest referral fee is 20% for product categories such as Jewelry.
Amazon and Walmart have almost the same referral fees. They both charge the same percentage for the same service. So, in general, they charge the same referral fees from 8% to 20% of your sell price every time you sell a product on their marketplaces.
But there are some different referral fees in some specific categories. Such as
- Apparel & Accessories
- Camera & Photo
- Musical Instruments
- Outdoor Power Tools
- Personal Computers
Different referral fees
Walmart is offering comparatively lower fees though it’s almost the same. Actually, there are some complications in comparing the referral fees in both marketplaces. Below is a full list of the fees in the description section.
| Categories | Amazon | Walmart |
| Apparel & Accessories | 17% | 15% |
| Automotive & Powersports | 12% | 12% |
| Baby | 8% | 8% |
| Beauty | 8% | 8% |
| Books | 15% | 15% |
| Camera & Photo | 15% | 8% |
| Cell Phones | 8% | 8% |
| Consumer Electronics | 8% | 8% |
| Electronics Accessories | 15% | 15% |
| Decor | 15% | 15% |
| Grocery & Gourmet Food | 8% | 8% |
| Health & Personal Care | 8% | 8% |
| Home & Garden | 15% | 15% |
| Indoor & Outdoor Furniture | 15% | 15% |
| Industrial & Scientific | 12% | 12% |
| Jewelry | 20% | 20% |
| Kitchen | 15% | 15% |
| Backpacks, Handbags, and Luggage | 15% | 15% |
| Major Appliances | 8% | 8% |
| Music | 15% | 15% |
| Musical Instruments | 15% | 12% |
| Office Products | 15% | 15% |
| Outdoor Power Tools | 12% | 15% |
| Outdoors | 15% | 15% |
| Personal Computers | 8% | 6% |
| Pet Supplies | 15% | 15% |
| Software & Computer Video Games | 15% | 15% |
| Sporting Goods | 15% | 15% |
| Tires & Wheels | 10% | 10% |
| Tools & Home Improvement | 15% | 15% |
| Toys & Games | 15% | 15% |
| Video & DVD | 15% | 15% |
| Video Game Consoles | 8% | 8% |
| Video Games | 15% | 15% |
| Watches | 15% | 15% |
| Everything Else | 15% | 15% |
Fulfillment Fees
Now comes the most important part: fulfillment fees. Remember that both of these websites have internal fulfillment programs. On Amazon, this is known as fulfillment by Amazon or FBA. Walmart offers something similar called Walmart Fulfilment Service, or WFS. In short, they function identically. You send them the inventory, they store it, and when a customer orders your goods from their website, they fulfill the order and dispatch it to the customer.
The chosen marketplace will complete the full picking, packaging, and shipping criteria to get the product to the customer. To do all of these duties, you pay a particular price for each order to the marketplace.
When figuring out the charge of this fee, keep in mind that it is not like a referral fee where they charge you based on your product’s selling price. You will simply need the product’s dimensions and weight for calculating the fulfillment price. You want to have the lowest fulfillment pricing possible in order to have a larger profit ratio.
The primary distinction between FBA and WFS is that WFS adds 0.25 LBS of packaging weight to your product weight, whereas FBA does not add any additional weight to your product.
Packaging weight is the weight that Walmart adds to your product by adding their branding to the boxes and fillers to maintain it the same while shipping. WFS’s default packaging weight is 0.25 LB. This extra weight will always be applied to your goods when it is shipped to a consumer. And only Walmart WFS adds more weight; Amazon FBA does not. However, Amazon FBA includes a fuel and inflation surcharge fee in the rate, but Walmart WFS does not.
You can quickly identify the product size tier based on product dimensions for both fulfillment services. This can be done by measuring the length, width, and height of your product. You can quickly find the size tier of your products after you have the exact product dimension.
Product Size Tier
Following that, you have to calculate the shipping weight of your products. Both Amazon and Walmart use the same shipping weight calculation in this case. When calculating your shipment weight, you must take the greater weight between unit weight and dimensional weight into consideration.
There are 2 different ways to calculate your product weight which are:
- Unit weight
- Dimensional weight
Unit Weight
The unit weight refers to the weight of the package you are sending to Amazon or Walmart. It’s important to note that this weight does not refer to the weight of the actual product itself. It’s the total weight of the package containing the product that you are sending to FBA or WFS. To determine this weight, you will need to place your product package on a scale, and the weight you obtain is the unit weight.
Dimensional Weight
The dimensional or volumetric weight is the weight you calculate by multiplying the length, width, and height of your packaged product. This weight applies to the package containing your product that will be sent to Amazon or Walmart.
Shipping Charges
When determining shipping charges, you need to consider two different weights for your product. In this case, you should choose the higher weight to calculate the shipping cost. The pricing for shipping fees depends on the size tier of your product.
For smaller packages, FBA is cheaper than WFS. However, for standard-size packaging, WFS is clearly less expensive than FBA. When it comes to very large product packaging, Walmart WFS is also cheaper than Amazon FBA, although the shipping time may be longer than the usual 2-day period.
Now, let’s break down the fees and compare them based on the shipping weight. Please note that the following information is based on the shipping weight (size tiers for a few cases) and comparisons between FBA and WFS fulfillment fees.
For Small Standard Size Tiers:
For Large Standard Size Tiers:
| Shipping weight | Amazon | Walmart |
| 0.00-0.25 lbs | $3.86 | $3.45 |
| 0.25-0.5 lbs | $4.08 | $3.45 |
| 0.5-0.75 lbs | $4.24 | $3.45 |
| 0.75-1 lbs | $4.75 | $3.45 |
| 1-1.75 lbs | $5.40 | $3.45 |
| 1.75-2 lbs | $5.69 | $3.45 |
| 2-2.5 lbs | $6.10 | $4.95 |
| 2.5-3 lbs | $6.39 | $4.95 |
For Heavy Weighted products:
FBA:
| Shipping weight | Amazon |
| 3+ lb to 20 lb | $7.17 |
| 70 lb or less | $9.73 |
| 150 lb or less (Medium) | $19.05 |
| 150 lb or less (Large) | $89.98 |
| Over 150 lb | $158.49 |
WFS:
| Shipping weight | Walmart |
| 4 lb.-20 lb. | $5.75 |
| 21–30 lb. | $15.55 |
| 31–50 lb.* | $14.55 |
| 51–150 lb.* | $17.55 |
In summary, WFS generally has lower fulfillment fees across a wider range of size tiers compared to FBA. Therefore, Walmart emerges as the preferable choice in terms of Fulfillment Service fees.
Final Thoughts
We have provided a comparison of the selling and fulfillment fees for both Amazon and Walmart. Now it’s your turn to choose the most suitable one. It is crucial to weigh additional factors such as brand visibility, customer base, and marketplace policies. Take into account the potential benefits and drawbacks associated with each platform, such as customer reach, seller support, and ease of use. By thoroughly examining all aspects, you can make an informed decision and select the most suitable platform that aligns with your business goals and objectives.
To learn more about Amazon and Walmart marketplaces and their services, you can email us with your queries through info@ecomclips.com. We are here to assist you.
