Key takeaways:
- With WFS, Walmart handles inventory storage, picking, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns for eligible sellers.
- Monitoring sell-through, days of supply, aged inventory, surplus units, and stockout risk helps maintain product availability and operational performance.
- As a Walmart seller, you should account for fulfillment, storage, oversized-item, low-price, apparel, hazmat, and long-term storage charges when calculating profitability.
- WFS and FBA have different cost structures. Neither is universally cheaper. You want to compare total fulfillment costs based on product size, weight, storage, returns, and marketplace fees.
- Maintaining healthy inventory, avoiding stockouts, optimizing product dimensions, and aligning fulfillment with Walmart advertising can improve operational efficiency and profitability.
To sell successfully on the Walmart Marketplace, having a solid marketing strategy isn’t enough. You also need an efficient fulfillment process that keeps inventory available, orders moving, and customers satisfied.
Thankfully, Walmart has its own fulfillment solution to help sellers store, pick, pack, and ship orders on the Walmart Marketplace.
If you already sell on Amazon, think of WFS as Walmart's version of FBA. Walmart is the second-largest ecommerce player in the United States, so WFS is one of the simplest ways for Amazon sellers to expand to a second marketplace without building a new fulfillment operation.
In this ePlaybooks guide, we’ll explore Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), how it works, its current fees, benefits, drawbacks, and how it compares with Amazon FBA.
What are Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)?
Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) is a service designed to respond to the growing demand for efficient order fulfillment in the ecommerce space.
Launched in 2020, WFS aims to provide sellers on the Walmart marketplace with a streamlined and reliable way to handle order processing, storage, and shipping. If you're researching how to start selling on Walmart Marketplace, WFS can simplify the operational side of your business. This service is designed to help sellers scale their businesses, free of challenges. Sellers simply send their inventory to Walmart’s strategically located fulfillment centers, and when a customer places an order on Walmart.com, Walmart picks, packs, and ships the product on the seller’s behalf. Walmart also manages returns and provides tracking updates to both sellers and buyers.
Requirements for using Walmart Fulfillment Services
While Walmart Fulfillment Services offers a range of benefits, not all sellers are automatically eligible to use the service. There are certain criteria and requirements that you must meet to enroll in WFS:
- Must be a Walmart Marketplace seller: To use Walmart Fulfillment Services, you must already be registered and approved to sell on the Walmart marketplace. This involves creating a Walmart Seller Center account, providing necessary documentation, and meeting Walmart's seller standards.
- Product eligibility: Not all products are eligible for Walmart Fulfillment Services. Certain categories and types of products may be excluded due to size, weight, or other logistical constraints. Ensure you check your product’s eligibility before shipping it to Walmart’s fulfillment centers.
- Quality and compliance: Walmart maintains strict quality and compliance standards for products enrolled in WFS. This includes packaging requirements, labeling guidelines, and Walmart's overall product quality standards. You want to ensure that your products meet these criteria.
- Fulfillment center placement: Keep in mind that Walmart determines the fulfillment center(s) where your products will be stored, so be prepared to send your inventory to the designated fulfillment center(s).
- Agreement and fees: Enrolling in Walmart Fulfillment Services involves agreeing with Walmart. Ensure you take the time to review the terms and conditions of this agreement, including the associated fees. Consider the cost implications and how they may impact your overall profitability.
How does Walmart Fulfillment Services work?
With Walmart Fulfillment Services, when a customer places an order on Walmart.com, the WFS team picks, packs, and ships that order on your behalf. Here’s how WFS works:
- Before you can ship orders through Walmart Fulfillment Services, you'll need to join the Walmart Marketplace. Walmart requires specific information to complete the application, including your U.S. business tax ID and an EIN Verification Letter from the IRS.
- Next, you need to ensure that your products are eligible for Walmart Fulfillment Services. Ensure you review the eligibility criteria to confirm that your products can be fulfilled through WFS.
- Next, prepare your inventory for shipment to the designated Walmart fulfillment centers. Walmart provides guidance on packaging requirements and shipping instructions. Properly following these instructions is crucial to ensure a smooth fulfillment process.
- Walmart then receives your inventory at the designated fulfillment center(s). The products are then stored in these fulfillment centers until they are ordered by customers.
- When an order is confirmed, Walmart Fulfillment Services kicks into action to fulfill that order. They handle the picking and packing of items from the stored inventory. The products are then securely packed following Walmart's packaging standards and shipped to the customer.
- Walmart provides customer support and manages returns for WFS orders.
How to convert existing Walmart listings to WFS
If your items are already live on Walmart.com, you can move them to WFS from Seller Center:
- Log in to your Walmart Seller Center account and open the WFS section.
- Go to your product catalog, click "Items", and search for the item you want to convert.
- Click the three dots under the product title and select "Convert to WFS".
- Fill in the required information for each section of the listing, then click "Submit changes".
- Allow about 24 hours for the conversion to complete. Then go to the WFS section, click "Send inventory", and create your inbound order with the expected ship date, return address, and shipping details.
Menu names in Seller Center change from time to time, so follow the labels you see on screen if they differ slightly.
Features of the Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
With Walmart Fulfillment Services, you don’t have to worry about providing efficient order fulfillment services. Walmart handles everything from inventory storage to picking, packing, shipping, and customer service.
Order fulfillment process
The WFS process begins when your customer places an order on the Walmart website. Once the order is confirmed, Walmart then takes over the packing and shipping processes, ensuring that the products reach the customer on time. With this fulfillment service, you can simplify the order fulfillment process and improve your overall customer experience.
Inventory storage
One of the key features of WFS is its storage capabilities. You can send your inventory to Walmart fulfillment centers, where the products are stored until they are ordered. This not only frees up the time and cost of managing your own storage but also allows for faster shipping times.
Picking and packing
When an order is placed, Walmart Fulfillment Services takes care of picking the items, packing them securely, and preparing them for shipment. This ensures that the products are handled carefully and professionally, reducing the likelihood of damage during transportation.
Shipping
Walmart uses its extensive network of logistics to efficiently ship products to customers. This includes leveraging partnerships with various carriers and optimizing routes for timely delivery.
Customer service
Walmart Fulfillment Services also extends to customer service. If customers have questions or issues related to their orders, they can contact Walmart's customer support for assistance. This integrated approach helps ensure a seamless experience for the end consumer.
Benefits of using Walmart Fulfillment Services
Here are a few benefits that come with using the Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS):
Access to Walmart's logistics network
One of the most significant advantages of opting for Walmart Fulfillment Services is gaining access to the retail giant's extensive logistics network. Walmart has strategically located fulfillment centers across the United States, allowing for faster and more cost-effective shipping. This can be a game-changer if you're looking to compete on speed and reliability.
Reduced shipping times
With products already stored in Walmart fulfillment centers, the time it takes to pick, pack, and ship an order is significantly reduced. This results in shorter shipping times, which is a crucial factor in meeting customer expectations and improving satisfaction. Faster shipping also contributes to a positive impact on your performance metrics on the Walmart marketplace.
WFS items are eligible for Walmart's fast delivery options, including two-day shipping to most US addresses, and fast-shipping tags in search results can help your listing stand out and improve click-through and conversion rates.
Better inventory performance
WFS provides sellers with inventory-management information that can make managing your Walmart inventory effectively easier. Current WFS inventory reporting includes daily in-stock sales rate, sell-through rate, aged units, unpublished units, surplus units, days of supply, and out-of-stock dates.
Walmart classifies inventory with less than 28 days of supply as "at risk," making inventory monitoring particularly important for sellers who want to maintain product availability.
Maintaining healthy inventory can also support your broader Walmart Marketplace seller performance metrics. While Walmart does not currently publish a standalone WFS Inventory Performance Score with a documented direct listing-ranking penalty, sellers should monitor inventory health closely to minimize stockouts, unpublished inventory, and other availability issues.
Inventory performance can affect marketplace availability.
Walmart does not currently publish a standalone WFS “Inventory Performance Score” with a publicly documented direct listing-ranking penalty. Instead, sellers should monitor the inventory-performance signals available in Seller Center.
Strong sell-through, sufficient days of supply, low surplus and aged inventory, and consistent availability can help sellers avoid operational problems such as stockouts and unpublished inventory. Walmart's current inventory tools also use factors such as past sales, seasonality, listing quality, and pricing when generating replenishment suggestions.
Why does this matter for visibility? An item cannot generate sales or ad conversions when it is unavailable. Maintaining healthy inventory therefore supports continued product availability and gives Walmart’s marketplace and advertising systems more opportunities to serve and convert the listing. However, sellers should not treat this as a guaranteed direct ranking boost from a specific “inventory score.”
Better advertising benefits
WFS can provide a benefit that extends beyond logistics. Walmart Connect’s advertising ecosystem is built around Walmart’s first-party commerce signals, including shopping and purchase behavior. For sellers, better fulfillment can lead to better product availability and order execution, more consistent purchase signals, and stronger attribution data, helping sellers with more informed advertising optimization. This does not mean WFS automatically improves ad targeting or guarantees lower advertising costs. Rather, reliable fulfillment helps ensure that advertising traffic reaches products that are actually available and capable of converting.
Scalability
If you’re looking to scale your ecommerce operations, Walmart Fulfillment Services offers a scalable solution. By outsourcing the fulfillment process to Walmart, you can focus on your marketing efforts and other aspects of your business without worrying about the complexities of order processing and logistics.
Transparent pricing
Walmart provides straightforward pricing for Walmart Fulfillment Services, with no hidden or complicated fees. You pay for storage and fulfillment based on item size and weight, making it easier to predict costs and plan your pricing strategy.
Seamless customer returns
Walmart’s customer service team manages returns directly. Shoppers can even return WFS items at Walmart stores, making the process more convenient for buyers and improving customer satisfaction.
Walmart and Google have also expanded their commerce relationship, including plans announced in January 2026 to connect Walmart’s assortment and shopping capabilities with Google’s Gemini experience. For sellers, this reinforces the benefits of maintaining accurate listings, competitive pricing, healthy inventory, and reliable fulfillment across Walmart’s commerce ecosystem.
Downsides to using Walmart Fulfillment Services
While Walmart Fulfillment Services offers numerous benefits, it is important to be aware of potential challenges that may come with using WFS:
Costs
While the convenience of WFS is undeniable, it is important to factor in the associated costs. Fulfillment fees, storage fees, and other charges may impact your overall profitability. It's crucial to carefully analyze the fee structure and assess whether the benefits outweigh the costs.
Product eligibility and restrictions
Not all products are suitable for Walmart Fulfillment Services. It is important to ensure that your products meet the eligibility criteria and comply with any restrictions imposed by Walmart. Failure to do so could result in delays, additional fees, or even suspension from the program.
Less operational control
Outsourcing fulfillment to a third party means relinquishing some control over the process. While Walmart is a trusted partner, you will need to be comfortable with the idea of entrusting your inventory and order fulfillment to an external party.
Inventory planning requirements
Outsourcing fulfillment does not eliminate the need for inventory management. Sellers still need to forecast demand and replenish inventory before products become unavailable.
Limited international fulfillment
WFS is primarily designed around Walmart’s supported fulfillment network and markets. Sellers targeting customers outside those markets may need additional fulfillment solutions.
Can any seller use the Walmart Fulfillment Services?
Not every seller is automatically eligible to use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS). As we have outlined in this article, Walmart has specific criteria and requirements that sellers must meet to qualify for and enroll in WFS. It's important to carefully review the eligibility criteria and requirements outlined by Walmart. Keep in mind that eligibility requirements and policies may change. You want to stay up-to-date on the latest updates using your Walmart Seller Center.
Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) fees
WFS uses a combination of fulfillment and storage fees. Current Walmart pricing is based primarily on shipping weight, dimensional weight, product dimensions, storage volume, and the length of time inventory remains in a fulfillment center.
Standard WFS fulfillment fees
For standard-size items, Walmart determines shipping weight differently depending on product weight. Items under 1 lb. use unit weight, while products between 1 lb. and 150 lb. use the greater of unit weight or dimensional weight. Walmart also adds 0.25 lb. for packaging before rounding up to the nearest pound.
These rates reflect Walmart’s current published WFS pricing and should be checked against the WFS cost estimator before making product-level profitability decisions.
Additional WFS fulfillment fees
Some products incur additional fees:
Walmart also applies separate pricing for big-and-bulky products. The current published rate is $155 plus $0.80 for each pound over 90 lb., subject to WFS size and weight criteria.
WFS storage fees
Current WFS storage pricing is:
Walmart states that storage pricing is based on a 30-day calendar month.
Note: Walmart has previously offered promotional waivers for peak-season storage, including a 2025 promotion that waived certain peak-season storage charges from October 1 through December 31. Sellers should therefore verify whether a current promotion applies before forecasting Q4 storage costs.
WFS vs. Amazon FBA: Which is cheaper?
Understanding how Walmart Fulfillment Services compares to Amazon FBA requires more than comparing the starting fulfillment fee. Both services use different size tiers, dimensional-weight rules, and fee structures, so neither option is universally cheaper. The best choice depends on your product’s size, weight, storage requirements, sales volume, and marketplace fees.
For WFS,
- fulfillment fees start at $3.45 for products weighing 1 lb. or less, increasing to $4.95 at 2 lb. and $5.45 at 3 lb.
- Standard storage costs $0.75 per cubic foot per month from January through September.
- During Q4, the same $0.75 rate applies to inventory stored for 30 days or less, while older inventory is subject to higher storage charges.
- Long-term WFS inventory can also incur additional fees, including $2.25 per cubic foot for inventory stored 366 to 450 days and $7.50 per cubic foot after 450 days.
Amazon FBA has a more tiered fee structure based on product size and shipping weight.
For FBA,
- Amazon's 2026 standard-size fulfillment fees vary by size tier, while standard-size storage is approximately $0.78 per cubic foot per month.
- Amazon also applies higher Q4 storage rates and additional inventory-related fees, including low-inventory-level fees for qualifying products.
- Amazon reported an average $0.08-per-unit increase in FBA fulfillment fees effective January 15, 2026, although the actual increase varies by product type and size.
This means WFS's starting fulfillment rate may be more competitive for some products, while Amazon FBA may be cheaper for certain small, lightweight items. Because Amazon's fees vary significantly by size tier and weight, sellers should avoid comparing a single WFS rate directly with an FBA rate.
A more profitable approach is to calculate the total fulfillment cost per unit, including fulfillment, storage, inbound shipping, marketplace referral fees, returns, and any applicable inventory-related surcharges. This gives you a more accurate picture of which fulfillment option will produce better margins for your specific products.
Which fulfillment option should sellers choose?
WFS may be the better fit if:
- Walmart is an important sales channel for your business.
- You want Walmart to handle fulfillment and returns.
- Your products benefit from fast Walmart delivery.
- You want to reduce the complexity of managing fulfillment yourself.
- Your WFS costs are lower after accounting for product dimensions, weight, storage, and surcharges.
Amazon FBA may be the better fit if:
- Amazon is your primary marketplace.
- Most of your sales already come from Amazon.
- Your products fit efficiently into Amazon's FBA size tiers.
- You benefit from Amazon's fulfillment network and customer base.
- Amazon's total fulfillment and marketplace costs produce stronger margins for your products.
For sellers operating on both marketplaces, using WFS for Walmart and FBA for Amazon can often be more practical than using one fulfillment network for every channel. Before choosing, compare the complete landed cost for each product, including inbound shipping, storage, fulfillment, referral fees, returns, and inventory-related charges.
Related read: What are the Differences between Walmart WFS and Amazon FBA?
How to make WFS more profitable
Using WFS effectively requires more than simply sending inventory to Walmart. Consider these strategies:
Monitor inventory health
Use WFS inventory reporting to track sell-through rate, days of supply, surplus units, aged inventory, unpublished units, and out-of-stock risk.
Avoid stockouts
Walmart's inventory system identifies items with less than 28 days of supply as at risk. You want to replenish before inventory reaches zero to minimize interruptions to product availability.
Reduce slow-moving inventory
Excess inventory ties up capital and increases storage exposure. Use sales forecasts and WFS inventory insights to identify products that need promotions, pricing changes, or inventory removal.
Optimize product dimensions
Because WFS fulfillment fees depend on weight and dimensional weight, reducing unnecessary packaging or product volume can sometimes move a product into a more favorable fee calculation.
Build fulfillment into your Walmart advertising strategy
Before increasing Walmart Connect spend, make sure advertised products are in stock and able to convert. Reliable fulfillment gives advertising campaigns a stronger foundation by reducing the risk of sending paid traffic to unavailable or poorly stocked products.
Streamline your orders with Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
Walmart Fulfillment Services is a meaningful step in the right direction for sellers looking to streamline their operations and enhance customer satisfaction. By leveraging Walmart's extensive logistics network and infrastructure, you can focus on growing your business while Walmart takes care of the intricate details of order fulfillment.
Managing fulfillment, inventory, advertising, listings, and seller performance can become increasingly complex as your Walmart business grows. ePlaybooks' Walmart Marketplace management services can help you streamline these operations and build a more efficient Walmart growth strategy.
