Having a well-crafted Walmart product listing can be the key to your success on the Walmart marketplace.
Besides the fact that Walmart encourages you to have good listings via their listing quality score initiative, a high-quality product listing can set you apart from other sellers and attract the interest of potential customers.
Additionally, a well-optimized Walmart product listing helps to improve your Walmart store’s visibility which, in turn, leads to higher click-through rates and conversions.
With millions of products listed on Walmart’s marketplace, optimizing your product listings can seem like a daunting task.
However, with the right strategies and techniques, you can improve your search ranking and increase sales.
This article aims to help you optimize your product listings for maximum visibility by covering the key elements you need to focus on. We’ll also provide you with helpful tips and best practices. Sit tight and read on.
Why You Should Optimize Your Walmart Product Listing
There are several reasons why Walmart sellers should optimize their product listings:
- Increased visibility: By optimizing your product listings, you increase the likelihood of your products appearing in relevant search results on Walmart. This means that more shoppers will see your products and you’ll have a better chance of making sales.
- Improved conversion rates: An effectively optimized Walmart product listing offers shoppers comprehensive details that aid in their purchase decision. As a consequence, when a shopper visits your listing, they are more inclined to make a purchase.
- Enhanced customer experience: By providing detailed and accurate information about your products, you create a better shopping experience for customers. This can lead to positive reviews, increased repeat business, and ultimately, more sales.
- Competitive advantage: Optimizing your product listings can help you stand out from your competitors on Walmart. If your listings are more informative and appealing than your competitors, you’re more likely to win the sale.
Understanding The Walmart Optimization Triangle
Walmart ranks product listings according to what they call a listing score. In their listing quality guideline, Walmart makes us understand that they consider three critical aspects in their listing score, which influence the way a listing will rank. They are:
- Content
- Offer
- Performance
The content part of this triangle considers aspects of your Walmart product listing such as your product titles, product descriptions, media usage, product attributes, and category fields under which your products are organized.
The offer part of the Walmart optimization triangle looks to answer the question “How competitive is your offer?”. It considers things such as your product’s price, your shipping price and speed, and your in-stock rate.
The Performance part of the triangle looks to answer the equation “How great is your customer experience?”. It considers your performance metrics such as seller order effect rate, your customer response rate, and your adherence to their policies. Considering the fact that Walmart prioritizes customer experience, it’s no surprise this is a consideration to rank listings.
Now that we understand what Walmart requires for a higher chance to rank, let’s consider the ways we can optimize your Walmart product listing.
Ways to Optimize Your Walmart Product Listing
Keeping these components of Walmart SEO in mind – i.e. content, offer, and performance – we provide some guidelines and tips to help you maximize your Walmart product listings.
First, we start with the consent aspect of the optimization triangle and work our way down from there.
Content
1. Conduct Keyword Research
Conducting thorough keyword research is a crucial part of optimizing your Walmart product listings for maximum visibility.
Good keyword research will give you an idea of the keywords and phrases that customers are using to search for products in your listings’ category.
Adding these relevant keywords to your Walmart product listings can significantly increase the chances of your products appearing at the top of the search results.
Here are some steps to conduct thorough keyword research:
Use Keyword Research Tools: Utilize keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to generate additional keyword ideas. These tools will provide data on the search volume, competition level, and relevancy of keywords.
Analyze Competitor Listings: Take a look at the product listings of your competitors and analyze the keywords that they are using. This can help you identify gaps in their strategy and find new opportunities for optimization.
Use Relevant Keywords in Product Title and Description: To create an effective product listing, it’s crucial to use relevant keywords in both the product title and description. These two elements carry significant weight in terms of Walmart SEO because your visibility on the platform is a factor of how relevant your listing is to the customer’s search query.
Nevertheless, it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing and ensure that your product tile and description are clear, concise, and easy to read.
Keyword stuffing is one common mistake Walmart sellers make in their product listings and this is completely against Walmart’s product listing policy.
2. Optimize Your Product Titles
Creating clear, concise, and keyword-rich titles is essential for optimizing your product listings on Walmart.
A well-crafted title can help your product stand out from the competition, attract potential customers, and increase visibility on Walmart’s search results page.
Here are some tips for creating optimized product titles:
Keep it concise: Walmart recommends keeping your product titles between 50-75 characters to optimize for mobile devices. However, if your product title requires more than 75 characters to accurately describe your product, prioritize clarity over length. Also, do not use special characters like !, #, @, *, and so on in your product titles.
Use descriptive language: Your title should accurately describe what your product is and what it does. Use clear, concise language to convey your product’s features, benefits, and unique selling points.
Walmart recommends you include the color, brand, and model of your product titles as it helps Customers get a whiff of your product from the category or search pages. Additionally, the color, brand, and model can be relevant keywords that can improve Walmart listing optimization.
Avoid excessive capitalization: Excessive capitalization in your product titles can be perceived as spammy and unprofessional. Stick to standard title capitalization rules, which typically involve capitalizing the first letter of each word in the title, except for articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.
Use correct grammar: Using proper grammar in your title is crucial for conveying professionalism and legitimacy. Avoid misspellings and grammatical errors in your product titles.
Use brand names and model numbers: It’s a good idea to mention brand names and model numbers in your product titles. This helps customers distinguish your product from others that may be similar.
By following these tips and best practices, you can create optimized product titles that increase your visibility on Walmart and attract potential customers to your product listings.
If you are finding it difficult to conjure up an optimized product title for your Walmart product listing, a hard and fast rule is to use a recommended formula:
[Brand] + [Product Name] + [Key Feature] + [Product Type] + [Model Number/Identifier]
For example, if you are selling a Sony 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV with HDR, the title could be “Sony 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV with HDR (XBR55X800H).”
Note that this formula is very flexible depending on the category of items you are selling. If you are selling fashion items for example, a variation of the formula that will best suit this category is:
Brand + Style Name (if applicable) + Descriptive Feature (if applicable), Material, Clothing Size + Pack Count
3. Craft Compelling Product Description
Having effective product descriptions is essential for Walmart SEO.
Good product descriptions that highlight relevant attributes provide potential customers with a complete understanding of your product’s features and benefits. This makes it easier for them to make an informed purchasing decision.
In the case of Walmart product listings, a well-written, and optimized product description can greatly increase the visibility of the listing and drive conversions and sales.
Highlight Benefits: One of the key factors that make an effective product description is its ability to convey the benefits of the product to the customer.
Rather than just listing out features, a product description should highlight how the product can improve the customer’s life or solve a problem they might have.
For example, instead of simply listing the size and material of a clothing item, the description could focus on how the item is comfortable, durable, and stylish.
Include Relevant Keywords: In addition to focusing on benefits, including relevant keywords in the product description is also important for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.
Again, try to avoid “keyword stuffing,” which can lead to the description sounding unnatural and negatively impacting the customer’s experience. Instead, use keywords in a natural and descriptive way that enhances the overall quality of the product description.
Also, include keywords you believe the customers will most likely put in the search bar when looking for the product. These are ways to effectively use keywords.
Use Bullet Points: A helpful tip for improving product descriptions is to use bullet points. This helps break up the text and allows customers to easily scan and comprehend the product’s benefits and features.
Bullet points can also be used to emphasize key features, such as materials, size, color, and any other unique selling points.
Format Properly: Walmart recommends you format your listings to include 3-10 key features and a detailed description paragraph – minimum 150 words is a general guidance, word count requirement varies by product category.
Keep Product Description Error-Free: It is crucial to ensure that the product description is free of any grammatical errors or typos.
A poorly written description can make the product seem unprofessional and discourage potential customers from making a purchase. Proofreading and editing the description before publishing can help to avoid these issues.
4. Use Enhancing Product Images
High-quality images are an essential component of an optimized Walmart product listing. The images are the first thing that catches the customer’s attention and can make or break a sale.
Having clear and appealing images of a product can greatly impact a customer’s decision to purchase it. Poor-quality images may cause customers to seek out other options. So, it is important to provide high-quality images that highlight all the necessary details of the products you want to sell..
To optimize your product images, you need to follow some best practices.
Firstly, make sure to use high-resolution images. Low-quality images are unappealing and may give customers the impression that the product itself is of low quality.
Use Multiple Images: Include multiple images that showcase different angles of the product. This can help customers get a better idea of what the product looks like and its features. Walmart recommends a total of 4 professional images.
Consider the Background: Use clear backgrounds that don’t detract from the product. This can help customers focus on the product and avoid confusion. Walmart recommends a background color of white, with RGB values of 255,255, and 255.
Follow Walmart’s Image Guidelines: Ensure that the images meet Walmart’s image requirements, including size, format, and quality. Here are some of these guidelines:
- File Format: JPEG, JPG, PNG, BMG. (GIF images are no longer permitted)
- Color Format: RGB.
- File Size: No more than 5MB.
- For the best customer experience, an image size of 2000 x 2000 or higher is recommended.
- Due to zoom capability, we recommend a minimum image size of 1000 x 1000.
- Do not upload pictures that show accessories that are not included with the item.
- No excessive (more than 50%) white space around the product.
- Images must not display explicit nudity or vulgar language, contain obscene material, is sexually suggestive, or pornographic or portrays glorifies or promotes hatred, violence, or discrimination.
Offer
1. Provide Competitive Product Prices
The item price is one of the crucial factors that Walmart considers when ranking product listings. Therefore, optimizing your item price can significantly impact the visibility and sales of your products on Walmart.
Additionally, pricing can be a decisive factor for potential customers when choosing between similar products, so having a competitive price can give you an edge over your competitors.
When optimizing item prices on Walmart, it is essential to consider the following tips:
Research your competitors’ prices: Before setting your item price, it is crucial to research your competitors’ prices. This information will give you an idea of the average price for your product and help you set competitive pricing.
Utilize promotional pricing: Promotional pricing can attract customers and increase sales. Walmart provides sellers with the option to offer discounts, bundle deals, and other promotions to incentivize customers to buy their products under their Reduced price and clearance tags initiative.
Monitor and adjust prices regularly: Regularly monitoring your prices and adjusting them as needed can help you stay competitive and increase sales. You can use tools such as Ecom Circles Walmart Repricer to automatically track your competitors’ prices and adjust your prices accordingly so you can win the buy box.
Consider your production and shipping costs: It’s important to factor in your production and shipping costs to ensure that your pricing remains competitive while still allowing you to turn a profit.
2. Increase Shipping Speed
Shipping speed is a critical factor that can significantly impact the visibility and sales of a product on Walmart. Walmart prioritizes faster shipping and reliable options, and sellers who can meet these standards will have an advantage in the marketplace.
One of the best ways to optimize your shipping speed is by offering fast and affordable shipping options. Walmart provides guidelines for shipping speed, with most products requiring a delivery time frame of 2-5 business days.
As a seller, it is essential to offer a shipping option that meets these guidelines to ensure that your products are visible and competitive.
Here are some tips to optimize your shipping speed on Walmart:
Use a reliable carrier: Use a reputable carrier that offers fast and reliable shipping services to ensure that your products arrive at their destination on time.
Offer free shipping: Offering free shipping can be an effective way to attract customers and boost your sales. However, make sure to factor in the cost of shipping when setting your prices.
Use Walmart’s two-day shipping program: Walmart’s two-day shipping program is a popular option that allows sellers to offer fast and reliable shipping options to customers. To participate in the program, sellers must meet certain requirements, such as maintaining a high level of seller performance.
Use fulfillment services: Walmart offers fulfillment services (WFS) that can help sellers optimize their shipping speed and efficiency. These services can help sellers store and ship their products quickly and efficiently, helping them meet Walmart’s shipping guidelines.
3. In-Stock Rate/Inventory
In-stock rate or inventory refers to the number of units of a product that a seller has available to sell.
Walmart considers in-stock rate as an important factor in ranking product listings as it wants to ensure that customers readily have access to products that they want to purchase.
Therefore, it is important for sellers to maintain a high in-stock rate for their products to improve their visibility and sales on Walmart.
Here are some tips to help you improve your in-stock rate:
Keep track of your inventory: Use inventory management tools like the Ecom Circles Automated Dropshipping Software to keep track of your inventory levels and ensure that you have enough stock to meet customer demand. This will help you avoid running out of stock and losing sales.
Optimize your inventory levels: Analyze your sales data and adjust your inventory levels accordingly. You can use Walmart’s sales reports to identify your top-selling products and increase your inventory levels for these products.
Avoid overselling: Avoid overselling by accurately tracking your inventory levels and updating them regularly. If you oversell, you risk disappointing customers and damaging your reputation on Walmart.
Performance
1. Order Defect Rate
Order Defect Rate (ODR) is an important metric for Walmart sellers, as it can impact the ranking of their product listings.
ODR is calculated based on the percentage of orders that have received negative feedback or experienced an issue, such as late delivery, canceled orders, high returns, and/or shipping defects.
Sellers can improve their ODR by focusing on delivering high-quality customer service and providing accurate and timely information about their products.
This includes ensuring that product descriptions are accurate and detailed, responding promptly to customer inquiries, and shipping orders in a timely manner.
You should also address customer complaints promptly. If a customer has a complaint or issue with their order, respond promptly and offer a solution to resolve the issue. This can help to prevent negative feedback and improve customer satisfaction.
2. Adhere to Walmart’s Policies and Guidelines
Policy adherence is another important factor that Walmart considers when ranking product listings.
Sellers who do not adhere to Walmart’s policies may have their listings suppressed or removed from the marketplace. Policy adherence includes compliance with Walmart’s product safety standards, return policy, and terms of service.
One way to optimize for policy adherence is to ensure that all products meet Walmart’s safety and quality standards. Sellers should review and adhere to Walmart’s guidelines for product safety, which include regulations on materials, chemicals, and labeling requirements.
Additionally, sellers should provide accurate product descriptions and specifications to ensure that customers are receiving the product they expect.
Another important aspect of policy adherence is following Walmart’s return policy. Sellers should clearly communicate their return policy to customers and process returns promptly. This can help improve customer satisfaction and reduce the risk of negative feedback, which can impact a seller’s ranking.
Sellers should also ensure that they are complying with Walmart’s terms of service, which include guidelines on product listings, account management, and customer service. Violations of these terms can result in penalties or account suspension.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, optimizing your Walmart product listings is essential for driving maximum visibility, increasing sales, and growing your business on the Walmart marketplace.
By following the guidelines discussed in this article, such as conducting thorough keyword research, creating clear and concise titles and descriptions, using high-quality images, setting competitive prices and shipping options, and maintaining a high level of inventory, you can improve your product visibility, attract more customers, and ultimately increase your sales.
Speaking of losing quality score, try to aim for > 60%. and remember to continually monitor and optimize your listings to stay ahead of the competition and stay relevant to the changing needs and preferences of your customers.
