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Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
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To provide a consistent shipping experience for customers, you're required to meet a minimum set of shipping policy requirements. In this guide, you’ll learn more about the requirements of the Shipping & Fulfillment Policy, along with additional guidelines.
What is the policy?
This table outlines the shipping policy minimum requirements and restrictions.
Required | Prohibited |
|---|---|
|
|
Walmart retains the sole discretion to suspend, terminate or take other immediate action against you when you:
- Purchase a product from another online retailer and have that retailer ship the product directly to the customer (also known as retail arbitrage).
- Ship a package that includes the name or other identifier of any entity other than the manufacturer or seller on the packing slip, materials, invoice or external packaging, unless an exception has been granted by Walmart.
- Deliver a package using a last-mile delivery service carrier whose delivery vehicle displays the name or identifier of a Walmart competitor.
Other immediate actions may include but are not limited to: suppressing your listings from search results, imposing selling limits and withholding all funds. A single violation may result in action against you.
Additional guidelines
Expected Delivery Date (EDD)
The EDD is the delivery date that the customer sees before they make a purchase on Walmart.com. It’s calculated by your predefined order cutoff time, fulfillment lag time and transit time. Walmart uses a prediction model to ensure late deliveries are minimized and makes adjustments as needed. If the first delivery attempt takes place on or before the EDD, the order is considered delivered on time.
Per the Seller Performance Standards, you must maintain an On-time Delivery Rate (OTD) of 95% or greater.
When an item is five days past the EDD and the carrier has reported no movement of the item in the last three days, Walmart considers the item to be in a terminal state. In these instances, Walmart reserves the right to cancel any order that has not been delivered within a reasonable period after the EDD, as determined by Walmart in its sole discretion. You're responsible for any associated costs. Repeated failures to meet the Expected Delivery Date may result in selling privilege restrictions.
The EDD is assigned by adding the maximum transit time for a given method and region. Order cancelation analysis for past-due EDD orders may be performed daily to provide refunds to customers.
Fulfillment Lag Time
Fulfillment lag time is an item-level attribute that determines the number of days it takes for you to prepare the item for shipment. You’re required to ship orders by the end of the next business day (0- or 1-day lag time) unless you’ve submitted a lag time exemption request and received approval from Walmart.
Exemption approval is discretionary, revocable, limited and depends on the type of product. If you make any changes to your lag time, it may take up to 24 hours to be reflected on Walmart.com. Any previously configured and approved lag time may be reduced by Walmart when not used to ensure accurate delivery promises. It’s your responsibility to ensure lag time is configured accurately, and that you comply with delivery expectations.
Expected Ship Date (ESD)
The ESD is the date by which you must mark the order as Shipped with valid tracking information. Once you mark the order as Shipped in Seller Center or via APIs, Walmart will send a shipment notification to the customer. If the shipping confirmation is received on or before the ESD, the order is considered “shipped on time.”
Walmart will auto-cancel an order if it’s not marked as shipped and tracking information hasn’t been uploaded by the ESD + four calendar days. For example, if an order has an ESD of Monday, the order would be auto-canceled on Friday. If you ship an auto-canceled order, Walmart isn’t obligated to reimburse a seller for orders shipped after the ESD.
Per the Seller Performance Standards, you must maintain a Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) of 99% or greater.
Repeated failures to meet the ESD may negatively impact your performance metrics. If an order is placed by your order cutoff time, it’s expected to ship by the specified date below.
Fulfillment lag time | Date that the order must be shipped by |
|---|---|
0 days | On the same day |
1 day | The next day |
2 days | The day after next |
If an order is placed after the order cutoff time, an additional day is added to the fulfillment lag time.
Transit times
Order transit times determine the number of business days it takes the carrier to deliver an order to the customer after it is shipped. The transit time requirements are specific to your particular shipping method and supported region.
You’re not required to use any specific carriers or carrier service levels to support the specified transit times within each shipping method.
Walmart reserves the right to extend or shorten the Estimated Delivery Date and transit times based on your historical performance and current practices to provide the customer more accurate delivery information on Walmart.com. However, as a seller you’re still responsible for making sure your items are shipped by the Estimated Shipping Date, and that your fulfillment practices comply with the requirements to ensure delivery by the Estimated Delivery Date.