Prepare your shipment

Here’s what you should know once you’ve created and submitted your inbound order: 

• Initial email: Walmart’s origin agent will email the shipper for your order within two business days. This includes 1 business day for compliance checks and 1 business day to allow Walmart’s origin agent to contact the shipper and review timelines. The Walmart origin operation agent will contact you to verify and confirm the schedule of the vessel assigned to your inbound order. 

• Review other info: Walmart’s origin agent will review and confirm your Cargo ready date and related inbound order details such as Shipping instructions cut-offs and Estimated departure date. 

• Bill of lading: We will provide the House bill of lading (HBL) draft within 1 business day after you or your shipper provide shipping instructions. The final HBL will be shared within 1 business day after vessel departure. 

• Arrival notice: We will email an arrival notice to notify parties about five days before the vessel’s Estimated time of arrival (ETA). 

• Import customs clearance: Please arrange for customs clearance at first port of discharge in the US, regardless of whether you're using Walmart’s designated customs broker or your own. Our Arrival Notice will provide your customs broker with the necessary FIRMS code. 

Once we assign a vessel to your booking, the schedule will appear on the Shipments page in Seller Center. On that page, navigate to International, then View Inbound order. At the same time, Walmart will email the vessel schedule, with the Estimated departure date and ETA, to the Notify party (usually the customs broker) and the consignee email addresses specified in your inbound order.

LCL shipments:

Please also review the Less than container load (LCL) guide for more details on preparing your LCL shipments and delivering them to the origin consolidation warehouse (aka Container Freight Station - CFS).

Ocean freight insurance

Ocean freight insurance, also known as marine cargo insurance, covers loss or damage to your shipment during transportation. It’s a common best practice to insure shipments. We do not currently provide cargo insurance for your shipments; you are responsible for purchasing insurance for your shipments.

Container condition and loading guidelines

Container condition

The Seller is responsible for verifying the condition of the container before loading. Use this Container condition checklist for verifying container condition before loading. 

The shipper is responsible for the condition of the container when it arrives at the fulfillment center, except for damage caused by outside forces (carrier, terminal).

Container loading

Load the cargo 

• Load the nose of the container first, from left to right. 

• Load the heaviest items at the bottom back (nose) of the container to maintain balance during transportation. 

• If there is a mix of heavy and light items, load the heavy items on bottom and the light items on top. 

• Load the tallest items in the back (nose) of the container. 

• Load items with carton markings (labels) facing the front (tail) of the container so that they can be easily read during unloading. 

Secure the cargo 

• Secure all items tightly against each other within the container walls. 

• If cargo does not fill the entire container or there are gaps, secure it with tie-downs, strapping, dunnage, fasteners, direct or friction lashing, blocking or bracing. This will ensure the cargo will not shift and become a hazard when opening the container. 

• Once the container is loaded, seal it properly to prevent tampering and theft. 

Rework policy 

If the container condition or container loading are deemed unsafe to unload by the fulfillment center staff when it arrives, the time and cost to remedy the container will be the seller’s responsibility: 

• 3-4 days minimum remedy time 

• Costs for handling, reworking and trucking 

Cargo

International shipments with Walmart Cross Border follow WFS guidelines for preparing, packaging and labeling. 

See WFS Routing and Packaging Guide for information on: 

• Product requirements 

• Preparing items for shipping 

• Box-level packaging and labeling 

See WFS inbound orders: Prepare and pack shipments for product preparation and packaging guidelines. 

Labeling 

You can print carton labels on the Shipments page in Seller Center as soon as you submit your booking.  Select the container (if your shipment has multiple containers) and the label size you prefer. If you have over 1000 cartons, label generation can take up to five minutes. 

Documentation 

If you choose Walmart’s designated customs broker for your shipments, you’ll need to upload customs clearance documentation (commercial invoice, packing list and any other required documentation based on the products in your order) to the relevant shipment page in Seller Center. They’ll access your documentation directly from Walmart, so you don’t need to initiate another communication to complete customs clearance. 

All files should be PDF and should not contain spaces in the file name. The file size limit is 5MB. 

In addition to uploading clearance documents in the Documents tab, you can also access documents created by WMSC Logistics Services, LLC over the course of your shipments. These include NRA, bill of lading and other shipment documents.