Eva Answers / Walmart

How Does Shipping Work When You Sell on Walmart Marketplace?

Answered by Hai Mag, Founder & CEO, Eva Commerce, with 20+ years in eCommerce transformation, marketplace optimization, and AI-driven automation.

Last reviewed: October 26, 2026

Short answer: You either ship orders yourself or use Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS). If you ship yourself, you set shipping templates and a lag time, ship within two operational days, upload valid tracking, and must keep On-Time Delivery at 90% or above and Valid Tracking at 99% or above. With WFS, Walmart stores, picks, packs and ships your items and handles customer service and returns for a per-unit fulfillment fee plus storage, and most performance metrics are met for you.

Your two options side by side

	You ship (seller fulfilled)	Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
Who ships	You or your 3PL, from a U.S. B2C warehouse with returns capability	Walmart picks, packs and ships from its fulfillment centers
Customer service and returns	You handle them	WFS handles customer support and returns for these orders
Costs	Your carrier rates, or discounted Ship with Walmart labels	A fulfillment fee per unit (for example $3.45 for a standard item with a shipping weight of 1 lb or less) plus storage from $0.75 per cubic foot per month; no signup or monthly fee
Delivery speed set by	Your shipping templates and lag time	Walmart (2-day fulfillment, though heavier items can take longer)
Performance standards	All apply to you, including On-Time Delivery of 90% or more and Valid Tracking of 99% or more	Most are met for you; Negative Feedback Rate still applies

How to set up seller-fulfilled shipping

Set your operating schedule. For each fulfillment center, Walmart requires you to accept shipments until 11:00 am local time at least five days a week. You can take up to 30 additional days off per fulfillment center per year.
Set a realistic lag time. Walmart requires orders to ship within two operational days unless you have an approved lag time exemption.
Build shipping templates. Choose methods (Value, Standard, TwoDay, OneDay or Freight), regions, transit times and rates. Every account has a Default Template (one to seven days); you can add up to 60 custom templates, and items over 150 pounds or in freight categories use a Freight Template. Assign every SKU, or it falls back to the Default Template.
Pick carriers and buy labels. Ship with Walmart offers discounted USPS, FedEx and UPS labels, protection of up to $100 on eligible lost orders shipped on time, and up to 35% off TwoDay labels for eligible Pro, Rising and Advanced sellers whose delivery promise matches the shipping speed.
Upload valid tracking only after handover. Tracking must have at least one carrier scan, and you should share it with Walmart only once the package is with the carrier.
Watch the Performance dashboard. Walmart reviews Cancellation (2% or less), On-Time Delivery (90% or more), Valid Tracking (99% or more), Late Shipment (5% or less) and other rates over 30 or 60 days, and can suppress or suspend accounts that miss them.

Exceptions

Multichannel fulfillment. You may ship Walmart orders through another retailer’s fulfillment network only in neutral packaging and unbranded vehicles.
What you cannot do. Walmart prohibits retail arbitrage (having another retailer ship to your customer), competitor boxes, and promotional inserts such as coupons or review requests.
WFS limits. WFS takes items up to 500 lb with packaging, but not regulated or perishable items that need temperature control.
Delivery dates affect ranking. Walmart says the delivery date shown to shoppers uses your historical On-Time Delivery rate and also determines your product’s search ranking.

How Eva handles this

In Eva’s Walmart Marketplace work, fulfillment is planned SKU by SKU rather than all WFS or all self-fulfilled: products with meaningful velocity are considered for WFS first, and slower items may stay seller fulfilled until demand proves itself. Our marketplace expansion service covers inventory planning, order and fulfillment management and performance monitoring.

Follow-up questions

What carrier does Walmart ship through for Marketplace sellers?

Sellers who ship their own orders choose the carrier. Through Walmart’s Ship with Walmart program, sellers can buy discounted USPS, FedEx and UPS labels in Seller Center. With WFS, Walmart picks, packs and ships the order for you.

Do I have to offer free shipping on Walmart?

Not on every item. Walmart offers a Paid Standard shipping template for items you do not want to ship free, with a transit range of three to five days.

What happens if I ship late on Walmart?

Walmart auto-cancels an order that is not marked as shipped with tracking by the Expected Ship Date plus four calendar days, and late or missing scans count against your On-Time Delivery and Late Shipment rates.

Related