Walmart Strengthens Marketplace Seller Code of Conduct
Walmart prohibits off-platform diversion, account trading, and exchanging competitively sensitive information; violations may result in listing removal, account suspension, or termination.
What are the key facts?
- 1No directing consumers outside Walmart to complete transactions
- 2No account trading, switching, or holding
- 3No exchange of competitively sensitive information
- 4Violations may lead to account termination
What happened?
Walmart’s Marketplace Seller Code of Conduct prohibits merchants from directing consumers to websites, stores, or third-party platforms outside Walmart to complete transactions through product packaging, customer communications, advertising, hyperlinks, QR codes, social media accounts, or other means. The platform also prohibits account trading, account switching, account holding on behalf of others, and attempts to evade platform penalties. Sellers may not exchange competitively sensitive information, including prices, inventory, and costs, with other merchants and must ensure that the legal business name, address, and business information in Seller Center are accurate. Violations may result in listing removal, suspension of selling privileges, account freezing, or termination. The platform also continuously evaluates cancellation rate, on-time delivery rate, valid tracking rate, seller response rate, and negative feedback rate.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
Walmart prohibits directing consumers to off-platform transactions through packaging, customer service, advertising, links, QR codes, or social media, as well as account trading, account holding, and exchanges of competitively sensitive information. Cross-border Chinese sellers, agencies, and multi-account operators should immediately review diversion materials, account records, and collaboration practices to avoid listing removal, freezing, or termination.
What should sellers do now?
- 1This week, inspect Walmart product inserts, customer service scripts, advertisements, hyperlinks, QR codes, and social media content one by one; remove elements directing customers to off-platform transactions and retain a completed materials list and screenshots.Compliance
- 2This week, verify the actual controllers, login relationships, and Seller Center information for all Walmart stores and agency-operated accounts; confirm there is no trading, switching, account holding, or penalty evasion, and produce an account relationship table.
- 3This week, review team communication groups, spreadsheets, and shared files with other merchants; remove exchanges of competitively sensitive information such as prices, inventory, and costs, and establish a checklist of prohibited sharing items.
- 4This week, compile cancellation rate, on-time delivery rate, valid tracking rate, seller response rate, and negative feedback records from Walmart’s backend; verify anomalies by store and key category and create a remediation list.