Something unusual is happening in the inbox of several high-volume Amazon sellers this spring. According to four sellers who spoke with Ecommerce Times on condition of anonymity, they’ve received what they describe as unusually personalized outreach from Walmart Marketplace account representatives — outreach that references their Amazon Best Seller Rank, estimated revenue figures, and in at least two cases, their approximate FBA storage costs.
“They knew our ASIN count, they knew our category, they knew roughly what we were spending on FBA fees,” said one seller running a seven-figure home goods brand on Amazon. “That’s not a cold call. Someone did homework.”
Sources close to the matter say Walmart’s marketplace growth team, reportedly operating under a restructured seller acquisition unit overseen by senior Walmart Connect leadership, has been running what insiders are calling an “intelligence-led” seller recruitment push since at least Q1 2026. The campaign allegedly uses a combination of third-party data providers — including tools like Jungle Scout’s market intelligence API and Similarweb’s commerce data — to identify Amazon sellers with strong category velocity who have not yet activated a Walmart Marketplace storefront.
What exactly is Walmart allegedly doing to poach Amazon sellers?
According to two agency operators who manage multichannel accounts and have clients on both platforms, the outreach appears to be tiered. Sellers generating an estimated $2M–$10M annually on Amazon are reportedly receiving direct outreach from named Walmart seller success managers, not generic marketing emails. The pitch, sources say, centers on three main levers: lower referral fees in select categories, faster WFS (Walmart Fulfillment Services) onboarding timelines, and co-op advertising credits through Walmart Connect.
- Referral fee gap: Walmart’s referral fees in categories like outdoor furniture and kitchen appliances reportedly run 200–300 basis points below Amazon’s current fee structure after the January 2026 FBA fee adjustments.
- WFS onboarding: Sources say Walmart has reduced its WFS intake review window from 3–4 weeks to under 10 business days for sellers flagged through this outreach program.
- Walmart Connect credits: Allegedly, sellers in the program are being offered $2,500–$10,000 in sponsored product credits upon hitting a 30-day GMV threshold on the platform.
One digital agency leader in Austin, who manages roughly $40M in combined Amazon and Walmart GMV across 15 brands, described the situation bluntly.
“Walmart’s team is playing offense in a way we haven’t seen before. The reps are showing up on calls actually knowing our clients’ numbers. That’s a different energy than two years ago.” — Agency operator, Austin, TX (speaking anonymously)
Is Amazon aware of the campaign — and how is it responding?
The more provocative question circulating in seller forums and agency Slack channels is whether Amazon’s seller relations team has caught wind of the push — and whether it’s already responding. Sources at two Amazon Selling Partner support firms say they’ve noticed an uptick in proactive outreach from Amazon account managers to high-BSR sellers in Q2 2026, which is atypical outside of Q4 prep cycles.
Unconfirmed reports on Seller Central’s community boards and the popular Facebook group “Amazon FBA High Rollers” (which counts over 140,000 members) suggest that some sellers in the $5M–$15M revenue tier have received retention-flavored calls from Amazon’s Strategic Account Services team — the paid SAS tier — offering expedited listing reinstatement windows and dedicated PPC review sessions. Amazon has not officially confirmed any retention campaign.
Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s VP of Selling Partner Services, has not publicly addressed the Walmart outreach reports. His team did not respond to a request for comment by press time. A Walmart spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the existence of a targeted seller acquisition program, saying only that “Walmart Marketplace remains committed to growing a diverse and competitive seller base.”
Which Amazon seller categories are reportedly being targeted?
According to agency sources, Walmart’s outreach is not random. The alleged targeting appears concentrated in categories where Walmart’s physical retail footprint gives it a consumer trust advantage — and where Amazon’s FBA fee increases have hit margins hardest.
- Home & Garden (oversized items facing Amazon’s Q1 2026 dimensional weight surcharges)
- Automotive accessories
- Pet supplies (a category where Walmart reportedly sees strong in-store-to-online cross-shopping data)
- Sports & Outdoors, particularly brands already selling at Walmart.com through wholesale relationships
- Baby & Toddler (a category Walmart has been aggressively rebuilding after losing ground to Amazon and Target)
Notably absent from the rumored targeting list: apparel, beauty, and consumer electronics — categories where Amazon’s Prime ecosystem still creates near-insurmountable demand gravity for third-party sellers.
“They’re not trying to win everywhere. They’re trying to win in the categories where their stores already send a trust signal. That’s actually smart strategy.” — Melissa Runyon, head of marketplace strategy at a Chicago-based multichannel consulting firm, speaking to conditions in the industry broadly
What are the PPC and Buy Box implications for sellers considering the move?
For sellers evaluating whether to take Walmart’s alleged pitch seriously, the operational calculus is genuinely complicated. Buy Box dynamics on Walmart Marketplace remain less predictable than Amazon’s, and the Walmart Connect ad platform — while improving — still lacks the granular keyword-level reporting that Amazon’s sponsored product console offers. Sellers running Pacvue or Perpetua on the Amazon side have noted that Walmart Connect’s API integration still requires manual bid adjustment workflows that Amazon’s automated bidding rules handle natively.
At the same time, the competitive density gap is real. In multiple test categories, sellers told Ecommerce Times they’re achieving top-three organic placement on Walmart with ad spend levels that would barely register on Amazon. One consumables brand reportedly moved its Walmart ACOS below 12% within 60 days of launch — a figure that would be exceptional on Amazon in any competitive category in 2026.
- Walmart’s Buy Box algorithm reportedly still over-weights price compared to Amazon’s multi-factor model, which can disadvantage premium-positioned brands.
- WFS return rates in hard goods categories are allegedly running higher than seller expectations, with some brands reporting 6–9% return rates versus 3–4% on FBA in the same SKUs.
- Review velocity on Walmart remains slow — sellers report averaging 8–12 reviews per 100 units sold versus 15–20 on Amazon for comparable products.
Who are the key figures reportedly driving Walmart’s marketplace push?
Inside Walmart’s Marketplace division, sources point to pressure coming from the top of the organization. Walmart eCommerce CEO Tom Ward has publicly committed to marketplace GMV growth as a core pillar of the company’s fiscal 2027 targets. Below him, the seller acquisition effort is allegedly being coordinated by a team that reports into the Walmart Connect advertising organization — a structural choice that insiders say is deliberate: bring in sellers who will also become ad buyers.
“The theory of the business is that every incremental third-party seller is also a potential Walmart Connect advertiser,” said one former Walmart Marketplace employee who now consults for multichannel brands. “They’re not just counting GMV. They’re counting future ad revenue.”
On the agency side, firms including Tinuiti and Feedvisor have reportedly fielded questions from joint Amazon/Walmart clients about how to evaluate the move — and whether taking Walmart’s onboarding offer constitutes any kind of violation of seller agreements with Amazon. (It does not — Amazon’s seller agreement does not restrict selling on competing marketplaces.)
“We’ve had three brands in the last six weeks ask us whether they should take Walmart’s offer. The honest answer is: it depends entirely on your category and your fulfillment capacity. It’s not a free lunch.” — Melissa Runyon
Should Amazon sellers be taking Walmart’s pitch seriously in mid-2026?
The broader signal here isn’t necessarily that Walmart is about to displace Amazon as the default marketplace for third-party sellers. It isn’t. Amazon’s Prime subscriber base, its search-first purchase behavior, and its review ecosystem still make it the dominant demand channel for most product categories by a significant margin.
But the alleged sophistication of Walmart’s recruitment campaign — if the accounts are accurate — marks a meaningful evolution from the platform’s historically passive seller acquisition posture. For Amazon sellers facing a combination of FBA fee increases, rising Sponsored Product CPCs (reportedly averaging $1.47 in home goods in Q1 2026, up from $1.18 a year prior), and tightening margins in maturing categories, even a secondary revenue stream with lower competitive density has genuine appeal.
The operational risk is real too. Brands that spread inventory across both WFS and FBA without adequate demand forecasting have reportedly run into stockout issues on both platforms simultaneously — a scenario that damages organic rank on Amazon far more than it helps on Walmart.
For now, the sellers receiving Walmart’s alleged outreach face a genuine strategic decision. And if the rumors are accurate, Amazon’s own retention moves suggest the company is watching the situation more closely than it would officially admit.
Ecommerce Times reached out to Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, Pacvue, Feedvisor, and Tinuiti for comment. Walmart and Amazon declined to comment beyond the statements noted above. Pacvue, Feedvisor, and Tinuiti did not respond by press time.
