As a business owner, one of the tasks adding to your plate is getting the supplies you need to keep things running smoothly. Endless supplier searches, hunting for better bargains, dealing with inventory, you name it – the struggle is real. Here’s where Walmart Business can be a solution to ease the burden of procurement, giving you more time to focus on your primary task – growing your business.
Let’s look at Walmart Business and how it can transform your business supply management.
Key takeaways
- Walmart Business simplifies procurement for SMBs by offering a curated selection of items, easing the burden of supplier searches and inventory management.
- It provides businesses with specialized services such as multi-user accounts, tax-exemption programs, and exclusive deals, delivering tailored benefits to manage expenses effectively.
- With free and paid membership options, businesses can choose the plan that suits their needs – basic access or additional perks like free shipping and rewards.
What does Walmart offer businesses?
So, speaking of running a business, apart from good strategies, marketing, advertising, brilliant ideas, and so on, you can’t go without more prosaic but no less important things. Drinking water, breakroom snacks, paper for your printers, cleaning or laundry essentials, furniture or decor, and more are everyday supplies that contribute to making your business work.
Handling them can be a pain in the neck and, if approached unwisely, can eat up a good chunk of your margins. Starting with supplier search and ending with arranging better delivery. Wouldn’t it help to have one place where you can find everything you need (from office paper to hotel room furniture) and have it delivered right where you need it?
So, Walmart Business is a service for businesses, including small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and nonprofits, helping them purchase business-related supplies efficiently.
By nature, it’s an ecommerce platform where these organizations can find a curated selection of over 100,000 items, ranging from office supplies to food and beverage, electronics, and more.
How does Walmart Business account work?
So, Walmart Business aims to simplify the purchasing process for organizations, saving them time and money.
- It offers multi-user accounts, allowing multiple team members to access the same account and share payment information and order history.
- Qualified organizations can enroll in the Walmart Tax-Exemption Program, automatically removing eligible taxes during checkout.
- For those who upgrade to a Walmart Business+ membership, there are even more benefits, including free shipping with no minimums, free pickup and delivery from the store, rewards on orders, and savings on eligible items through subscriptions.
In other words, Walmart Business can provide businesses with the necessary tools and resources for a more effective purchasing process and inventory management, allowing them to focus more on serving their customers and communities.
Basically, it’s like a Walmart Plus but for business.
How does it differ from Walmart Plus?
You should’n’t still confuse Walmart for business with Walmart Plus.
As mentioned, Walmart Business addresses the needs of businesses, providing them with specialized services, supporting them in managing their expenses, optimizing procurement, and accessing exclusive deals and discounts to help them thrive.
Walmart Plus is a membership program targeted towards individual consumers. It comes with free unlimited delivery, member prices on fuel, and scan-and-go checkout at select stores.
So, the audiences of these services differ. And if you’re not a business, you can’t use Walmart Business, you go with Plus instead.
Read more on selling online:
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- How to Sell on eBay: All You Want to Know About Selling on eBay
- How to Sell on Amazon Without Inventory: Dropshipping & FBA Explained
Is it related to Walmart Marketplace?
It’s also worth mentioning that Walmart Business is not a part of Walmart Marketplace. Since there can also be some confusion, we better look at the difference between them and at which point they might be related.
So, Walmart Marketplace, as you know, is an online platform operated by Walmart where third-party sellers can list and sell their products directly to customers. These sellers range from individual entrepreneurs to larger businesses, offering products across different categories, such as electronics, clothing, home goods, and more. Walmart Marketplace allows sellers to reach their extensive audience and use the platform’s infrastructure for sales and fulfillment.
At this point, Walmart Marketplace and Walmart Business serve different purposes.
Still, there can be some overlap for sellers who wish to utilize both platforms.
Walmart Marketplace sellers can use Walmart Business, just as other SMBs and nonprofits normally do, to procure supplies for their own operations. But that would be a different story than the Marketplace where they manage their sales.
We can better describe it as two parallel business operation processes under the hood of Walmart. But again, you don’t have to necesserily be a Walmart Marketplace seller to use Walmart for business.
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What is the benefit of Walmart business for a company?
And that brings us to why you might want to use Walmart Business.
We mentioned that it can help organizations address their internal needs more efficiently. What does that mean?
Simply put, Walmart for businesses comes with some benefits that can significantly impact a business’s operations and bottom line.
Let’s break it down.
Perk #1 – Good old cut on bulk purchasing
Walmart Business offers competitive pricing and bulk purchasing options, allowing companies to save money on essential supplies and products for their day-to-day operations. It contributes, without doubt, to cost savings over time, especially for businesses that regularly purchase in large quantities.
Perk #2 – Access to exclusive deals
Another goodie is access to exclusive deals and discounts, further enhancing cost-effectiveness. Walmart brings plenty of special offers tailored to meet the specific needs of businesses, ensuring that they can have the best possible prices on a wide range of items.
Perk #3 – Money-saving coupons
In addition to competitive pricing and bulk purchasing options, Walmart Business offers exclusive coupons to help companies save even more on their purchases. These coupons may offer discounts on specific products or categories and perks such as free shipping or bonus items with qualifying purchases. You can regularly browse and utilize these coupons to gain some more improvements to your bottom line.
Perk #4 – Potential savings of 10% or more
Altogether, the combination of competitive pricing, volume discounts, and special promotions comes with the potential to save 10% or more on a business’s purchases. Walmart possesses the purchasing power of a large network it can use to negotiate favorable terms with suppliers and pass on these savings to its customers. So, as a business, you can make full use of it to reduce your expenses and reinvest those savings into other areas of your operations, driving further growth and efficiency.
To see if you qualify for Walmart Business perks, you might want to check the eligibility criteria on their website or contact Walmart Business customer support. Besides, you might consider upgrading to Walmart Business+ for extra benefits.
How to create Walmart Business account?
Earlier, we mentioned that Walmart Business, at most, caters to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), including nonprofits. That’s to say, if you’re a startup, local retailer, charitable organization, or anything else that falls into the category, Walmart Business can offer you tools and resources to help you succeed in your operations.
So, how can you start using it?
How to start?
Starting with Walmart Business is quite simple and doesn’t require too many steps. But let’s go through those.
- Go to the Walmart Business website. You might want to scroll all the way down to account options and click the Create business account or Join paid membership button, depending on the chosen option. You can also click the Sign in link there (if you don’t have the account jet, it will bring you to the creation process).
- Fill out the required fields with accurate information, including your name, email address, password, business name, and contact details.
- Review Walmart’s terms of use and privacy policy, and check the box to agree. Make sure to read through them carefully and understand them before proceeding.
- Check your email inbox for a message from Walmart Business containing a verification link. You might want to click on it to verify your email address and activate your account.
- Done with that, you’ll receive a confirmation message indicating that your Walmart Business account has been successfully created.
Now that you’ve created your Walmart Business account, you’re ready to explore the platform’s features and benefits.
How much does a Walmart business account cost: Free vs. paid membership
Starting with Walmart Business, you should decide which business account to choose. Walmart offers free and paid membership options, the latter offering more benefits. But let’s look at what you get under each.
Free membership (Walmart Business)
With a free Walmart Business account, you can access the platform and browse the curated selection of thousands of items without any upfront cost. This basic membership allows you to create a business profile, manage purchases, and enjoy standard features such as multi-user accounts and tax-exemption programs, depending on eligibility.
Paid membership (Walmart Business+)
If you’d fancy additional perks and benefits, Walmart offers a paid membership option called Walmart Business+. It comes with an annual fee of $98 and extended benefits, such as free shipping with no minimum order requirements, free pickup and delivery from stores, rewards on orders, and savings on eligible items through subscriptions.
You can decide between free and paid membership based on your business’s needs and budget. But before committing to the paid option, you can use the free trial, which gives you access to all functionality so you can better understand whether you need all the perks from Walmart Business or can go with the standard set.
Bottom line
Long story short, Walmart Business can be a valuable solution for businesses struggling with supply procurement challenges. It offers a platform with a wide range of items on various categories and specialized services like multi-user accounts and tax-exemption programs. This way, Walmart Business caters to the specific needs of businesses, helping them improve procurement processes and manage expenses more effectively, freeing up time and resources to focus on serving customers and achieving business success.
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