What Does the Walmart Shopify Partnership Mean for Merchants Like Me?

While Walmart is nothing if not a juggernaut, many other retail giants have floundered or failed online. Walmart has emerged as the leading contender to Amazon's dominance, but while they've taken a lot from the Amazon playbook, they have some distinct differences.

Walmart decided from the beginning to lock down their marketplace much more than Amazon does. While some now see Amazon as the wild west full of counterfeits and review farms, Walmart does not let just anyone sell on their marketplace. Walmart curates their products and vets each seller. This has helped them keep out the flood of counterfeits, but at the same time has kept many small merchants locked out of their ecosystem. This new partnership marks (ever so slightly) the opening up of the Walmart ecosystem. In the end Walmart must do this to fully compete with Amazon, but it is smart of them to do so cautiously and gain the reputation as the safer option at a time when buyers have begun to lose trust in purchases from Amazon. Competition is good, but a second Amazon that doesn't fix the issues of the first doesn't benefit you as a seller. Walmart still has a bit of the old school retail mindset which has held them back before, but as they begin to embrace the new ecommerce world further, they will continue to chip away at Amazon's lead.