Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS): how it works, fees and requirements
Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) is Walmart’s version of Amazon FBA: you send inventory to Walmart’s fulfillment centers, and when a customer orders on Walmart.com, Walmart picks, packs and ships it, and handles customer support and returns. Here’s how it works.
Who can use it
You must already be a Walmart Marketplace seller — see Walmart seller requirements. There’s no signup fee and no monthly subscription, and no minimum or maximum inventory. Walmart suggests starting with at least 50 items, ideally best-sellers, premium brands or items not yet on Walmart.com.
What it costs
WFS charges:
- a monthly storage fee based on item size and weight;
- a fulfillment fee per order based on item size and weight — packaging for shipping orders is included.
Add-on fees apply to apparel, hazardous materials, oversized items and low-priced items, and slow-moving inventory may cost more to store in peak season. Walmart says it doesn’t charge long-term storage fees for a year (other providers may start at six months). Use Walmart’s WFS fees page and Cost Estimator for your actual numbers, and the Walmart fee calculator for referral fees.
How to start
- In Seller Center’s WFS section, add your contact details, billing information and returns preferences.
- Add or convert items to Walmart-fulfilled listings — WFS needs a few extra details to store and ship them.
- Create a shipping plan. Walmart tells you which fulfillment centers to send inventory to. The Inventory Transfer Service and Walmart Preferred Carrier Program can save money.
- Track receiving in Seller Center. Receiving usually takes 2 business days after arrival, but up to 10 for items needing unplanned prep or during peak months (October 1 – December 31) and sales events.
Item requirements
- Up to 500 lb and 120″ × 105″ × 93″, including packaging.
- No regulated or perishable items needing temperature control.
- Shipped from within the US, or cleared through customs first.
- Allowed under the WFS Prohibited Products and Marketplace Prohibited Products policies.
Walmart doesn’t recommend WFS for slow-moving, out-of-season or customizable items, or very saturated categories.
What you get
- A Fulfilled by Walmart tag and 2-day shipping tags, which Walmart says help items rank in search; Walmart+ members also see Free shipping.
- Most performance metrics are met for you — except Negative Feedback Rate (see Walmart Seller Performance Standards).
- Returns by mail or in Walmart stores, handled by Walmart. Your Keep It rules are honored where possible.
WFS returns and their cost
- Customers have 90 days to start most returns (some items, like most wireless phones and major appliances, have less), by mail or in a Walmart store, and pay no return shipping.
- Walmart pays for returns that are Walmart’s fault — damaged in shipment, late, lost, wrong item — and keeps that inventory.
- You pay a return processing fee for all other returns (see Walmart’s WFS fees).
- Sellable returns go back into your inventory with no restocking fee; unsellable ones are sent back to you or disposed of, based on the return rules you set (restock, return to me, dispose).
An item can’t be Walmart-fulfilled and seller-fulfilled at the same time — when WFS stock runs out and you have stock in your own warehouse, fulfillment switches back to you.