Scale to Walmart and Target from Amazon

Expanding into Walmart and Target is essential for building resilience, unlocking growth, and future-proofing your brand.

Amazon’s traffic, reach and logistics machine make it the go-to launchpad―and online homebase―for many ecommerce sellers. That’s why some think that the thought of selling on Walmart is an unnecessary strategy.

Marketplace dynamics evolve all the time, however, and relying solely on Amazon is a risk. That’s why multichannel ecommerce expansion into Walmart and Target is no longer optional.

Why Expand to Walmart and Target?

The simple answer? You’ll reach distinct demographics and buyer behaviors:

Target shoppers expect more curated, premium assortments.
Walmart appeals toward value seekers.

Now, let’s do deep and see why Amazon sellers should scale to Walmart and Target.

Diversify Risk

The old saying is true: never put your eggs in a single basket. Amazon regularly changes its compliance policies, search algorithm, and fees. If you miss one update you could risk fines or even account suspensions, which can impact your sales.

Branching into Walmart and Target allows you to spread the risk across multiple channels. If one platform faces headwinds, you still have revenue streams elsewhere.

Untapped Demand

Walmart is growing at a blistering pace. In just five months of 2025, 44,000 new sellers joined the marketplace—almost matching its 2024 additions. That signals significant demand and growth for the Walmart Marketplace.

On a similar note Target is moving aggressively to expand Target Plus to become more competitive in third-party listings.

Cross-Channel Growth

Taking a hybrid approach is among the most effective marketplace strategies. A multichannel approach lets you sync tactics like advertising, fulfillment, and promotions.

For example, if a product is doing well on Amazon, you can roll out similar promotions―or paid visibility campaigns―on Walmart and Target to accelerate momentum.

Operations and Fulfillment

Recent updates to Amazon MCF make multichannel execution easier. Now, sellers can use Amazon’s fulfillment network to pick, pack, and ship Walmart orders. Thus, you can consolidate fulfillment to reduce costs, improve order speed, and better inventory turnover rates.

Resilience and Margin Growth

Starting early will give you a head start in positioning and visibility.

Walmart, in particular, is rebranding itself as more than a discount chain—launching campaigns like “Walmart, Who Knew?” to emphasize expanded offerings and better shopping experience.

Target is also doubling down on same-day delivery and new membership perks to position itself as a premium yet convenient alternative.

Having a presence on both allows you to test which segments and pricing strategies yield better margins. Plus the combined reach broadens your total addressable market.

Multichannel Expansion Challenges

Expansion is no simple feat, and many successful sellers consider going beyond Amazon an overwhelming strategy. Granted, expanding to Walmart and Target is not trivial, and the risks and pitfalls deserve attention:

Onboarding & Marketplace Vetting

Target marketplace remains invite-only and maintains stricter curation. Brands must often meet higher performance and quality thresholds. Ordoro Blog
Walmart marketplace requires compliance with schema, Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN), and retailer policies. Some categories have additional gating and performance metrics.

Channel Complexity & Listing Optimization

You cannot simply take your Amazon listings and copy them to Target and Walmart. Titles, attributes, image rules, and keyword optimizations differ per platform. Take the time to adapt your listings to prevent channel conflict.

Inventory and Stock

Stockouts and overselling can become a real hazard when selling across multiple channels.

Coordinate your inventory management tools to sync quantities in real time. Improper synchronization could lead to negative feedback, canceled orders, or listing suspensions.

Fulfillment Complexity

Fees, return policies, regional network coverage, SLAs, and packaging rules differ across channels. For instance, Walmart requires unbranded packaging when fulfillment is handled by Amazon MCF, and you must block Amazon Logistics as a carrier.

Your logistics strategy must handle these variations.

Cost and Margin Pressures

New channels mean new costs and expenses. You’ll need to benchmark margins carefully per channel to ensure expansion doesn’t dilute your budget.

Moreover, Amazon’s MCF fees have increased over time, and platform surcharge policies (especially in peak season) may affect your cost modeling.

Branding and Experience

Do not lose sight of consistency. Expansion could lead to fragmenting your brand voice, rating performance, and customer experience. As a consequence, you’ll increase the risk of negative feedback on one channel.

Strategies & Best Practices

Here’s how you can build a your target and walmart expansion plan:

Controlled full-catalog rollout

Don’t treat Walmart nor Target as test channels with just a few SKUs. It’s better to port 80–90% of your catalog at once so the algorithm has enough breadth to surface your products.

Segment your catalog (top sellers, seasonal, long-tail) and launch them in phases, while monitoring performance.

SKU selection & margins

Launch your highest grossing or lowest cost-of-goods items first—those that can absorb new fees and still make a profit. Use your Amazon data as a blueprint, but also research platform-specific demands.

Amazon MCF integration

Integrate Amazon MCF with FBA to simplify logistics for Walmart orders. This dramatically lowers operational overhead by aligning inventory, order routing, and shipping from a single pool.

As we said above, configure settings correctly (block Amazon Logistics, enforce unbranded packaging, ensure compliance) when routing Walmart and Target orders.

Centralized order & inventory system

Invest in a high-quality multichannel platform that syncs inventory, routes orders, distributes across fulfillment, and manages errors or cancellations. This minimizes manual issues and scale friction.

Tailor listings per channel

Adapt titles, bullet points, images, and keywords to match Walmart or Target searches. Monitor conversion rates, buy box share, and search rank on each marketplace.

Targeted promotions & external traffic

Boost early traction on Walmart and Target via sponsored ads, off-channel traffic, and cross-sell campaigns. Use promotions o to entice initial customers and drive ranking.

Monitor performance, margin, and feedback

Track channel-level KPIs, such as GMV, return rate, ad efficiency (ACOS), stockouts, and order defects.

Evaluate which channels deliver better LTV, then double down accordingly. Reallocate inventory or shelf space as needed.

Iterate and expand selectively

Once you validate performance, expand further SKUs, test new categories, or layer on premium and exclusive products per channel.

Logistics, Growth & Scale

By tapping into Amazon, Walmart, and Target simultaneously, you capture incremental share, diversify exposure, and can often outpace brands tied only to Amazon.

Growth potential

Walmart is predicted to continue its surge, as it already surpassed 200,000 active sellers. Growth in Walmart’s digital channel contributed more than 76% of its dollar growth in recent quarters.

Comparisons across Amazon, Walmart, and Target show Amazon still leads in scale and growth, but Walmart’s digital growth is one of the fastest among large retailers.

Target is pushing to scale its third-party business more cautiously but steadily. Its marketplace has less saturation and, because of higher curation, may offer more visibility per seller.

Logistics & scaling

Inventory allocation. Use dynamic strategies to buffer stock for high-velocity SKUs on all channels.
Split fulfillment networks. Use MCF for Walmart and Target, while continuing FBA for Amazon.
Warehouse footprint. Consider regional warehouses or 3PL companies to reduce transit times and costs.
Returns management. Decide whether returns from each channel funnel through Amazon, your warehouse network, or a third-party returns center.
Data analytics. Model profitability at channel, SKU, and campaign level to drive allocation.
Scalable operations team. Hiring or outsourcing order management, listing optimization, and customer support across channels.

Support the Transition

Transitioning from Amazon to a robust multichannel ecommerce model requires strategic planning, operational bandwidth, and channel expertise. This is where experienced Amazon consultants become an asset.

An agency can:

Assess your catalog and margins to prioritize SKUs for expansion.
Assist with marketplace onboarding, policy compliance, and channel vetting.
Build and refine listings unique to Walmart and Target.
Configure Amazon MCF integration for Walmart orders, ensuring unbranded packaging, carrier settings, and compliance
Help you choose and configure inventory management that sync across Amazon, Walmart, and Target
Design cross-channel promotional strategies, advertising budgets, and external traffic acquisition.
Monitor performance KPI dashboards and suggest tactical reallocations or course corrections.
Support scaling with operations, 3PL, returns flow, and quality control.

Programs like the Omnichannel Growth Accelerator are designed for sellers wanting to scale into multichannel ecommerce. Through structured guidance, sellers can transition more efficiently and mitigate many of the pitfalls of expansion.

Final Thoughts

Scaling to Walmart and Target is a growth imperative for Amazon sellers. Yes, there will be challenges in logistics, fulfillment, and channel complexity, but they are solvable with strategic operations, automation, and expert support.

With a disciplined, data-driven approach, scaling from Amazon to Walmart and Target can elevate your brand from a “one marketplace” play to an omnichannel powerhouse.

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