What is Walmart Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a staggering $13.8 billion industry. And with an ever-increasing number of brands actively spending thousands of dollars on collaborating with influencers, the global influencer marketing industry has been poised to grow at an exponential rate in the coming years.

The reason why so many brands are investing heavily in influencer marketing is simple – it works. 

For every dollar you invest in this strategy, you can expect an average return of $5.78 in earned media value (EMV).

And with influencer marketing gaining traction, eCommerce giants like Amazon are now allowing their third-party sellers to run strategic influencer marketing campaigns via their dedicated influencer marketing programs. 

For example, Amazon launched its dedicated influencer marketing program in 2017 – which has been a complete game-changer for third-party sellers on Amazon. If you’d like to know more about Amazon’s dedicated influencer marketing program, don’t forget to read out “The Go-To Amazon Influencers Guide for Sellers” blog post.

At the same time, Walmart holds its position strong as one of the most popular eCommerce marketplaces today – with over 142,992 (today’s number) active sellers.

Here’s how the number of active sellers on Walmart has grown over time:

As you can see, the number of sellers on Walmart is growing at a lightning-fast pace. This will eventually result in fierce competition, especially for new sellers trying to establish their presence on the marketplace.

To help sellers strategically grow their business as well as their presence on Walmart, the eCommerce giant collaborated with influencer agency “Collective Bias” and content service provider “Rich Context” in 2018 for the purpose of adding influencer-generated photos, videos, and other assets to certain product pages.

No – Walmart doesn’t have a dedicated influencer marketing program for sellers like Amazon.

Instead, they want sellers to collaborate with influencers and add influencer-generated content to their product pages. These product listings can then be promoted by influencers on their social media handles, which will bring in traffic to their Walmart product listings. 

What Exactly is Walmart Content Integration?

In 2018, we witnessed Walmart adding influencer-generated content to the product listings. And since then, it has been their way of tapping into influencer marketing – as they are not yet allowing third-party sellers to run strategic influencer marketing campaigns on the platform just like Amazon does.

Instead, they want sellers to collaborate with relevant influencers in their niche and add influencer-generated content to their product listings. 

Not only will this collaboration benefit Walmart sellers but also Walmart themselves – as this collaboration between influencers and Walmart sellers will drive traffic to the Walmart eCommerce marketplace, helping them increase their brand awareness and improve their online presence.

At the same time, by adding influencer-generated content to product listings, Walmart is trying to make its website more immersive and much more appealing to GenZers and millennials. 

This content integration began in June 2018. And since then, numerous brands like Henkel, Mondelez, and Bigelow have created their dedicated Walmart product listings with influencer content all over them. Some notable influencers they have collaborated with include:

• Beauty Influencer – Atsuna Matsui (417k Followers)
• Lifestyle Influencer – Nicole Weisman (246k Followers)
• And many more!

One of the points that need to be taken into consideration here is that Walmart doesn’t allow the influencer content on the product listings to link out to the original source. 

This means – even if you add influencer-generated content to your product listings, your potential or already existing customers who head over to your product listings will face a hard time gaining insights into the authenticity and relevance of influencers.

Allowing third-party sellers to add influencer-generated content to their website will not only allow Walmart to attract young shoppers but it’ll also help them increase their perceived authenticity – despite their long-held reputation as a reliable and low-price retailer. 

Allow us to highlight some of the benefits of Walmart influencer marketing:

• Helps Walmart Sellers Tap into the Full Force of Influencer Marketing – As we mentioned above, the number of Walmart sellers is growing at an exponential pace – which has resulted in fierce competition. To help sellers establish a rock-solid presence on Walmart and grow their business, Walmart is allowing third-party sellers to tap into influencer marketing, helping them not only attract and engage with more prospects and customers but also grow their marketplace presence effectively.
• Boost Authenticity & Trustworthiness – These days, there are two things that consumers are actively looking for in a brand – authenticity, and trustworthiness. Consumers want to engage with brands they can trust and are authentic. When your target audience sees their favorite influencers promote your brand’s product(s), it’ll help you build trust and position yourself as authentic – as these influencers aren’t a part of your company, instead are people with massive social following promoting your brand’s products because they liked it. 

Increased Traffic & Revenue with Walmart influencers – When you collaborate with the right Walmart influencers, they’ll promote your Walmart product listings on their social media handles. These promotions will drive their followers/subscribers to your listings and since you’re selling on Walmart (a reliable retailer), the chances of them purchasing your products would be high.

Conclusion

The world of eCommerce is growing rapidly. And so is influencer marketing. With eCommerce giants like Amazon, Walmart, and others realizing the power of influencer marketing, they’re allowing and motivating their marketplace sellers to collaborate with the right influencers.

And if you are an active Walmart seller looking forward to collaborating with the right influencers and building top-quality content for your Walmart listings, look no further. 

At Stack Influence, we’ve helped dozens of Walmart influencers accumulate high-quality and conversion-focused influencer content that has helped them not only skyrocket their sales and revenue but also position themselves as trustworthy and authoritative.

And we’d love nothing more than to help you out.

So, what are you waiting for?

Connect with our experts today!

By William Gasner

CMO at Stack Influence