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Diving certificate:
- Walmart has expanded its Marketplace to include premium beauty, secondhand items and collectibles categories, The retail giant announced on Tuesday.
- Premium Beauty at Walmart will offer over 20 new brands in its initial assortment of skin care, hair care and hair care products, and the retailer will promote them through custom storefronts and editorial content. According to a press release, Resold at Walmart will sell 5 million pre-owned items from over 1,700 retailers across categories such as sporting goods, high-end fashion and electronics.
- The company also launched its Collector Shop, where sellers can offer pre-orders for upcoming collectibles, including those exclusive to Walmart. The retailer is offering eligible sellers 0% commission on items such as dolls, action figures, trading cards, sports memorabilia, comic books, records and musical instruments through Oct. 31, the announcement said.
Diving insight:
The launch of the new categories at Walmart follows efforts to accelerate its online marketplace, which the company said has seen sales growth of over 30 percent in each of the past four quarters.
The expansion announcements were made at this year’s Marketplace Seller Summit. The wholesaler held its first summit dedicated to the Walmart Marketplace last year.
Walmart is developing its used goods offering as the used goods market is forecast to grow. A ThredUp report published earlier this year predicted that the US market for secondhand clothing would reach $73 billion by 2028which are growing on average by 11% per year. Meanwhile, eBay’s 2024 Recommerce Report found that 86% of consumers worldwide had purchased a used item in the last 12 months.
“At Walmart, we are executing on strategic priorities that will help us become customers’ first choice – every day, every season, for every item. Walmart Marketplace is a key part of that mission,” said Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer at Walmart US, in a statement. “Walmart continues to evolve its digital and fulfillment capabilities, including the new categories and features we announced today that will enhance the overall customer and seller experience on Walmart.com.”
Nevertheless, Walmart faces strong competition from established large corporations such as eBay, which also sell collectibles. Last December, eBay sold announced its partnership with COMCa sports trading card company to give eBay buyers access to COMC’s digital inventory features. In 2022, eBay announced it would acquire collectible technology platform TCGplayer to further increase its focus on the collectibles market.
Walmart’s entry into the premium beauty market through its Marketplace comes as consumers continue to pay for cosmetics despite the ongoing impact of inflation. A report from Adobe Analytics found that consumers spent $16.3 billion online on cosmetics in the first five months of this year, an increase of 8.8% over the previous year.
