If you want to start selling products to Walmart or want to sell more of products to Walmart, you must go through a Walmart Buyer. No matter how your journey as a seller to Walmart begins, it continues and, potentially, ends with your Buyer.
The Buyer is your key point of contact and the person who will make every meaningful decision with respect to your items and brands. This is more true at Walmart than at nearly any other retailer – the Buyer has enormous autonomy to make multi-million dollar decisions on a daily basis. To establish and strengthen a successful selling partnership with Walmart, you need to understand the Buyer, their motivations, their frustrations, and how they get sh*t done.
I worked at Walmart for ten years, eight as a Buyer. During my tenure as a Buyer, I bought contact lenses for the Vision Center and computers, monitors, and printers for Sam’s Club. I purchased paper goods and chemicals for the Grocery division where I was twice awarded Buyer of The Year. I also spent two years with Walmart included working in Marketing helping create category marketing plans for the Consumables Division, particularly the Beauty and Pets categories. I’ve worked extensively in retail and category marketing here in the US and abroad and am now at Kantar helping clients unravel the mysteries of Supercenter, Mass, and Club retailers.
