What changed
Walmart U.S. marketplace net sales up more than 50%; nearly 50% of marketplace business through Walmart Fulfillment Services; Walmart Connect ad revenue up 43% excluding VIZIO; Walmart U.S. eCommerce up 24%
When
Quarter ended July 31, 2026, reported August 20, 2026; the prior quarter to April 30, 2026 also grew close to 50% per Marketplace Pulse
Who it affects
Roughly 200,000 active Walmart marketplace sellers (Marketplace Pulse estimate, June 2026); brands already on Amazon weighing a second channel
What to do
Pull your Walmart share of total marketplace sales, set a 2027 target, and move the top 20 SKUs into WFS before the holiday cutoffs

Key takeaways

  • Walmart marketplace net sales grew more than 50% in the quarter to July 31, 2026, the second quarter in a row near that pace, and nearly 50% of the business now moves through Walmart Fulfillment Services.
  • Growth is pulling in new sellers fast: Marketplace Pulse estimates about 200,000 active sellers, and 41% of 2024 joiners were China based, so the easy share for early U.S. brands is closing.
  • Measure your Walmart growth against the channel's, not against last year's absolute number, and move your top 20 SKUs into WFS before the holiday cutoffs.

Walmart Q2 FY27 growth rates, year over year

  • Marketplace net sales (U.S.)50%
  • Walmart Connect ads (ex VIZIO)43%
  • Global advertising38%
  • Walmart U.S. eCommerce24%
  • Global eCommerce23%
  • Walmart U.S. comp sales2.6%
Source: Walmart Q2 FY27 earnings release, August 20, 2026

What Walmart reported on August 20

Walmart's second quarter fiscal 2027 release, filed with the SEC on August 20, 2026, put Walmart U.S. net sales at $125.2 billion, up 3.5%, with comparable sales excluding fuel up 2.6%. The growth was online. Walmart U.S. eCommerce sales rose 24%, and the corporate release added a line most coverage skipped: store fulfilled delivery increased 40% in the quarter, "alongside more than 50% growth in marketplace net sales during the same period." Globally, eCommerce grew 23%, advertising grew 38%, and Walmart Connect in the U.S. grew 43% excluding VIZIO. Membership fee revenue rose 17% worldwide and Walmart said Walmart+ net additions set a record for a second quarter.

The fulfillment detail is the one for operators. Walmart said nearly 50% of the marketplace business flowed through its fulfillment services, which the company describes as an increase of nearly 400 basis points on the prior year. In plain terms, half of every marketplace dollar is now a Walmart Fulfillment Services order with Walmart's delivery promise attached. The release also noted the marketplace expanded into markets outside the U.S. during the quarter, which Marketplace Pulse identified as a cross border launch into Canada and Mexico. Walmart raised its full year guidance to 4% to 5% net sales growth and 7% to 8.5% adjusted operating income growth, and recorded nearly $2.9 billion of IEEPA tariff refunds in the quarter.

The second quarter in a row near 50%

Marketplace Pulse wrote on June 4, 2026 that Walmart's U.S. third party marketplace grew nearly 50% year over year in the quarter ended April 30, and that chief financial officer John David Rainey told analysts marketplace growth had reached its highest level in two and a half years. Marketplace Pulse estimates the marketplace at roughly $15 billion in gross merchandise volume, about 10% of Walmart's $150 billion U.S. eCommerce business, with an estimated 200,000 active sellers. Units shipped same day or next day through Walmart Fulfillment Services grew nearly 150% in that quarter, and Walmart says it can reach about 60% of U.S. households within 30 minutes. The business that lost more than $1 billion a year as recently as 2019 was profitable in every quarter of fiscal 2026.

Two consecutive quarters at or above 50% is a different signal from one good quarter against a soft comparison. The first quarter lapped a period when Walmart was already growing double digits, and the second kept the pace while the advertising business, which depends on the same marketplace sellers, grew 43%. The Walmart marketplace seller news roundup for October covers the policy changes that came with the growth; this post is about the money.

How Walmart's marketplace got here

  1. Walmart U.S. eCommerce losing more than $1 billion a year (Marketplace Pulse)

  2. Marketplace opens to international sellers; Chinese sellers under 1% of base

  3. Marketplace Pulse: 41% of 2024 new sellers China based, 28% of active sellers, about 160,000 sellers

  4. Q1 FY27: marketplace growth near 50%, fastest in two and a half years (CFO via Marketplace Pulse)

  5. Q2 FY27: marketplace net sales up more than 50%, nearly 50% through WFS, Walmart Connect up 43%

Who the growth is going to

Fast marketplace growth does not mean every seller grows. Walmart does not publish seller counts or origin, so the best public data is Marketplace Pulse's. In February 2025 it reported that 41% of new sellers joining Walmart in 2024 were based in China, up from 16% in 2023, and that Chinese sellers had reached 28% of all active sellers, from less than 1% at the start of 2021 and 20% at the end of 2023. Modern Retail reported the same month that the number of China based sellers had grown from fewer than 25,000 to about 50,000 in a year, out of a seller base Marketplace Pulse then put at about 160,000. By June 2026 that base was an estimated 200,000. The pattern Amazon went through between 2017 and 2021, where new seller additions tilted toward China first and the active base followed, is now running on Walmart.

For a U.S. brand that is not a problem on its own. It means the easy share on Walmart, the share that came from simply being listed when few others were, is closing. Walmart's own push toward fulfillment services and the Walmart+ delivery badge rewards sellers who put inventory in its network, and our Walmart versus Amazon comparison covers the fee and traffic differences in detail.

So what: the plain math on channel share

Put the two platforms side by side, with the caveat that the metrics differ. Walmart reports marketplace net sales, which behaves like gross merchandise volume. Amazon reports third party seller services revenue, the fees it collects, which grew 9% to $46.5 billion in the third quarter of 2026, or 10% excluding currency, while its own online store sales grew 2%. Those are not the same measure, but a channel growing at 50% against a channel growing near 10% changes where the next dollar of sales is cheapest to win.

Here is an illustrative example. A brand does $2 million a year on Amazon and $120,000 on Walmart, so Walmart is 6% of marketplace sales. If Walmart's marketplace keeps growing anywhere near 50% and the brand only keeps pace with Amazon at 10%, a year from now Amazon is $2.2 million and Walmart is $132,000: the brand grew 10% on Walmart while the channel grew 50%, which means it lost roughly a quarter of its relative share on Walmart. Matching the channel would mean $180,000 on Walmart, an extra $48,000 of sales. At a 25% contribution margin after Walmart's referral fee, WFS fees and ads, that is $12,000 of contribution the brand either earns or hands to a newer seller. The cost of the attempt is mostly inventory in WFS and a Walmart Connect budget; our Walmart advertising guide covers what a starting budget looks like.

What sellers should do

Six steps, each with an owner and the metric that shows it worked.

  • Finance owner: calculate Walmart as a share of your total marketplace sales for the last two quarters and set a 2027 target; if the channel grew 50% and you grew under 15%, the target should be at least share hold. Metric: Walmart share of marketplace sales, reviewed monthly.
  • Operations owner: send your top 20 Amazon SKUs by units into Walmart Fulfillment Services before the holiday inbound cutoffs so they carry the Walmart+ badge and two day delivery. Metric: share of Walmart units fulfilled by WFS, target above the marketplace average of about 50%.
  • Catalog owner: match each listing to the Amazon version on title, images and attributes, then fix the item quality score in Seller Center; a poorly scored item does not rank regardless of fulfillment. Metric: listing quality score above 80 on the top 20 items.
  • Ads manager: open Sponsored Products in Walmart Connect on the WFS items first, with a budget capped at 10% to 15% of expected Walmart sales, and build out from the search terms that convert. Metric: Walmart ROAS versus Amazon ROAS on the same SKUs after 30 days.
  • Pricing owner: watch for Buy Box losses to resellers and new China based offers on your own items, and set a repricing floor based on Walmart fees, not Amazon fees. Metric: Buy Box win rate on your brand's items in Seller Center.
  • Leadership: put the Walmart review in the same monthly meeting as the Amazon review and compare growth rates, not absolute sales. Metric: quarter over quarter growth on Walmart against the marketplace's reported growth.

Walmart share check for 2027 planning

  • Walmart share of marketplace sales, last two quarters
  • 2027 target set against channel growth, not last year
  • Top 20 SKUs inbound to WFS before holiday cutoffs
  • Listing quality score above 80 on those items
  • Sponsored Products live on WFS items, ROAS compared at 30 days
  • Buy Box win rate and repricing floor set on Walmart fees

When this does not apply

If your products are restricted on Walmart, such as some supplement, medical or hazardous categories, or if your brand's margin cannot carry a second channel's inventory and ad cost, the right move is to hold on Amazon and revisit after the holiday. Brands whose Walmart sales already grow faster than the marketplace need no change in plan. And the China seller data stops in early 2025 for the detailed mix, so treat the current share as a trend you can see rather than a figure you can quote; Walmart publishes none of it.

Where PPC Spider helps

PPC Spider runs Walmart Marketplace alongside Amazon for brands that want one team on both channels. SpiderOS tracks share by channel, flags Buy Box losses and sets Walmart Connect targets from each item's margin after Walmart fees, so the growth check above runs every month without a spreadsheet. If you want a baseline on how your Walmart and Amazon numbers compare, book a free audit or read about Walmart marketplace management. More stories are on our Walmart seller news channel.

Sources

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