In this article, learn about:
What is OPD at Walmart?
OPD developments and suppliers
How to optimize items for omnichannel shopping
Walmart views omnichannel advancements as an important area of growth as they try to stay competitive with Amazon. A major point of emphasis for the major retailer is to expand their .com presence and make the shopping experience as seamless and customer-oriented as possible.
Walmart’s commitment to everyday low costs and everyday low prices also keeps them focused on making shopping an accessible and pain-free process. The Online, Pickup, and Delivery (OPD) initiative is another extension of this foundational principle.
Related Reading: What is Every Day Low Price?
What is OPD at Walmart?
In June of 2020, Walmart replaced their Grocery Pickup program with Online, Pickup, and Delivery (OPD). This change allowed for greater shopping flexibility via an expansion of the Walmart app’s functionality.
With Grocery Pickup, shoppers could order through the app and pickup their orders in the parking lot. This was a very successful program that revolutionized Walmart shopping, helping shoppers save time.
The shift to OPD was designed to help shoppers expand their thinking about Grocery Pickup to include all kinds of items, not just groceries. It also helped shoppers avoid store contact entirely through delivery, while also providing shoppers with more information about individual store’s product availability.
This change also impacted the Walmart app development, making the shopping experience more holistic and simpler for shoppers.
OPD Developments and Suppliers
For suppliers, greater visibility into item availability and descriptions for Walmart’s customers means more sales opportunities. Now, anything that can be bought in a Walmart store can be purchased online and, ideally, delivered to customers’ doorsteps.
Along with this benefit comes more up-front work for suppliers in the item setup process. Now items are competing with other category items not just in terms of shelf space but also for searchability within the online and app platforms that Walmart shoppers use.
Competitive items will have rich data and thorough item descriptions to make finding what customers are looking for in-app as pain-free as possible.
How to Optimize Items for Omnichannel Shopping
It’s important to think of item setup as more than just a to-do to make selling items in Walmart possible. Rather, it is an opportunity to compete across your category and stand out to shoppers in-store and online.
Generally speaking, the more information is available to the shopper, the more likely they are to find what they’re looking for, to trust that what they’ve found in their search is what they’re looking for, and to make a purchase.
Related Reading: Omnichannel and the Walmart Supplier
It’s important for suppliers to keep these three things in mind for item optimization:
Accurate item info: Making sure that items are set up to accurately reflect customer expectations will be helpful in avoiding returns and meeting customers where they are. Utilize as many keywords as the character limits in item setup will allow.
Rich media: building out solid rich media for an item could include a quality image carousel, hero imagery, 360-degree spins, videos, scale shots, AR + 3D-renderings.
Proactive item management: to take current, in-store-only items to an omnichannel level, update item information in Supplier One. Go to the Items & Inventory tab in Supplier One to update information and add rich media.
Related Reading: Walmart Item Setup Cheat Sheet
Track Item Success through Omnichannel Performance Metrics
Including lots of rich media will help to increase item performance generally, but tracking this data across all of the channels is key for knowing where to expand, what performs well in which channel, and how to view item success in Walmart.
Walmart’s Scintilla, especially the paid Charter version, will help give suppliers insight into these performance channels for sales.
Failure to setup items in an optimal way will result in lost sales opportunities, and it could also actively cut into revenue in the form of deductions and fines. It’s important to have congruence across your organization, with your EDI provider, and with your trading partners for item data and the most up-to-date rich media.
Related Reading: How to Pull Reports in Scintilla
Content Quality Score in Supplier One
Another helpful way to know if your Walmart item content is up to Walmart’s standards is through Supplier One.
There will be an overall content quality score for all items being sold in Walmart on the main Home page for Supplier One, but there is more detailed information for individual items in the Catalog tab (Supplier One > Items and Inventory > Catalog).
It’s important to remember that individual item scores are an indication of what Walmart is looking for with item data. This is helpful for avoiding fines that come with poor item data. But it’s important to remember that extra details like rich media will be something that helps an item to go above and beyond when it comes to reaching online shoppers.
Item Setup for Omnichannel Success
Good item data at the item setup level will help suppliers improve their performance with Walmart, but it will also help suppliers avoid unnecessary revenue loss. One error at the item setup level can have disastrous consequences for suppliers’ bottom line.
Suppliers can improve their bottom line from both a revenue loss and sales perspective by getting it all right from square one.
Recover Your Revenue with SupplyPike
When retailer fines and deductions start eating into your profits, SupplyPike is here to help. Our platform streamlines the recovery process, helping you identify and reclaim lost revenue so you can refocus on growing your business.
Stay Informed with SupplierWiki
Did you find this resource helpful? SupplierWiki offers free educational resources tailored for retail suppliers like you. Explore our eBooks, cheat sheets, webinars, and articles to learn how to combat revenue loss at major retailers like Walmart, Amazon, CVS, Target, Kroger, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and many more. Sign up for our newsletter today!