Dive Brief:
- Walmart has expanded its Marketplace to include the categories of premium beauty, secondhand items and collectibles, the retail giant announced Tuesday.
- Premium Beauty at Walmart highlights over 20 new brands in its initial assortment of skin care, hair care and hair tool products, and the retailer will promote them via custom storefronts and editorial content. Resold at Walmart will sell 5 million pre-owned items from over 1,700 merchants across categories like sporting goods, high-end fashion and electronics, according to a press release.
- The company has also introduced its Collector shop, where sellers can offer pre-orders for upcoming collectible releases, including those exclusive to Walmart. The retailer is offering 0% commission fees to eligible sellers until Oct. 31 for items like dolls, action figures, trading cards, sports memorabilia, comic books, records and musical instruments, per the announcement.
Dive Insight:
The rollout of Walmart’s new categories follows efforts to accelerate its online Marketplace, which has seen over 30% sales growth in each of the past four quarters, according to the company.
The expansion announcements took place at this year’s Marketplace Seller Summit. The big-box store held its first summit dedicated to Walmart Marketplace last year.
Walmart is developing its pre-owned options as the secondhand goods market is predicted to grow. A ThredUp report released earlier this year projected that the U.S. secondhand apparel market would reach $73 billion by 2028, growing 11% annually on average. Meanwhile, eBay’s 2024 Recommerce report found that 86% of consumers worldwide had purchased a pre-owned item in the previous 12 months.
“We’re executing strategic priorities at Walmart that are helping us to become the customers’ first choice – every day, every season, for every item. Walmart Marketplace is a key component of that mission,” Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer at Walmart U.S., said in a statement. “Walmart continues to advance its digital and fulfillment capabilities, including the new categories and features we announced today, that enhance the overall customer and seller experience on Walmart.com.”
Still, Walmart faces stiff competition from reigning incumbents like eBay, which is also catering to collectibles shoppers. Last December, eBay announced its partnership with COMC, a sports trading card company, to let eBay shoppers access COMC’s digital inventory capabilities. In 2022, eBay announced it would acquire collectibles tech platform TCGplayer as a way to further its focus on the collectibles market.
Walmart’s entry into the premium beauty market via its Marketplace comes as consumers continue to pay for cosmetics despite the lingering impact of inflation. An Adobe Analytics report found that consumers spent $16.3 billion on cosmetics online in the first five months of this year, an 8.8% jump from the previous year.
