#111 - Selling on Walmart vs Amazon with Noah Mincis I The Corey Ganim Show

#111 - Selling on Walmart vs Amazon with Noah Mincis I The Corey Ganim Show Speaker 2: Welcome back to The Corey Ganim Show. So this week's episode, we have a first time guest on the show. His name is Noah Mincis. He's 26 years old. He started selling on Amazon around the same time that I did, so back in 2017. But what he's done, which I think is brilliant over the last four or five years or so, is he has branched off into selling on Walmart, and he's done a really good job in branding himself as a Walmart expert. So his YouTube channel, which is just his name, Noah Mincis, has I think over 30,000 subscribers, and the vast majority of his videos are focused on selling on Walmart. So you're going to want to go and follow him And subscribe to him on YouTube because this episode is going to be a Walmart masterclass. We're going to deep dive into what is required to sell on Walmart. How is it different from selling on Amazon? What works there? What doesn't work? And everything in between. So Noah, I appreciate your time. And I'm really looking forward to this episode. We haven't really done a Walmart deep dive episode yet. So you're the one to bring it to us. Speaker 1: Thank you, Corey. Happy to be here. Speaker 2: Yeah, man. Well, happy to have you. So let's start off with your intro. So in the intro that I gave for you, I understand you started selling on Amazon in 2017, which is around where I started. But do you mind filling in the gaps for us and just letting us know kind of how you got your start? Speaker 1: Sure. So I guess the The elevator pitch version is I started selling on Amazon, I guess as everyone does, another way to make money. I got started in like the older private label wave, kind of with like Kevin David and those guys. And I watched a video of how to find a product in five minutes that can make you 10k a month. My very first product was this kid's nature kit. When I first started looking at the listing, there was like three listings, they were crushing. I think one of them was doing 18k a month, you know, in those numbers. I got my batch from China. It took three months. By the time it landed, there was like 50 plus listings. So I actually still have it in my garage. I ordered 300. I think I still have 180 of them. So if any viewers want that, they can hit me up. Speaker 2: Kids Nature Kit. Well, did they just not sell or you just didn't send them in? Speaker 1: I did send them in, but the storage, it was just really hard. It was like the cost per click was like, you know, six X. It was just so expensive. And I was like a broke college kid. It was just, It's hard to go ahead and sell them. So I just decided to liquidate them and sell them on eBay or do them merchant fulfilled. But it's kind of like a blessing in disguise. I think in total, I lost maybe like 3,800, but it also got me started with selling on Amazon. And that summer I came home and I worked for a family friend who they sell restaurant equipment to the tri-state area and they do the wholesale model. So I said, why don't we go ahead and sell your products on Amazon? They only sold on eBay. So I think like the first month they started doing 20K in revenue. The owner who's a family friend, he was like, he was enamored. He's like, whoa, you know, like then we started like getting on other marketplaces and they were just, they were, You know, they had established brands that they were already dealers for. So it was really easy. So then I had a friend who, long story short, his father owned a funeral cremation urn company, and they sold to a larger company. So my friend out of college, he became a representative for that funeral urn company within the tri-state area. So I said, why don't we go ahead and sell online? So we sold online on eBay, Amazon, on Walmart, Target, other marketplaces. And then we sold our company in 2020 to one of our companies that we were distributors for. And yeah, that's kind of where I pivoted more towards just my own stuff selling on Walmart. And here we are today. Speaker 2: So, and that's a really cool story. So just so I understand correctly, you're saying the, so the funeral urn company that you're, it sounds like your friend's dad started, your friend's dad sold it to a bigger company. Your friend went and worked for them basically as a sales rep. And then what you partnered with your friend to, start kind of like a side venture where you're reselling. Speaker 1: We were selling the exact same items. So he was only in person and the company had no online retailer clause. They just didn't, no one asked them cause it's just a very niche industry. So I pitched to him, I said, Hey, like this will come all through you. So he got a commission on the sale and, and we also split a profit. And I said, no one else has access to these. Why don't I go ahead and sell them online? So we just started listing them. The funeral niche on Amazon was very small. Now it's like filled with Chinese sellers selling like small, small cremation products, small, you know, trinkets, stuff like that. But back then there was like less than a hundred listings. Speaker 2: Wow. Speaker 1: Yeah. So we just went ahead and it was slow. You know, we were doing like maybe a million in revenue, but the margins were really high cause this stuff comes straight from India, straight from China and maybe landed costs on like an adult earn. is maybe $17 and then you can sell them like for 60, 70, 80 plus. Speaker 2: Wow. And so you, you and your friends sold this essentially the private label. So I guess, how did that work? Again, if I'm understanding this correctly. So if there, if he's a rep for a bigger company and then you said you guys sold your venture or that company sold. Speaker 1: I fast forwarded like four years, but we, we essentially started off with his company. Um, and then we became dealers for like 30 other companies. And one of our biggest, uh, biggest, Uh, suppliers was in Texas. Uh, and then during COVID that was like, it was a blessing and a curse. Obviously it's, you know, it's, it's terrible what happened, but it was also, um, just really good for business. So during that year, uh, one of our suppliers in Texas, he kind of had like this idea that he wanted to get into the retail distribution, but he didn't want to go ahead and like start off with Amazon, Shopify, all this other stuff. So he just decided to buy into our business in order to kind of like, you know, he was, he was already like over 50% of our, of our business at the time. Speaker 2: Right. So if anything is probably smart that you guys sold to him, cause you're like, Hey, we're, we've got too much concentration with this one supplier. If he pulls the plug, cause that's also, I mean, he could use that as a negotiating tactic. It's like, Hey, either sell to me or I'm going to stop working with you. And then 50% of your business goes out the door. Did he, did he do that? Or was it more of like a friendly. Speaker 1: It was more of a friendly thing. We were really close. Whenever we went to trade shows, we'd always take him out, very close with. One of his former employees worked for us. We hired one of his people at that. He had to let go. We were really friendly. Again, we were doing a lot of business together at that time. Speaker 2: Interesting. That's a really cool partnership that ended with the sale of the company. Speaker 1: Yeah, it was perfect timing. A year later and it would not have been nearly as valuable. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. Perfect timing as well being right there during peak COVID. So that's a cool start. I didn't know any of that. And was this... To kind of wrap up this kind of story here, but was the whole company, was the whole business just in the funeral niche? Like you were basically a retailer of funeral type products, whether it's urns or cremation supplies. I don't even know what niches exist. Speaker 1: We had over like 10,000 SKUs and then each SKU has a variation. So for example, you have one supplier who makes, they make the base, right? Let's say the base is where you put the urns and the ashes in it. And then on top they have like figurines. So they have, you know, pet urns, We're all the craze and like just a few years ago, whatever. So like you could replace that with any animal and dogs have like several hundred breeds. I know that you're very close with your golden retriever. So like just so many different breeds. It was just an insane amount of SKUs, but not only for urns, you also have keepsakes, you also have medallions. We sold a lot of like flag cases, which again, it's not funeral related, but our suppliers carried it. Speaker 2: Okay, interesting. That's so cool. I love that because it just validates what I teach and what I always talk about, niches, right? I mean, people, if you went to somebody and said, Hey, you're going to build, you have to build a wholesale business, but it's going to be in the funeral niche. They probably look at you like you're crazy. And a lot of people would have a limiting belief and thinking, well, it's no way you can build a big business in that niche. But in reality, you guys did exactly that. 99% of people didn't even consider that as an option. Speaker 1: And we were small. I mean, my competitors are, there's businesses that are very big in the funeral urn space. It's just like, cause I know you also preach this, like you said, and like, I think you said like the water filtration system, like things that you don't think about, all these small niche businesses, you know, they're businesses that are just doing millions of dollars in revenue. Cause no one thinks about them. Speaker 2: Exactly. Yup. No, I love, I love that. I think it's a really cool starting story. Okay, so you had that experience. Again, that was kind of over the course of several years. But at what point along the way did you jump into Walmart? Was it after the sale of that business that you decided to explore Walmart? Speaker 1: So we opened up a Walmart account in 2019 for that business. At that point, there were like four listings on Walmart for earns. So at that point, it was also a different marketplace. So there wasn't any WFS. And for the viewers who aren't familiar, that's like Walmart's version of FBA. There was barely anything there and the platform was mostly just dropshippers in terms of third party. We didn't really do too much with it. And then after the sale of the business, now our product line is fully up there. Also, we represent several brands on there in the funeral side. But in terms of when I started getting into it, I opened up my own personal account as well in 2019 along with the other company account. Why not have it? And then I started selling a little bit. I also sell a lot of home decor on my own side. With a lot of with with the funeral urns, they make stuff out of tin, brass, Oak, all this wood, and they also make furniture. So one of my companies, they made funeral stuff, and then they also make like chandeliers and lighting. So after I sold my company, I have a non-compete, I can't sell any funeral stuff. I was like, well, do you mind if I sell the home decor? So they said no. So I started selling that on Walmart. Not too much, again, no real movement. And then in 2022, 2023, I started to get into OA, shout out Warner and Miles and started watching their stuff. And then you really see the demand because also people don't talk about this, but you know, there's still some massive dropshippers there, but I know people personally who are doing like 10 million a year, just doing dropshipping and they call it two step. It's where you order it from Amazon to you and then ship it to the customer. So like legitimately people in my own town who, you know, the, they were doing $10 million a year dropshipping and Walmart shut them off overnight. And because of that demand, or just, I guess the, the, the vacuum, like I was like, you know, let me try doing some OA and, you were really able to see it. And that's when the marketplace was smaller and without WFS. So now it's just, , I think that as a viable option for Amazon sellers or just anyone looking to sell anywhere else, it really is a strong contender. Speaker 2: And I agree. And we're, we're really seeing that trend. I feel like right now we're midway through 2025. I feel like sentiment towards Amazon is down and sentiment towards Walmart is up significantly. I personally know tons of people who are either transitioning to Walmart while keeping Amazon small and really focusing more on Walmart. And I also know people who have ditched Amazon altogether to sell on Walmart full time and everything in between. So I want this episode to be tactical and people really to, I guess, take away some things they can implement right away. Let's start there. As far as Walmart is concerned, what products are you making money selling? Is it anything and everything will sell? Is the marketplace better suited for specific types of products? Let's start there. What should people be selling on Walmart? Speaker 1: I definitely think it's not every product. Amazon has 10 times the traffic, whatever it is. The traffic and the buyer base and everything like that. So absolutely, I think anyone who tells you anything and everything sells on Walmart just hasn't sold anything and everything. Where I recommend every beginner start is walk into your local Walmart, see what's selling. So I never sold automotive, but if you walk into a local Walmart, a big thing that they sell and it's a massive category for them is tires. And if you look at their tires on their website, it's huge. I mean, there's so many best selling tires that sell hundreds, if not thousands of units a month. And yes, people are picking them up in store and that's another conversation. But the marketplace itself is not a direct mirror, but it does sort of correlate with what's sold in store. Going back to also the urns, right when I started, there was no urns. Walmart does not sell cremation urns. There was no category there. But over the course of years of like going ahead and listing our stuff and advertising and building up traffic, Walmart is also pushing for more SEO. They're also running like they have a specific program I'm the CEO of Walmart. I'm also the CEO of Q4 where you can advertise your stuff on Google. They're bringing more traffic to the marketplace and as more products are offered, they're getting unique customers, different customer shopping and the interest is going to be created. So I will say that there's generally more products that will sell better. So for example, grocery, automotive, toys. Toys is massive. During last year of Q4, Walmart said that 40% of all sales during Q4 were toys. So like you see like there are categories that are completely lopsided like that, but you know, it doesn't mean that there isn't a demand in any other category. Speaker 2: You can say the same for Amazon. Every category on Amazon is making a ton of sales, but there are some categories that tend to be more beginner-friendly than others on Amazon. I think it's a good point when you say, well, walk into your local Walmart and see what's on the shelves, and that should give you a good idea of where to start. For me, I'm just thinking back to the last time I went to a Walmart. You know, I always gravitate towards groceries or, I mean, toys is a big one, right? Like, you can't step foot in a Walmart between, you know, September and January and not see toys in every part of the store, right? And you make a good point about tires. Now, I don't think, tires probably aren't super feasible to actually sell online. Speaker 1: No, but it's trying to give you an idea of like... Speaker 2: But yeah, but the, no, but the, it's a good example, right? People have heard me talk about automotive on Amazon. I love that category on Amazon. It sounds like that could be a really good category for Walmart as well. Speaker 1: I talked to a seller who, he actually did sell tires. I was like, how did you ship it? He's like, I just slapped a label on that thing and sent it out. So people do do it, but for beginner friendly, like definitely like you said, grocery toys, those are the categories. Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, good. Okay, so again, I want to make this tactical for people. So for the folks listening, maybe if you haven't jumped into Walmart yet, those are sounds like the three suggested categories to start with on Walmart would be a grocery, automotive or toys. Is that fair to say Noah? Speaker 1: I transition automotive to include like tools or stuff like that. I've sold a lot of like filters, like water filters, air purifiers, those things fly. Speaker 2: Yep, so anything in kind of like the general and even then you could argue that breaks off like health and health and beauty health and vitamins Now I think about it. There's a lot of categories Yeah, really anything that you could like anything that you'd find around the house Yeah, or the garage or that you could consume it sounds like yeah, it would be fair fair candidates to start with okay cool, so We've got a starting point. We kind of know what products we're looking for and where to find them. Now, my next question, well, not necessarily where to find them. That's my next question, right? So next question is in regards to sourcing, because everybody listening to this is probably sold on Amazon at some point. And everyone knows about Amazon's requirements when it comes to authenticity and documentation and supply chain for the products that you sell in their marketplace. Now, obviously Walmart doesn't want you selling fake products. But how strict is their documentation requirements? Like could I go to some random wholesaler that is buying stuff at liquidation, buy from them and then turn around and sell on Walmart with no issues? Speaker 1: So the answer is yes and no. They're not going to be preemptive like Amazon, where they're going to require a large quantity for un-gates, nor like, you know, it's not as strict in terms of if you get a counterfeit or an IP or anything like that, it doesn't affect your whole account. For the first few, it's going to affect that one listing. So for example, during Q4 last year, or even in the early 2024, I was buying from 888 Lots and a lot of liquidation. Um, you know, not proud to admit it, but it was just easy picking. Speaker 2: I mean, if it's allowed, I think it's fine. Speaker 1: There wasn't any rule against it and the product was legitimate. It was, everything was up and up, but I did run into an issue where like, you know, thankfully we were having a ton of volume during Q4, but we just weren't able to keep up. And also we ran into an issue with USPS, not scanning our time. So it caused our seller fulfilled privileges to be suspended and they wanted a picture of our warehouse with the product as well as an invoice. So I gave them an invoice from 888 Lots. And they didn't accept it and I tried, you know, supplying it. I said like the products legitimate. I took a picture of the barcode. I said everything's whatever serial number as well. They didn't accept it. So I thankfully I'd actually bought the same product from Target and Amazon as well just to shore up some of that and they accepted those invoices. So I will say that they, you know, there are a lot of sellers who are selling liquidation right now on Walmart and they're crushing it. I know people who are doing like six figures a month with liquidation. Speaker 2: Wow. Speaker 1: Obviously Walmart hasn't gotten around to it, but in the future I do see them going the route of being stricter. And they're already showing signs of that. They're now requiring CPC documents for all toys, which are the child protective certifications. And they're requiring it from each seller. Now that's not set in stone. They might adjust that, but they're becoming very strict because Walmart's a massive company and now other companies are starting to see You know, similar to Amazon, a lot of sellers are guiding onto this. So you're having more law firms. I just got my first Voorhees letter. Speaker 2: Oh, wow. For a Walmart product? Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: First of many, I'm sure. Speaker 1: First, probably. But, you know, we're starting to see that more brands are coming to Walmart and they're having them like say, we want to make sure we vet sellers. There is the big thing with Funko. Funko kicked off all sellers and they slowly let them back on, but you had to like reopen the case to get that back on. So we are starting to see that across the board. I will say right now, it's definitely more lax, but Obviously same with, if you're going to come here to the platform, I think it's better to just come with the same standards as Amazon, right? You might not have to have an LOA or to go that route, but make sure that you're obviously buying from authorized or at least legitimate suppliers. Speaker 2: Right. And I feel like that's just good practice in general, because just because you can get away with something today on Walmart, one, doesn't mean that you should. And two, doesn't mean that you're still going to be able to get away with that two weeks from now or two months from now or two years from now. So it sounds like Amazon best practices apply in the sense that if you're going to source inventory for Walmart, maybe the risk isn't as high as far as like getting suspended, getting your seller account suspended. But there are still risks and well, hey, maybe you can buy from liquidation and sell on Walmart and be fine, but first they're gonna take you down at the ASIN level or whatever Walmart's, WASIN, right? Whatever their equivalent is. And then eventually if you get too many dings, it sounds like that could affect your seller account, is that right? Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, people are gonna do what they're gonna do. I like to put that precaution out there that people are just aware. Speaker 2: Yeah, as you should, as you should. So for you and your business, right, obviously you're not gonna name names, What sort of suppliers are you buying from? Are you buying from distributors? Are you buying directly from brands? I know you said you have a few deals with brands. What's kind of your sourcing situation look like and what are your best practices? Speaker 1: So actually I think May was the first month where OA overtook wholesale. And I primarily like focus on some of the largest retailers. So it's crazy just the arbitrage opportunities between Amazon and Walmart. So for example, I was selling a Sawyer bug spray. Amazon repeatedly will lower the price and you guys can go up free lead. They repeatedly lower the price down to like $14 or $13 and on Walmart that thing sells for like $35 for that exact same Sawyer product. So that's just one example. You know, there's also like Keurig machines, other coffee machines, vacuums, like all this stuff where Amazon will lower their price and Walmart again is just selling for the hot raise price or even more expensive. So a lot of arbitrage opportunities there. I also buy from Target, a lot of Walmart to Walmart also. I saw one of my biggest ones recently was like This, I don't know the name of the brand, but it was like this drill bit and Walmart was selling it for a hundred and then they discounted it to 40. So I was able to go ahead and buy 20 of them and now Walmart's out of stock. So little flips like that are, I just outsource them to my VA. They don't require any effort from me. Like I'm, I personally do not like OA for the, it just feels like you need to constantly be looking at new products. Speaker 2: It's a hamster wheel. Yeah. Speaker 1: But with Walmart, I don't think we're at that stage now where it's, it's not as much pressure or as competition in my mind. As Amazon, so I find a lot of those opportunities and I have like other suppliers that I do buy from, but mostly for wholesale and distributors. It's the, it's, I'm brand direct. So I work with a lot of brands. Speaker 2: Got it. Okay. So it sounds like most of your sourcing is brand direct, but I'm, I mean, I know some people and I'm sure, you know, some people as well who are doing every flavor of selling on Walmart, whether it's Online arbitrage from Walmart to Walmart or Target to Walmart or Amazon to Walmart or retail arbitrage, Walmart to Walmart, Target to Walmart, et cetera. From that all the way to whether it's brand direct, exclusive wholesale, brand direct, just regular wholesale with no exclusivity, buying from distributors, buying from liquidation. Sounds like pretty much anything goes and whereas Amazon these days, I mean, Every business model still works on Amazon, but obviously Amazon is pushing you to either be the brand or be authorized from the brand. And it sounds like Walmart is still not a free-for-all, but they're years behind that level of enforcement and that level of platform maturity, I guess is what I'm saying. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they will take a different look. First off, shout out to Tracy, who I believe is in your group. Speaker 2: Oh yeah, she's awesome. Speaker 1: I think she does wholesale, retail arbitrage, online arbitrage. She does it all. Um, but you know, with Walmart, you have a unique, um, opportunity. For example, I can't walk into an Amazon and source from Amazon to retail, resell on to Amazon. You can do a to a, but it's not the same as with Walmart. I can walk into my local Walmart. I can purchase a product from them. And, um, nine times out of 10, Walmart will accept that invoice for ungating and everything else. And even when I was at, uh, the prosper show and I talked to a Walmart rep, And I said, yeah, I buy from Walmart to resell it. She's like, whoa, that's pretty neat. Like they are very receptive to the idea. They've shown time and time again that they're willing to talk to sellers. If you're if you are any of the listeners are available in August. I highly recommend going to the Walmart Seller Summit, which is their own event. Unlike Accelerate, it's free. Unlike Accelerate, you can meet directly with heads of the WFS program, heads of the advertising. You can sit down with people. Last year, they got to meet the CEO. Jeff Bezos or whoever is in now is not going to meet with you. Speaker 2: Hell no, Andy Jassy wouldn't be in the same city as that conference, probably. No, but that is cool because it does seem like the Walmart, at least everybody that I've talked to, like yourself, like Tracy, like Emily Baker, crazy flipping mom, other people who are heavy in the Walmart space, every one of them has said the same thing. They're like, Walmart leadership seems to be taking the opposite approach to Amazon as far as engaging with sellers, as far as hearing feedback, as far as Actually listening and implementing what they're saying. So, you know, is this kind of for show for the first few years to get the platform up to speed? Maybe, I hope not. I think Walmart, I think their execs are a little smarter than that. I think that they see things the way that we as sellers see things about Amazon and that, well, hey, Amazon is predatory to their sellers. I mean, really, let's call it what it is. And it sounds like they're trying to take the opposite approach, which is cool. And I think once the volume gets there, it might take five to 10 years, might never happen. But if it does happen, I think they're going to have much better seller relations to then leverage, to then grow the marketplace even further after that. So it is cool as far as the way that leadership is treating us as sellers and just the whole ecosystem as a whole, right? Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: So that is an interesting point. Let's see. There was one other thing I was going to pull out from that as far as what to touch on. It's slipping my mind at the second. But one thing I did want to talk about before we, you know, we're going to go deeper into a lot of the Walmart tactics and I want to get even more specific on some of these things. But one thing I know that you've been working on is a software tool of some sort in the Walmart space. So what is the tool? What's it called? What does it do? Kind of just give me some details because I don't know much aside from what we were talking about in the DMs. Speaker 1: Sure. And it's funny. I got like 10 t-shirts for it, but this is the one day I don't wear them. Yeah. Speaker 2: Come on. You need to be wearing that, especially your own video. Speaker 1: Yeah. It's called Pricelink. It's just the word price and then L-I-N-K all together dot I-O. So the tool is kind of like Keepa and SmartScout for Walmart. We just started, so we're building a lot of cool tools. Um, essentially what we do is we are like keep up for Walmart where we are looking at listings and where. We're tracking all of the data points on that listing. So we're tracking price, stock, seller counts, review counts, badges and everything like that. And then we're compiling that over time. So we've been doing that since May. So we have about two months now worth of data and we do that about 10 million different products. And then we also have a database where you can filter through those 10 million products. So you can filter by the price, you can filter by the number of sellers and pretty soon you're going to be able to filter over time, you know, like average price in the last 30 days, 90 days, et cetera. So that's the first thing. We also have a wholesale scanner. So you can upload a file or a buy sheet and then we'll tell you your profitability as well as which listings are on Walmart. We have alerts. So kind of like Keepa alerts, you can set alerts on a Walmart listing. And then whenever you set that alert, we check that listing every hour. And we'll let you know if like the, you know, the seller count increased, seller's quantity decreased, there's so many use cases for that. And then all this is available also within a Chrome extension. So when you're on Walmart, it pops up, you can see the graphs kind of like Keepa, you know, you have a revenue calculator there. It's easier to show than it is to tell, but that's pretty much that. And we just released a storefront scanner. So now you can go to a Walmart sellers page and you can click to import all their items into a list and then sort through it and filter through. Speaker 2: That's awesome. And so again, you said that was Pricelink.io. Yes. What is the price point on that tool? Like how much does that cost? Speaker 1: Yeah. So as a seller, I obviously, you know, I know how I just went through all of my subscriptions. I'm like, what the hell is going on here? Cause you forget what you're paying for. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 1: So the price point is $30 a month. We are still in beta. So we have about 200 something users. And we also have a seven day free trial if any of the listeners want to try it. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah, that's, I mean, I think that's a $30 a month, I think is a good price point. I think for a Keepa type tool, right? I mean, Keepa is around, what, 20 a month, but then if you, if it has SmartScout capabilities, SmartScout-esque capabilities as well, like what you're saying, then I think 30 is, you know, you should be charging at least double that. I'm sure that price will go up too. So guys, if you're selling on Walmart and you want to take that for a spin, at the very least, go grab the trial, right, at Pricelink.io. So that sounds like a cool tool. What kind of inspired you to build that? Is it because of the lack of Keepa type tools available for Walmart right now? Because as far as I know, there's not really like a Keepa for Walmart. Or at least like a gold standard like a Keepa. Speaker 1: Yeah. So there isn't. I mean, if you go back to like, even Keepa, right? Camel, Camel, Camel was kind of more prominent. At least that was the first tool I heard of. Speaker 2: That's the first tool I ever used. I never, I was like, someone's like, oh, you need to use Keepa. I'm like, what the hell is Keepa? I'm using Camel, Camel, Camel. Speaker 1: Even just the name. Like I was like, Keepa is a winner. Speaker 2: But yeah. Speaker 1: I think going back to that, CamelCamelCamel came around and they just tracked the data, but they didn't track it over time. There's one called DataSpark, which started in around 2020. Back then, it was very easy to scrape Walmart. Not easy, but they were just doing it en masse. Then I guess over time, Walmart, their anti-scraper technologies We've got just change has gotten better. So DataSpark sold to three cults and three cults. They've been doing what they're doing with it for the past few years, but hasn't really launched a newer version. So during that time, you're kind of just flying blind. I mean, there wasn't even like a salary app. There wasn't even a calculator. So a couple of tools have popped up. I think Rahul who is also in your group has Sellify. So like I think a lot of sellers just get onto this and it doesn't start from a place of like, oh, I want to start a software. It starts from a place of you start selling on here and you're like, it's like, I need this tool. It's like you're a caveman. You know, you're back in the day of like, I'm like, I did an RA for Walmart and I'm like in there, I'm like, I feel like I'm bringing out the Pythagorean theorem of like, what's my profit? Speaker 2: It's like, there's no just like app that you can just scan and be like, all right, how much is this going to make me? Speaker 1: Exactly. So because of Sellify and stuff like that. So I saw that there was no Keepa. Keepa product finder is the backbone of my business. That tool should be, I would pay 2000 a month for it. Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of people would. Yeah. Speaker 1: And like just not having that. So that, that first we started with the finder. We actually should have started with the Chrome extension, but we, you know, that everything just kind of came out of necessity. So now we're listening to our users and someone's like, I want to start from Stalker. So we built that. And I have a team of three developers and like, you know, whatever our audience requests is what we're going to build. Keepa doesn't have a feature where you can save filters, right? But now we actually added an ability inside of our product vendor. You can save your filters. So you can go ahead and you can save simple features like that. We're no Keepa. I'm not trying to say that we're 100% better, but our goal is to build features that people request. Speaker 2: Well, yeah, of course. I mean, you want to get as close to a Keepa type product as you can, right? And I saw a tweet the other day. Somebody tweeted, they kind of did the math on the number of subscribers Keepa has at $20 a month and something like 300 or 400 million in ARR or something like that. And that's just from the retail users, right? That doesn't even count the developers who pay significantly more. And I don't remember who tweeted it, but people were commenting and were like, yeah, pretty sure Keepa is a billion dollar business. They're based in Germany, I think, right? They're not in the US. Speaker 1: Shout out to, I think it was Seiko who started that conversation, but yeah, I think you're right. Speaker 2: I think it was. Speaker 1: Yeah. We did a whole, um, I was talking with the buy box, um, who's like another discord community. And I was, we were, I always ask them this. So I think it's over a billion cause like, just think about how much SellerRant pays them. Um, I'm sure, I'm sure it's a lot. Speaker 2: SmartScout too. Like anybody who has to tap into Keepa to get that data is paying them tens of thousands per month. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: So yeah, that's I mean, Keep is a huge and it's apparently it's like, I think it's a small team of devs who live out in Germany and you know, kind of reclusive from what I've heard there. That's I mean, that's like a We've got a massive podcast episode just waiting. I don't even know if they speak English. I don't know their names. I don't know anything. I don't know who does know anything about them. I think they're pretty low key guys. Speaker 1: Scott would be the best bet to go ahead and connect with them, but they're so hard. They're very, like you said, reclusive. They're just very under the radar. Speaker 2: I feel like it's hard to be under the radar when you have a company worth a billion dollars, but maybe it is. I don't know. Maybe it is in Germany, I guess. Speaker 1: They've been around for like, what now, 10, 12 years? No, more. They started in 2012, so probably 13 or 15 years. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Long time. Okay, so that's cool. So the tool sounds like the tool is definitely going to fill in some of those gaps at the very least for you and your sourcing efforts, right? So can you kind of walk us through the sourcing process? Let's just put ourselves in the shoes of somebody who maybe they have ecom experience. Maybe they've been selling on Amazon and they're like, hey, I'm going to take Walmart for a spin. I would assume, correct me if I'm wrong, I would assume their best first step is to look at everything that they're selling on Amazon, everything that they have access to, and simply cross And we're gonna talk a little bit about what's available on Walmart. And then seeing of their Amazon inventory, what is even one profitable to sell on Walmart? And then from there, can you kind of determine what's actually going to sell? Like, would that kind of be your workflow? Speaker 1: Yeah. So the very first product that I would recommend someone sells is the product that you can't sell on Amazon anymore. So whether it's gonna be unprofitable or you're got gated in it, or the listing got taken down, I've heard so many stories. The very first thing that you should do is just list that on Walmart. It doesn't require any product research, doesn't require anything else. It'll teach you the listing process. And, you know, it might not sell like crazy, but it's just another avenue that you can move that product. So, you know, I'm in a group now where like a seller who, big seller on Amazon, I think he's a seven figure seller. He's just started listing stuff and he's like sending screenshots of like new things he's listing. It's, you know, I think number one, it's exciting just to get into a new marketplace. And then also, you're going to be getting back capital that you otherwise would not have gotten back. So start with your death pile, go ahead and list that. From there, if you're a wholesaler or, you know, even if you're arbitrage or RA, whatever it is, if you have a select few like product line or brands that you have access to that you know do well, check them out on Walmart. You can go ahead, see what brands, just like searching up the brands, see what their top sellers are. You can also use price link. If you have any lists of your buy sheet or anything, you could upload your products and we'll tell you if you're profitable, if you give us your costs. And we'll also show you if the UPC code is on Walmart. So there's a lot of different ways that you can go ahead and like start, you know, either with your death pile. And then I'd say I'd move on to what you're currently selling. Also with wholesale, I found that a lot of products that I can't sell on Amazon, because either it's not profitable, or it just doesn't move. You know, the products actually might move on Walmart, there's a different customer base, there's different competition. So a lot of products that you might not have even sold, You can go ahead and see like, you know, my supplier offers this, maybe I can go ahead and offer it. Now, here's where I'd like kind of diverge and say it then depends on whatever is your business goals. So some people stop there and they just use it to liquidate. Some people stop there and they just use it to potentially increase their POs with their suppliers to go ahead and lower their cost for Amazon products. A lot of people have different goals. My business was is that I want Walmart to not overtake, but I want it to be Like its own platform. So I have my VAs who solely work on there and Amazon. So like now I have specific sourcing processes for Walmart. And I would say that's kind of like the next step is where now you're specifically like finding suppliers. If you're doing wholesale, like you're going to find a supplier for Amazon and maybe their products don't do well there. Well, you know, vice versa, you can go ahead and check Walmart. So like that's kind of where you then start to build each platform's routines. Speaker 2: Well, and I like that. I like the idea of having a separate dedicated Walmart team, right? Even if that's just one or two VAs and then having the same thing for Amazon, right? Because they are different platforms. There's different nuances. We know some products work on one platform versus the other. And it just makes sense to have your people specialize in one versus the other. Now, obviously starting out, that's not going to make sense, but you've obviously built up the Amazon team first, mastered that, then moved over to Walmart, built that up and then put people in place for that. So I think for the folks listening, especially if they're bigger sellers, they might be tempted to just peel off one of their VAs or one of their team members and just stick them on Walmart full time. But sounds like you might even caution them like, hey, start slow. We're here to help you cross list a few products, get some sales coming in, learn the platform, learn the listing process, learn how to ship to WFS, and then slowly over time allocate more resources to the platform. Is that kind of what you would recommend? Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, you can come out guns blazing. I've seen it happen before, but it also, there's a lot of like, I mean, if you're starting out on, on Amazon, there's pitfalls that you're going to experience. Even if you are a newer seller of some, some that you will experience because you are an experienced seller. So there's a lot of people who they expected one thing from Walmart. And then it like subverts, you know, for one thing, I have a seven figure seller who, he crushes it. He knows more about Amazon than I ever could. And he's like, he's like, I sent my products into Walmart. He's like, but they didn't give me an FN SKU. I'm like, did you send them in? He's like, no. And like, he's holding onto them for a week. I was like, you don't need an FN SKU. You don't need an FN SKU. He's like, but they're going to commingle it. They're going to commingle it. I was like, Walmart doesn't commingle. So like, there's like a lot of things that are just different about the platforms, different processes, different fulfillment services. So, you know, I definitely think that you don't necessarily need to like train your whole self, but definitely a VA. It is easy to learn once you already have like experience with ecommerce. Speaker 2: Absolutely. No, and it's funny that it looks like the guy is clearly so good at Amazon, but it's like he wasted an entire week trying to figure out what like an FN-SKU for Walmart. Speaker 1: It's drilled in. It's like FN-SKU, FN-SKU. Speaker 2: Right. Well, I mean, it's the same. I mean, it makes sense, right? I mean, I'd probably act the same way. It's like if I'm going to send in my first Walmart shipment, I'm going to make sure that I get everything right because I have that PTSD of sending in a 51 pound box and getting dinged for it through FBA or forgetting to F and skew certain products and then they co-mingle them. I feel like the battle scars over the years, they're tough to let go of. Speaker 1: For sure. A lot of people are going to have PTSD, but also one thing is that Walmart actually doesn't have this, so they do have their own requirements. I can even send you an article if you want to put them under the video. They also have like a marketplace learn section. It's very easy to navigate, but a lot of the WFS restrictions are actually because of FedEx. So they don't have any current weight limit. They don't have any size limit. You are going to run into those limits first with FedEx. So like FedEx has their own restrictions on the biggest box that you can send out and everything else. It's also incredibly cheap. There's no placement fees. There's no, you know, you don't have to go ahead and and pay a low inventory store, all these fees, right? Like for WFS, it's basically excluding pallets. You just go ahead and you feel like I package up my boxes now. And then I tell, then I create the shipment. Like I don't need to go ahead and wait. Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and put it in my- Wait for it to tell you what to put in what box. Interesting. Okay, cool. So it sounds like a way easier, way more streamlined process. And probably my guess is Walmart is probably subsidizing the streamlining of that process, right? Because the reason Amazon's having us ship so many different shipments to so many different locations is because they want us to eat that cost of shipping to spread our inventory out. So it seems like what Walmart's doing to encourage sellers to come on the platform is like, We'll make shipping easy. You put everything in a box, you slap a label on it, you ship it to one place, super simple. But like I said, you know, five to 10 years from now, Will that still be the same? Maybe. Or Walmart might kind of take the Amazon playbook and say, well, hey, now we're going to have you start splitting shipments into two places and then five places. And then, you know, who knows from there, but it just, it does make sense as to why they're doing things the way they're doing them. Speaker 1: Yeah. And I, you know, it is a good point. Someone also said on Twitter that, um, like it's also something that you don't want to get locked into. Like don't expect to pay 22 cents forever. And a hundred percent 20, like I, I paid 19 cents a pound, um, on like 2000 units yesterday. And that's, that's crazy to me, but also. Walmart has different distributions. So right now they're the way that WFS works is you send it to their facility and FedEx is the one that fulfills WFS. So like they don't have their own, you know, their own FBA network and trucks and everything like that. So I'm sure they will, but also like Walmart has their own fulfillment stores. They have their own everything. So there's so many ways that this could intertwine and like, I'm thinking like massive picture. I'd hope that they connect the marketplace and also in store or just like something else. So who knows? Speaker 2: That's so true. That's a good point. That's something that even I tend to forget is the fact that Walmart has the retail footprint, the brick and mortar footprint, which obviously helps them in so many ways in their online business. And there's so many synergies there. So who knows how that will impact the marketplace down the road. So I think that's a good point, something to look out for. Now, one of the questions I have for you as we kind of wrap things up here in a few minutes is around brands and pitching brands and working with brands. You know, as well as I do today in 2025, if you call a brand and you tell them you want to sell their products on Amazon, the nicest response you will get is a no. The worst response you will get is a F you hang up the phone. Right? So, and again, I don't sell on Walmart. I have an account and a lot of my students sell on Walmart. And the feedback that I get from them is that a lot of times when they're calling brands, they're calling brands to sell on Amazon. But a lot of times the brands are saying, well, Hey, no Amazon, but have added on Walmart, right? And I've seen, I've had brand, like one of my students, Mary, she got an exclusive for Walmart. The brand said absolutely no Amazon, not even as an authorized seller, but they gave her the exclusive for Walmart. So what she's using is she's using that exclusive with this brand on Walmart. She wants to crush it for them on Walmart as a foot in the door to then become authorized on Amazon. So are you seeing a similar sentiment from brand owners when you call them? Are they kind of just say like letting, They're basically letting whoever wants it have Walmart. Are you seeing something similar as far as how easy it is? Speaker 1: Definitely. I think more brands are obviously getting aware to it. So before I even watched your channel, my whole spiel was like, I'm a small seller, right? I'm not going to go ahead and say, Hey, let me be the exclusive on Amazon. I thought in my mind, I'm like, I'll start out, Hey, can I sell your products on eBay? And then when I got approval for Amazon, Walmart in 2019, the purpose of Walmart in my wholesale business was, Hey, let's sell your products there. And like, I barely focus on it. I just list their products, get a few sales. And then I come back and say, like, look, we got some sales. Now can we sell on Amazon? And as the platform grew, that became kind of less and less the focus. But absolutely, there are brands that I'll go to, small brands. I work with a lighting brand outside of Pennsylvania. I said, hey, can I become a seller on Amazon? And he said, no. I was like, what about Walmart? He's like, Walmart. He's like, well, they don't want, they're not going to want to sell my products in Walmart. I'm like, then you have to walk him through. Speaker 2: He didn't even know it was a marketplace. Speaker 1: Yeah. You have to walk them through. And it's just like, no, you can actually sell your products online. And he's like, he's like, sure. He's like, I don't care. So like, you know, that became a really big leverage. And then once we started doing well with his products, then we became an authorized seller, not an exclusive, but an authorized seller on Amazon. More than five different brands that I work with, it's gotten my foot in the door and it's also allowed me to, like Amazon is still the holy grail, right? There's brands that they do well on Walmart, maybe 10k a month, 20k, but on Amazon, they're doing like 200k a month plus. A brand is, if you can show a brand that you can add additional revenue, that is much more powerful. Like a lot of people come and say, like, let me sell on Amazon. I can increase your revenue nine times out of 10 as sellers. We have to know that like, that's not, you know, that's, that's a very, not always possible, right? Speaker 2: It's not always possible too. Cause sometimes the brand it's, you know, there's, competitors that are a factor. There's so many more factors that go into growing a brand than just optimizing their listings. So continue, I'm sorry. Speaker 1: No, you're right. You said the answer. There's so many factors that I can't go to a brand that's doing 100K a month on Amazon and say, I can't take you, I'm not going to be able to take you 10%, but I can come to them and say, I can potentially grow you 10% by giving you a brand new marketplace like Walmart. It's infinitely easier. It's going to position you. Like you can, I don't know a single thing about advertising. I think you also said that you're like, I let an agency do that. And I'm going like, yeah, like I've tried designing. That's why my private label, The Nature Pack, failed. I'll send you a picture of it. It's terrible. Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to see it. Speaker 1: Because I can't design a listing. I can't do advertising. I hire agencies to do this for me when I do do it. But on Walmart, I can list your products on there and I can get $1,000, $2,000. That's additional revenue. It's small, but it's additional revenue that you weren't even doing before. So I think that if you are a seller, it's just something that it's so much easier to pitch them up. Speaker 2: Well, I love that strategy and as we're kind of talking through this this is Probably what I'm going to start at least recommending a lot of people do, right? Especially newer sellers that want to go the brand direct route, especially who want to get exclusivity. It's like, hey, let's go pitch these brand owners on, like forget Amazon, let's just become authorized on Walmart. And then use that as a foot in the door to come back two, three, four months later and say, hey, look what we did for you on Walmart. Let us have the opportunity to do something similar for you on Amazon. And your point too about, well, I'm opening up a brand new revenue stream for them on Walmart. It's infinitely higher perceived value to them too. Like, let me put it this way. If they're doing zero sales on Walmart right now, even getting them to do 5K a month, which as we know in the ecom world, it's not much, but taking them from zero to 5K a month is technically an infinite increase. Anything divided by zero is infinite, but taking them from zero to 5K a month on Walmart, in my opinion, is gonna have a much higher perceived value Then you taking that same brand who's maybe they're currently doing $100k a month on Amazon, taking them from $100k to $125k. So technically the net increase on Amazon is $25k. The net increase on Walmart's only $5k. But I still think the brand would perceive the Walmart increase as being higher value because to them it's a brand new revenue stream. That didn't exist before. So they turn nothing into 5k a month and that's just the start. And then again, now you've got that credibility with that brand and now you can use that as a case study for other brands. There's so many good things that can kind of snowball from that. I love that approach. I think that's a really good strategy, especially for folks to use as kind of like a Trojan horse to get that Amazon approval down the road. Speaker 1: Yeah. And that also works on, there's brands that have done that with Target. So it's not Walmart centric. It's anything centric, right? There's Best Buy just released their own marketplace. Like this approach, we're e-commerce, I think Warner Miles said this, we're e-commerce sellers at the end of the day. Our goal is to move product wherever we can. Make money. So like it's just a good approach to incorporate that other sellers, you can be the best at advertising on Amazon and you're going to hit a ceiling at one point versus if obviously there is a ceiling on the other marketplaces as well. But you know, I can go ahead and I can open up their account on Walmart, on Macy's, on Overstock, whatever it is. And I don't have to be the best at that to do that. Speaker 2: Right. No, you're exactly right. It's figuring out where we can add value, where we can squeeze extra margin out of, you know, this or that strategy, where we can come in and do what other people aren't willing to do, which a lot of people aren't willing to learn Walmart. A lot of people are lazy and they say, well, hey, if they're not going to let me sell on Amazon, then forget it. I'm just going to go to the next brand. When a smart seller would see that as an opportunity to, one, basically get paid to learn a new platform, and then two, a couple months down the road, parlay that into either authorization to sell on Amazon or even turn that Walmart into an exclusive deal. So many different avenues you can take that. Speaker 1: Also they just launched their brand portal a few months ago. So it's terrible compared to Amazon, but it's fun to see like a new platform when you're doing brand exclusives. Speaker 2: So is that their version of brand registry? Speaker 1: Yeah. So the brand portal, it's more like the protective side of brand registry. They do have other things where like now you can add videos to listings. Now you can also add kind of like an A plus content. It's nowhere near as built up, but they are slowly adding that. Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, cool. Well, that's a good sign, right? Obviously, Walmart is headed in the direction of more control for brands, more power for brands, which is great. We want to see that. And us as authorized resellers, it's only good for us, in my opinion. Speaker 1: 100%. Speaker 2: Well, Noah, listen, man, I appreciate the time. I certainly learned quite a bit from this. I hope that the folks listening, especially folks that are interested in getting on Walmart learned a lot as well. So with that said, so we already talked about the software, but give us one more reminder. That's Pricelink.io, correct? Where people can go get the Walmart software. Speaker 1: Yup. Seven day free trial for all of you wholesale folks. I'm a wholesale seller myself. So we are without a doubt, I've tested this and I can't name competitors, but we are without a doubt the best wholesale scanner. We have a lot of tools. We're going to be adding case pack functionality, a lot of cool things like that in, I think August is the roadmap. But if you upload your file, we have like a 90 something percent accuracy rate of finding those UPC codes. We have four defaults. And I think that's the tool that most people are going to try this out for. We also have keepa level charts for Walmart. So it's Pricelink. P-R-I-C-E-L-I-N-K, no space, .io. And I'll also send Corey a affiliate code as well that you guys can use. So I think I'll do it. We can do $5 off, so it's $25 a month for life. Speaker 2: Awesome. Well, thank you for that, Noah. And guys, go check out Pricelink. Go subscribe to Noah on YouTube as well, at Noah Mincis on YouTube. He's got some really good Walmart content. Noah, I appreciate the time, man. I'm sure we'll be chatting again soon. Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Corey.