Walmart has begun a push to bring UK exporters to its flagship US Walmart Marketplace in a move to embrace UK exporters and expand Walmart’s engagement with UK retailing.
Sellers approved to join the marketplace will be offered the services of an onboarding team, as well as access to tools and services to help them scale up across the Atlantic, including the opportunity to get their goods to US customers within two days.
Walmart said the move comes as the British government increases efforts to promote UK goods beyond the EU with its ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ campaign.
US and UK trade representatives met earlier this year to deepen trade ties and boost the two nations’ £200bn relationship.
Walmart Marketplace is an online marketplace of third-party sellers serving a base of over 120 million US shoppers each month.
UK companies already on the platform include STATSports, Glasgow-based BuyBox, Nodor, and Leicester-based Pertemba, which exports an array of products to 18 countries worldwide.
Darren Carithers, senior vice president of Marketplace Development for Walmart International, said: “We are confident that UK sellers will be able to leverage Britain’s reputation for design and manufacturing excellence and product quality to thrive as Marketplace sellers and bring more choice to our U.S. customers with speed and scale.”
Ravi Karia, managing director of Pertemba, added: “Building our business on the marketplace model, we’ve been exporting to the world since 2009. Today we sell on around 60 e-commerce marketplaces, big and small. Walmart Marketplace stands out for us for being easy to do business on, bringing us huge exposure and steady sales growth.”
