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The Future of Walmart.com

Tomer David owns two Amazon FBA brands and is an expert and a consultant for e-commerce entrepreneurs. He is a YouTuber for his channel called Sourcing Monster, centered around helping other entrepreneurs scale and gain in-depth knowledge for navigating the Amazon FBA world.

Tomer’s passion for digital began as a programmer at the age of 12, and by the age of 14, he had his first online business. At 16, he worked full-time at his startup company, leaving school behind and accomplishing his dreams.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[04:28] Tomer David talks about how he got started as a Walmart seller and his experience growing his brand
[09:12] Products that are a good — or bad — fit for the various online marketplaces
[14:31] Tomer discusses transitioning to Walmart.com and his approach to scaling his brand
[19:21] How employing customized tools on Walmart.com can generate revenue
[22:04] Tomer explains the importance of networking and establishing relationships
[25:15] What are Tomer’s plans for the future of his brand?

In this episode…

Are you a new brand on the Walmart Marketplace but aren’t sure how to succeed? How do you find the right tools and advice to help scale your brand?

Managing and processing new products on an unfamiliar platform can be daunting. Not only do you start from scratch with generating ranking and reviews, navigating the platform can leave you frustrated with many rules and regulations. Tomer David knows what it takes to run a successful online business — and he is here to share his wealth of knowledge with you on building your brand on the Walmart Marketplace. So, are you ready to expand and scale your brand today?

In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley sits down with Tomer David, an e-commerce expert and entrepreneur, to discuss emerging trends in the Walmart marketplace. Tomer talks about the different marketing platforms and their target audiences, how to build listings for lucrative results, and why networking is a boundless source of knowledge to grow your brand. Stay tuned!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Quiet Light, a brokerage firm that wants to help you successfully sell your online business.

There is no wrong reason for selling your business. However, there is a right time and a right way. The team of leading entrepreneurs at Quiet Light wants to help you discover the right time and strategy for selling your business. By providing trustworthy advice, effective strategies, and honest valuations, your Quiet Light advisor isn’t your every-day broker—they’re your partner and friend through every phase of the exit planning process

If you’re new to the prospect of buying and selling, Quiet Light is here to support you. Their plethora of top-notch resources will provide everything you need to know about when and how to buy or sell an online business. Quiet Light offers high-quality videos, articles, podcasts, and guides to help you make the best decision for your online business.

Not sure what your business is really worth? No worries. Quiet Light offers a free valuation and marketplace-ready assessment on its website. That’s right—this quick, easy, and free valuation has no strings attached. Knowing the true value of your business has never been easier!

What are you waiting for? Quiet Light offers the best experience, strategies, and advice to make your exit successful. To learn more, go to quietlight.com, email [email protected], or call 800.746.5034 today.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:07

Hi folks. It’s the Quiet Light Podcast where we share relentlessly honest insights, actionable tips and entrepreneurial stories that will help founders identify and reach their goals

Joe Valley 0:18

Hey folks, Joe Valley here from Quiet Light Brokerage. Thanks for joining us again for another episode of the Quiet Light Podcast. Today we’ve got Tomer David with us from Sourcing Monster, Tomer. He’s got a lot of expertise in the Amazon space. But today we’re going to talk about something that is a little bit futuristic. Maybe it’s here in the present a little bit, but maybe a little bit more in the future. And it’s all about the future of Walmart and Walmart w f s, which I don’t know what it means yet Tomer is going to talk about that. Before we jump in, though Tomer. Welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. Good to have you here.

Tomer David 1:01

Thank you for inviting me really appreciate it. And it’s a pleasure.

Joe Valley 1:05

Could you give the folks a little bit of background on yourself who you are that kind of thing?

Tomer David 1:10

Yep, sure. So I have two Amazon FBA brands. That’s my main focus. That’s what I like. doing most of my day. I also have a YouTube channel called Sourcing Monster. And I recently started getting into the logistics business offering freight services to mainly sellers. Yeah, like you said, today we’re gonna talk about Walmart. But a little bit about myself. I’m in the Ecommerce space for like 13 years now. It started with the family business, we were selling jewelry. I moved to this. So I started this when I was in Israel and in the Diamond Exchange. And my brother was here in New York, then moved to the US to New York eight years ago to New Jersey. The factory was still on the for only 47, or no Diamond Exchange diamond district in New York. And slowly I was we were moving to New Jersey because it was online business. So we moved operation. But the more I did it, I realized that it’s very tough to manage a lot of people and factory and operations and the model of Amazon FBA and the freedom that it allows you the lifestyle really caught my eyes. And you know, also the opportunities is bigger, I think. So the last three years, that’s what I’m doing full time, Amazon FBA and I really enjoy that.

Joe Valley 2:31

But you get the hell out of the Northeast, and you move down south, right actually in Florida.

Tomer David 2:35

Yes. So I moved to Florida a year and a half ago. And it’s really amazing guys. I just told you before we started the recording that that was a little mastermind and that we were outside in Fort Lauderdale. And I was like, Well, I’m telling them it’s like January December. Is that real that this weather? Yeah. So it’s pretty cool. I really love it here.

Joe Valley 2:56

Yeah, well, folks know if they’ve listened enough. They know I’m from the northeast. So when I say get the hell out of the Northeast, it’s something I did myself. I love it. I still have family there. I’m from Maine, originally, but we fled halfway down to Florida actually went all the way to Florida. And then halfway back. We’re halfbacks up here in in North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte. Alright, so let’s let’s just jump right into the subject at hand. Walmart. I’ve, I think about one thing on Walmart. I’m so used to buying on Amazon. I don’t, I don’t I don’t shop anywhere else. I just go to Amazon because I’m an Amazon Prime member. What am I missing? Is something going to be happening in the next, you know, two to five years where Walmart’s actually going to, you know, be a competitive player against Amazon and people should start listing their their products there as well.

Tomer David 3:45

Yeah, yeah. First of all, from from buyers perspective. So they have the Walmart plus, which is the equivalent of prime, you pay $90. And you pretty much get everything next day. You know, I’m pretty sure they’re losing on you know, we that because sometimes the things that they send you like overnight, that just doesn’t make sense. So for example, I ordered it two days ago, like four pack of Red Bull, they just like made like they actually had someone from the store, deliver it to you. So I’m using it for some basic groceries like every week, you one of the benefits that you get with Walmart plus is that you get free deliveries. So that’s really convenient. And I think that once people will get used to that because they have the infrastructure for all these grocery stores. They have. I wrote here that they have 5000 stores in the United States and almost 12,000 globally. So 5000 stores, it’s a big infrastructure that they can use for those grocery deliveries. And once people get used to it get hooked with that, you know, it will convert to more of the regular ecommerce purchases that you know we see their growth and I’m going to share with numbers a little bit later. But, you know, from from buyers perspective, they you see more and more shoppers starting to look for other places other than Amazon. And I think the w the Walmart plus, it’s a you know, it’s like a little soft cash cushion for for people because it’s easy for them, they’re used to the fast and quick speeds that Amazon provides. And by going to Walmart, they get kind of the same experience just with better prices. So I’m currently I’m selling pretty much on my catalog, just put it there by Walmart and I started this two and a half years ago. And at the beginning, maybe I would get like few sales a week, something like that. But you see that it’s really increasing without really doing much more effort. naturally, organically, you will started to see, especially last year when COVID hit more and more sales. And we’re like must be something here we want to explore I want to explore it more and see what’s going on here. And I can really utilize this and maybe potentially be one of the first ones there. Because we know the power of the first one in the platform. I started three years ago, but I always was hearing this in, you know, my back up dad like people saying, Oh 2015 14 Those crazy days of Amazon. And I’m always like, wasn’t part of it. Right. So yeah, you know, I think that they have an opportunity to be the first ones in our really hit Walmart and be good at this and hopefully to dominate. So I started to explore these more. And they actually launched their W Fs program, which I mentioned before, which is the equivalent for FBA. So it’s Walmart fulfillment services, and I did a little research about it. And you know with the wfh W Fs, one more has more than 55,000 stores, like I said, in the United States and 12,000. Globally, these facilities, also double his fulfillment centers to the W Fs program. So

Joe Valley 7:03

how does that compare to Amazon in the US? How many fulfillment centers? Do

Tomer David 7:07

they only have like 400 500? No more than that, for sure. I don’t get me wrong. I don’t have the exact details. But it’s no more than 500? For sure. And, like, imagine the power that they have now, more, or if Amazon have to, and you see it more and more, especially this holiday season? I don’t know if you saw, but a lot of items, you get it today. Yeah, $2 more, you get it the same day, or overnight, like 4am, like read hours, which is amazing, I think. But Walmart actually have better chance of getting this, you know, but much better. But once they actually mastered this, and I realized that when I actually was sending inventory to W Fs, and they were telling me like the address was like five miles away from me. And I’m like, well, they’re want me to send it to like, like a store to a Walmart store. And they’re using those stores as fulfillment centers. And that’s a I think that would give them a really big edge over Amazon, when they really want to compete with them hard. I think they’re not yet there. They don’t really, you know, crushing with them clashing with them yet, but once they get it right, once they have their PPC platform and their sellers, as it’s called seller center, really strong enough, I think that they will go really all in for E commerce, and then

Joe Valley 8:31

ask a question with your, you know, I often get the question from sellers, should I expand to Canada, right? They’re working on, you know, eventually exiting their business, and they’re going to exit in 12 to 24 months? And like, should I put the effort into exiting Canada? I mean, selling on Canada, and I think statistically, Amazon, Canada’s 10% of what the US is. And I say, Well, I don’t know, where can you get the most bang for your buck? If I were to compare Amazon Canada, to Walmart us, which one in your opinion in your experience is going to generate more revenue?

Tomer David 9:12

I think that Walmart but I have to say that it really depends what kind of items you sell. So we see that for the higher end, the more premium products, Amazon is still a much better choice. I heard it from a lot of people that say a little premium product around like 40 $50, or that not really related to maybe the price point but comparing to other products. They’re a little more expensive. And those products on Walmart, do you know not not that great? So you know

Joe Valley 9:46

Is it because of the economic value of the of the Walmart shopper it’s just lower than somebody shopping on Amazon, they just don’t have as much household income.

Tomer David 9:55

I guess the buyer personas their income is less than what you see on a Amazon. But what so the number of Amazon Prime members actually that go and shop in physical Walmart stores, I’m not wrong, it was like 60%. So those buyers that go and buy on Amazon and have Amazon Prime, maybe they don’t shop on walmart.com yet, but they do shop on Walmart stores. So maybe they don’t do the groceries. But but but they’re using they visit Walmart stores. So e4 Mars will be smart enough. And I think that they know that they will be able to really convert those people that shop in their stores into walmart.com buyers. Now to your question whether you should expand to Canada or Walmart, I, I think that for me, it’s easy. Because to sell an export to a different car in a country. To me, it’s much more complicated than just selling in the same country. Shipping from the same warehouse and and the speed and execution, it’s much smoother than expanding to other countries. But it might be that’s just my experience, because I had bad experience with Europe, we couldn’t really get a lot of inventory there this year. And last year, the VAT and the rules, you have to adapt to all these things that are different from each country. So for me, I would you know, it will be easier for me to go to Walmart, I assume that, you know, you went through the account approval process, which is not always smooth and easy. And you need actually another application to apply for W Fs. So they’re a little behind on that. And it’s not that smooth, but I think it’s worked out for what, especially when the potential and if I look at the future, I think that it’s going to be big. So you know, maybe

Joe Valley 11:47

big compared to Amazon. So you know, 10% of Amazon. In comparison, you know, if somebody’s selling, I think Ron can sell, do you think it’ll be you think Walmart WMS will be bigger than Amazon? Um,

Tomer David 12:03

no, you just say in the long, I don’t know, it’s bigger, but it’s gonna take much bigger chunks than what they have now. So Amazon in 2021, sales were up to the third quarter because fourth quarter results wasn’t published yet. And we’re talking about was one of our two. So that 332 billion in revenue. And for the amazon.com. And for Walmart, these were 43 billion. They what I like to

Joe Valley 12:29

when you say 43 billion, that’s the online store.

Tomer David 12:32

For the whole I think it was 570 or something like that. So the whole an

Joe Valley 12:37

enormous number. I never would have thought that the Walmart did 43 billion in online sales. That’s

Tomer David 12:43

pretty substantial. Yeah. So that’s, that’s really big growth. And if we do the math, so Amazon

Joe Valley 12:53

let me just, I’m a math geek right now. So actually 332 billion for Amazon through q3. It wasn’t even q4. So

Tomer David 13:03

right now, it’s q4 it without Walmart, the same for Walmart because the results are 3d.

Joe Valley 13:07

Alright, so So Walmart is so that Amazon, is that worldwide, or or

Tomer David 13:13

you know, amazon.com amazon.com? Okay,

Joe Valley 13:16

so Walmart is already more than 10%. Yeah. So when I say you know, all things being equal, and all it matters, depending on the product, but all things being equal. It might make more sense to sell on Walmart than going to Canada for amazon.ca. Because amazon.ca is, it’s it’s maybe 10% of amazon.com. Right?

Tomer David 13:43

I don’t know the exact numbers with Canada. So I can’t really say but I guess that it’s less than 10%. Yes.

Joe Valley 13:50

Okay. All right. So it just kind of makes sense. Plus, you’re getting in early in the growth of Walmart compared to the growth of Amazon, in terms of the online stuff.

Tomer David 14:03

So I, I think it was like 50% year over year now for Walmart, which is not the case with Amazon. And that’s why their stock is kind of plateau, because the growth is not like they used to be. But I don’t have the exact numbers here, but what actually actually I do have, so it’s 43 billion US dollars for 2021, an increase of over 70% in comparison to 2020 figure. And and remember 2020 was a COVID year that’s really promising, knowing that they can actually so basically they were able to convert those buyers and keep them in the platform and create new habits for people or maybe shift at old habits for people that were shopping in different places to shop on Walmart. We know that from eBay that a lot of people moved from eBay to Walmart to now you know, obviously there’s so much data, you know, I can say one thing, but in reality, you get the different results. I really love testing things, you should test it by yourself, you should start small, you shouldn’t really put your catalog there, open an account, start with W Fs. sit by yourself how it goes and then double down, of course, when you start seeing results. But for us, it’s definitely something that we will keep pushing more, because it’s relatively much easier than Amazon. They getting reviews and getting rankings. They don’t have all these rules that Amazon have. Now, I don’t know if you know about all these tactics that Amazon sellers using and hacks to really get higher in search results. Yeah, but on Walmart, no one, no one is really enforcing it. But on the other end, few months ago, Amazon went really hard with a lot of Chinese sellers. Yeah, we all hear that. And they bent so many big Chinese sellers. And the sellers said, You know what, we’re tired of Amazon and all these worlds, we play black hat tactics. And they went straight to Walmart, and Walmart is approved the sellers from like worldwide sellers, that something new that happened this year, before you would have to be in the US based in the US with an LLC and all of that. Yeah. And now they’re really allowing other sellers from countries like China to be there. And I guess they do it to get more variety of items. And

Joe Valley 16:30

interesting. Yeah, I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing. Eventually, Walmart will have to do what Amazon did, because I think what Amazon did was the right thing, I just pulled up the numbers, by the way, there was a 37% year over year growth for Amazon, from 2019 to 2020. And 2020 was, you know, I would think a very big year for online shopping, they did 386 million in that time period. So it’s they’re not growing as rapidly, as you say, as Walmart with that, you know, 70% year over year growth. So it would make sense for people in the audience that are running Amazon stores, and expanding, if they were going to pick one over the other. Amazon, I mean, Walmart versus amazon.ca, Kevin Sanderson may have for maximizing e commerce may have a different opinion on that, because Kevin specializes in helping people expand internationally, I got to get him back on the podcast to talk about that. But the difference that you’re talking about is the future. So if we look at, you know, the projected growth of walmart.com we’re talking some pretty substantial numbers. Do you have data on Walmart coms, ecommerce revenue versus grocery revenue? Or did you already give that to us?

Tomer David 17:52

Yeah, so I, so like I told it was 43 billion for the E commerce with looking us and I think like, overall, it was 550 billion. Okay, so it’s, like, much smaller.

Joe Valley 18:05

So the 43 billion is strictly ecommerce. It’s not, is it you considering groceries, sold online to the E commerce in this situation, or

Tomer David 18:14

I distinguish twice, and because if grocery is part of this 43 billion, then it’s a big, it should be a big chunk. And I didn’t consider or had this data in front of me. But I wanted to mention another thing why sellers are well, another opportunity for sellers that already sell on Amazon to really expand to Walmart. So like I said, it’s relatively much easier to rank and, you know, be the first and build listing, you know, we know all the power of being first and you get the more reviews, you kind of dominate a niche that you enter into. And and it became much easier than Amazon but we lack the tools. So seller center on of Walmart is pretty glitchy. The their PPC platform lacks so many features. And again, it’s so glitchy and things break and you’re very limited in what you can do. But I look at it as an opportunity. So sellers that already doing good on Amazon, they can develop their own tools, think out of the box, create customized tools that no one actually have, and be the first ones to really actually utilize all this traffic and could really like like, create massive revenues, I think if they take this approach, and that’s what I’m thinking of doing, creating customers tools, customized tools, with developers that will allow me to get things that I can get with the platform, pretty much

Joe Valley 19:46

so the helium 10 and Jungle Scout have not, you know, developed this for Walmart.

Tomer David 19:53

It’s they just really maybe two months ago, added some some capabilities of doing some x ray which is like giving you some revenues. But obviously it’s not that accurate

Joe Valley 20:03

xray sounds like a helium 10.

Tomer David 20:05

That pretty sure they don’t have it yet.

Joe Valley 20:10

Okay. Are there other experts, though? So there’s a there’s a 687 million Amazon gurus, and I’m totally making that number up so that if somebody is just starting out and needs help on Amazon, they could they could find somebody that’s truly qualified like yourself, right? That’s what you do you help you coach people that are just starting out on Amazon? Are there people that do the same? Or do you do the same on the Walmart platform?

Tomer David 20:35

Yes. So honestly, I less focus on really coaching people, but more on the side of really sharing my journey and my experience to my YouTube channel,

Joe Valley 20:46

or so. And that sourcing sourcing monster, right, yeah,

Tomer David 20:49

yeah, so let’s like coaching one on one, but more share what I do what I going through, and it’s really helps a lot of people, which I enjoy, and I was, you know, the same I did with Walmart, or some everything that I do online, could be Etsy could be some other platforms, and then share it on YouTube. And I’m actually one of the first ones with the Walmart, you know, to really share. So those videos are very popular, like how to create a shipping plan two w Fs, like basic stuff, when how it works, because there is no really other information about it. So

Joe Valley 21:22

you’re this is so you’re giving away all this, you know, you’re doing it you’re you’re demonstrating how to do the things that people already know how to do, or there are lots of coaches for on the Amazon side. And you’re doing it on YouTube channel, telling people how to, you know, sell products on Amazon? Why? Why are you doing that?

Tomer David 21:39

Good question. And I just talked about it in this this Monster, right. So I do have a couple of good reasons. The first reason is that I’m not a native English speaker. And when I started the channel, I said into the opportunity to improve my speaking skills, that was one goal of it, just to become more confident speaking, and improving my skills was one of my goals. Second goal is to create more connections, and expand my network of people that I know. I thought to myself that when I come to someone, an expert in the space, when I started this, I wasn’t really connected with a lot of people. But I knew the power of being with high successful people will lift me and get me closer to my goals. And I said to myself, one good way to do it, instead of just I tried to really DM people in the space, and I got ignored a lot of times. So I said, maybe by having a YouTube channel and inviting them to be a guest on the channel could make it easier. And that was that was true, I was able to interview a lot of leaders in this space and connect with them. And network with so many people. So that was you know, working amazingly for me.

Joe Valley 23:00

And so that for those listening, Tomer and I had a long conversation about this, you know, podcasting is not a profitable venture in itself. But networking, it’s immeasurable, the value you get from it. So what you’re doing with the YouTube channel, and interviewing people on the YouTube channel, similar to podcasting, the connections that you can make, through doing those types of things, folks, is just invaluable. It’s what we’ve done a Quiet Light since 2007, and done a much better job in the last five years. It’s building relationships with people that have audiences that you want to reach and vice versa. It’s got to be a two way street, not a one way street. So that’s a it was a loaded question. I knew I knew what the answer was when I asked you why do you do that? It’s brilliant. It’s it’s it’s not only are you are you helping people you’re helping yourself as you say through simple little thing like working on your speaking skills and but you’re also helping people understand how to do things and you’re showing them how to do things asking nothing in return. And then you’re having other experts on that can help build your business and you can help build theirs as well. So good on Yeah, I like it.

Tomer David 24:11

Yeah, I want to add one more thing that was my goal. And once you actually, you know, talk about something it forced you to really learn more and do more research about it. And it always keeps you aware of things and trends. And that’s another benefit that I get to have by having a YouTube channel because I’m very consistent. I didn’t really miss one week of uploading like three videos for like two years and sometimes four and five, and I really enjoyed it. I think one good strength of mine is being consistent and looking long term. And that’s really my goal building something really five, five years from now will be one of the biggest and reliable valuable resources for Amazon FBA or Walmart. I don’t know what we’re gonna have in like three years. I also told you about before we started that they want to start a case study I’m going I’m about to sell my main Amazon brand. And I want to start to focus on a new brand. So I want to take it from zero to a seven figure to 1 million in one year and really show how I set goals, how I break it down into an action plan, how I deal with inventory, supply chain issues, cash flow, really make it real. So people can really see that it will a lot of time they see seven or eight figure sellers, but they don’t really have the trust that they can do it themselves to be creating something like I mean, it’s a big challenge, I might fail and you know, but I can take the risk. You know, I think the reward here by helping more people in and proving myself that it’s possible. It’s really amazing. So that’s just adding about that.

Joe Valley 25:44

I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s a great idea. All of it is interesting. I love the fact that you’re sharing your story. I love the idea of the Walmart, pay attention to it, folks. And eventually there’s going to be you know, a missed opportunity there. Right? I hear the same thing, you know, yeah, I was on Amazon back in 2012. I tried it, it failed. And I really should have paid attention because now it’s so hard to rank. Same things probably going to happen with Walmart as well. And eventually there will be some real talented people that are going to be able to help you. You know, with with your Walmart listings for now, there’s a real talented one on this call. And that’s Tomer David. And you can be found where how do people reach you Tomer?

Tomer David 26:31

So through the YouTube channel, it’s called against Sourcing Monster or they can go to the website it’s sourcing-monster.com very responsive to anyone and available. So you know, any question would love to help and share my knowledge. I’m not really pretending to know everything or be the best just sharing what works for me. And I really love experimenting, love trying different things and really being open. And I think that’s the only way to grow and just, you know, be the best at what you do.

Joe Valley 27:04

More. I think it’s fantastic. Thanks for your time today. Appreciate you sharing all this information and look forward to seeing Walmart grow and looking back and going Tomer said it was true, he predicted it.

Tomer David 27:14

Thank you very much and hope to see you at one of the events this year.

Joe Valley 27:17

Absolutely. We’ll talk to you soon.

Outro 27:21

Today’s podcast was produced by Rise 25 and the Quiet Light content team. If you have a suggestion for a future podcast, subject or guest, email us at podcast at quietlightbrokerage.com Be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.