Walmart Seller Community Forum Coming Soon?

Walmart marketplace sellers may soon have a new home on the internet to chat, share tips and tricks, and stay up to date with news and announcements if new survey is any indication.

Sellers report receiving the following survey from Walmart looking to gauge interest in a community forum and what kinds of features would make such a forum most helpful.

Quick Survey

To best serve you, Walmart is considering ways to offer community forums in Seller Center, where Marketplace sellers like you can ask questions, share tips & tricks to unlock growth potential, network with peers, and access valuable support and resources. Please share feedback and any interest you have in Marketplace seller forums below:

If Walmart moves ahead with a seller community forum, they'll likely face the same challenges and questions competing marketplaces have struggled with over the years with their respective communities.

The Amazon Seller forums got a massive overhaul in 2022 and sellers were up in arms over one particular change - having their business name displayed as part of their profile thus removing the ability to post in the forums anonymously.

Amazon To Show Seller Business Info In Community Forum Update

As Amazon community forums are overhauled, sellers are concerned about losing removing privacy & anonymity.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

That change precipitated an exodus of longtime, helpful community members who said forcing users to post under their selling IDs had a chilling effect on forum participation with concerns it would increase the risk of interference and retaliation from other users or from Amazon themselves.

Etsy has been struggling with massive amounts of spam and scams targeting users since last year, pushing the platform to make the drastic decision to take most of their community forum private by requiring an active selling account to view all topics outside of announcements and technical issues.

Etsy Takes Community Forum Private, Limits API Access To Protect Users From Scams

Etsy is restricting access to community forums over security concerns, but will it shield the company from public scrutiny too?

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

While the privacy and security of users should obviously be a priority, the move also raised questions about transparency and whether Etsy was also looking to avoid public scrutiny from media, investors and others by hiding a primary venue for information about issues on the site.

Walmart will also need to decide what level of official company presence they'll maintain in their community and how support functions and corporate communication will be handled - and if they're looking for a good example of what not to do, they should spend a few days perusing the eBay community.

For the last several years, sellers have consistently noted communication and engagement from eBay community staff have gone down hill and they are constantly left in the dark about critical business impacting updates and events.

Communication Breakdown: eBay Sellers In The Dark About Updates & Community Events

eBay sellers frustrated with lack of communication as they are left in the dark about critical business impacting updates & community events.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

While these issues have lingered for years, they've gotten even worse in the last few months as seller experience and community engagement manager Brian Burke retired after almost 25 years at the company and the monthly chat session with eBay community staff was discontinued.

eBay Discontinues Monthly Community Chat, Cutting Off Critical Opportunity For Seller Engagement

eBay has discontinued monthly community chat, calling into question their commitment to seller engagement & discussion.

Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

If you sell on Walmart, would you be in favor of a dedicated community forum and if so, what feedback would you have for the company to make the forum helpful and inviting for sellers? Let us know in the comments below!