Walmart Launches Online Third-Party Marketplace in Canada, Doubles Inventory

Walmart.ca has launched its online marketplace in Canada, which debuts third-party sellers on the company’s website, offering more products for purchase. The company says they have curated 27 third-party sellers at launch, adding more products in a variety of categories such as home, baby, apparel, toys, and sporting goods, doubling their online assortment, with plans to quadruple the amount by year’s end.

“Our goal is simple – to make shopping easier and more convenient for our customers,” said Rick Neuman, executive vice president, technology & eCommerce, Walmart Canada, in a press release. “The expansion through the Walmart.ca marketplace allows us to rapidly grow our product assortment through sellers we’ve chosen specifically to address the needs of our customers.”

Walmart says their partners in the U.S. marketplace can “quickly and easily” launch in the Walmart.ca marketplace. The addition of third-party sellers follows appears to be a move to keep up with online retail rival Amazon.ca. Last year Best Buy launched their own marketplace in Canada as well.

Walmart shoppers can use the company’s iPhone app—updated to version 2.0 earlier this month—to shop on mobile. The Walmart iOS app launched last July, part of the company’s strategy to adjust to mobile traffic, which surpassed desktop last year. Walmart.ca currently gets nearly 8 million unique visitors per month (#peopleofwalmartonline).