The news: Black Friday and Cyber Monday were Walmart Marketplace’s two biggest sales days ever as thousands of sellers set new sales records on the platform, per a company blog post.

• That growth isn’t surprising given that the number of Walmart marketplace sellers doubled in size over the past 18 months, according to Marketplace Pulse.
• More sellers and a broader selection of products will help Walmart grow its US marketplace sales 23.4% this year, per our forecast.

Why it matters: Smaller retailers have grown reliant on online marketplaces operated by large retailers like Walmart and Amazon as programs such as Walmart+ and Amazon Prime make it enticing for shoppers to concentrate their shopping on a few websites where they can receive free shipping.

• Consumers plan to purchase from an average of 2.4 different types of retailers this holiday season, down 29.4% from 3.4 just a year earlier, per ICSC.
• That’s driving third-party sellers to sell where shoppers are already looking and to leverage platforms such as Walmart Fulfillment Services to make their products enticing to consumers on the hunt for free shipping—even if doing so eats into their margins. For example, WFS shipped nearly double the number of units than the year prior on Black Friday, and it recorded its four highest volume sales days during the retailer’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals events.

The big takeaway: Walmart has been on a concerted push to make its marketplace enticing to sellers. For example, it recently announced several new marketplace features at its seller summit, including the launch of Brand Shops and Brand Shelves that enable merchants to create their own dedicated storefronts.

• Walmart’s sales records suggest those efforts are already paying dividends.

Go further: Read our US Retail Ecommerce Marketplaces Forecast 2023 report.