Setting up a Walmart API

Walmart is one of the largest American supermarket chains, with more than 10,000 stores in 27 countries today.

This Help Center article will help you navigate the setup of your Walmart API.

Table of contents

1. Preparation
2. Create a new connection
3. Create the API
4. Create your product listings
5. Send your product listings to Walmart
6. Check your product listings for errors

Preparation

• Setting up Walmart API access

1. 1. Create client credentials: You can start by generating a client ID and secret through the Walmart Developer Portal. Select Channable as the integrator, and you will be prompted to grant the access permissions we require. You must grant at least the minimum highlighted permissions as shown in the screenshot below.
      

   2. Receive credentials: Once you've configured the permissions correctly, Walmart will issue your client ID and secret. These are essential for creating the connection with Walmart in the next step.

Step 1: Create a new connection

To create a new Walmart connection, follow the steps below:

1. Start by navigating to the API page within your project and click on the "+Add new API" button. This action will redirect you to your company's connections page.
   
2. On the connections page, select "+Add a new connection".
3. Search for the 'Walmart' connection by clicking through the pages, after finding the 'Walmart' connection, provide the following:
   

   Label Client ID Client Secret

4. Click on "Create" to finish creating your Walmart connection. Afterwards, you will be brought back to the API setup. 

Step 2: Create the API

When you are back at the API selection screen, you can now select your new connection with Walmart and continue setting up your API.

1. Configure API settings:
   • Name your API
   • Choose the unique ID per item. (We recommend the 'ID' field)
     
     
2. Create API: Click on "Continue" to create the new Walmart API.

Step 3: Create your product listings

To set up your API, follow the steps outlined below. Click on each step to expand and view the detailed instructions, which will guide you through the entire process.

1. Categorization

2. Rules

3. Build step

The Build step in Channable allows you to configure all necessary attributes for your items, ensuring your product data aligns with marketplace requirements. This step is crucial for successful product listings and avoiding errors.

3.1 Overview

1. Access the Build step: Start by accessing the centralized interface of the Build step. This is where you will manage and map all product attributes.
2. Identify mandatory and optional Fields: Mandatory fields are highlighted in pink, indicating they are essential for listing your products. Optional fields are marked in orange and can be filled based on specific needs.

3.2 Populate Shared Attributes

1. Fill Shared Attributes: Enter common details that apply to all products, such as EAN, prices, and titles. This step ensures uniformity in basic product information across your listings.
   • Use static or dynamic Values:
     • Static Values: Directly input values that remain constant, like brand name or manufacturer.
     • Dynamic Values: Utilize fields that automatically update based on linked data, ideal for variables like stock levels or prices.

After you have filled in the desired values for the Shared attributes, continue to the Category specific attributes below.

3.3 Specify Category-Specific Attributes

1. Select product category: Choose the relevant category for your product, such as clothing or furniture.
2. Input Category - specific attributes: Fill in attributes that are specific to the selected category, such as size for clothing or dimensions for furniture. This step helps in fine-tuning your listings according to category requirements. Here you can again use static or dynamic values.

Click here to read more about the Build step.

4. Quality step

The quality step provides instant feedback on setup quality, highlighting mandatory and optional errors to ensure your product data meets the marketplaces' standards.

Actions

• View items: See products with specific issues.
• View in build: Redirects to the build step to map missing information.
• Set categories: Directs to the categories step to categorize items.
• Show source: Available for ID fields, directing to the settings step.

Click here to read more about the Quality step.

5. Preview step

The preview step displays mapped attributes for multiple items, highlighting errors before exporting to the marketplace.

Features

• Search & filter: Find specific products or filter by error message/category.
• Item overview: Shows all items to be exported; it can filter to show only items with errors.
• Detailed product preview: Displays missing information and dynamic actions to correct errors.

Checklist for finalizing attributes

• Review shared attributes: Ensure all mandatory shared attributes are filled.
• Review category-specific attributes: Ensure all mandatory category-specific attributes are filled.
• Check for errors: Correct any red-marked fields.

Click here to read more about the Preview step.

6. Result step

Additional requirements for Walmart

The following information is specific to Walmart. 

Shipping template tab

• Shipping template ID:
  To link your products to specific shipping templates, you need to first create the shipping templates for your products on Walmart as explained in this Walmart Seller Help article. When you are done creating a template, Walmart will generate a Shipping Template ID. You will need to maintain or modify your Shipping templates on Walmart's platform.
  
  
  
  Each template you create on Walmart generates a unique Shipping Template ID. Enter this ID in Channable’s “Build > Shipping templates” section.
  
  To assign different Shipping Templates to various products, utilize dynamic fields and rules in Channable, ensuring each product is matched with the correct Shipping Template ID.
  
  
• Fulfillment center template ID:
  This ID represents the US-based location from which your orders are shipped. Similar to Shipping Templates, you must set up and maintain your Fulfillment Center template on Walmart according to this Walmart Seller Help article to generate the Fulfillment Center ID. Enter this ID in Channable to ensure your products are associated with the correct fulfillment location. 
  
  

Additional information

Creating Variants for Walmart

Managing item variants on Walmart requires careful category selection and specific attribute setup:

1. Select the correct category: Start by choosing the appropriate category for your items. Some categories may not support variants, so selecting the right one is crucial for variant configuration.

2. Configure Variant attributes: After category selection, set up the Variant attributes by filling in the following:

   • Variant Group ID: Use a common identifier for all variants in a group, such as parent_id or item_group_id.

   • Variant attribute name: Specify the attribute that differentiates the variants (e.g., color, size).

   • Variant code field: Assign the field associated with the variant code.

3. Enter Variant codes: Enter multiple variant codes by separating each with a comma (,). Although this might trigger an error message in Channable, you can disregard it as Walmart will still process the entries correctly. Do not end any entered value with a comma, as Walmart will reject the attribute. 

Step 4: Send your products to Walmart

Your product listings should now be ready to be sent. If you have not activated your project, go to your project settings on the left-hand side of the screen and click "Activate project".

After, go back to the APIs overview and go to [Your Walmart API] > Settings, where you can activate the API by clicking "Activate API".

Once you have activated the API, navigate back to the API overview and click on the blue "Run now" button to send your product listings to Walmart.

After the initial upload, you'll see items marked as successfully pushed in Channable, indicating they've been created on Walmart without price and inventory details. In the next export, Channable will update these items with their respective prices and inventories. Use the Walmart Dashboard to monitor the publishing status of each item.

Step 5: Check your product listings for errors

After you have sent your product listings to Walmart, go to the Results tab of your Walmart API. 

For errors, click filter on 'error'. Now you can see which product listings have errors and which are not listed. Click on a specific error to see more information on what is causing the error. If you have solved some errors by changing the settings or product information, re-run the Walmart API to see the new results.