Lesson 1 | GeekSeller, Walmart, and Amazon 101

Some important terms you need to be familiar with:

  • API – stands for ‘application programming interface’, but it describes a way to plug one website into another. Commercial sites make some parts of their code available to developers so that they can build tools for the site. The code they provide is called the API based on that code developers can build tools and widgets generally known as applications. GeekSeller takes advantage of E-Commerce sites’ APIs. Those sites use API to provide information about orders and products that we can access and process any way we choose.
  • Multichannel E-Commerce – selling on many platforms and managing it from a single location.
  • ASIN – The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is a 10-character alphanumeric unique identifier assigned by Amazon.com and its partners for product identification within the Amazon organization.
  • UPC – The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology consisting of 12 numbers, that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Sellers can buy UPCs from GS1. Please see this post for details (this is a must-read!).
  • EAN – The International Article Number (EAN) (also known as European Article Number, which technically refers to EAN-13) is a 13-digit barcode symbology, which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC).
  • SKU – A stock-keeping unit (SKU) is a product and service identification code for a store or product, often portrayed as a machine-readable bar code that helps track the item for inventory. An SKU does not need to be assigned to physical products in inventory. It is created by sellers to identify products within their catalog

What does GeekSeller charge for its main features?

GeekSeller charges are based on custom pricing plans. Schedule a demo with us so we can provide you with a plan that suits your needs.

Does GeekSeller offer shipping/fulfillment services?

GeekSeller offers order management for all connected platforms from a single panel. Merchants can also generate labels for more than 100 carrier integrations.

We can also connect marketplaces with fulfillment software. For example, we can fulfill eBay or Shopify orders by FBA (when new orders come on these platforms, we automatically contact Amazon FBA to ship the product). We also allow merchants to connect to software like ShipWorks, ShipStation, and ShippingEasy for external orders management.

As for 3PL fulfillment services, GeekSeller does not offer them, but we can integrate with EasyPost, Deliverr, eFulfillment Service, ShipMonk, 3PL Central, and MyWarehouse.

Why do sellers need GeekSeller?

GeekSeller bridges the gap. Maybe you are working with Walmart and you want to make things easier on yourself. Maybe you are selling on multiple marketplaces and got tired of updating quantities and orders data for each of them separately. See the sections below for an in-depth look at what we do.


Walmart

Walmart offers sellers their own admin panel, so technically you can sell on their marketplace without a third-party. But for merchants who have many products and sell on multiple marketplaces, additional software may be necessary.

GeekSeller lets you:

  • Easily export products from GeeksSeller panel to Walmart Marketplace
  • Manage orders from multiple marketplaces in one panel
  • Automatically acknowledge orders
  • Keep your inventory synced over multiple marketplaces
  • Use the repricing and insight section to control your pricing and increase the chance of winning the BuyBox

It used to be that Walmart.com only offered its own products, getting supplies from vendors and listing them under the Walmart brand. In order to compete with Amazon and other E-Commerce entities, they decided to allow sellers to list their own products on Walmart.com under their own brand. Now, Walmart.com still sells products by Walmart, but now they compete with other sellers:

To start selling on Walmart.com, merchants must apply through this link. Not all merchants are approved. Walmart has a very strict policy – they are looking for established merchants with a solid yearly revenue who have a large catalog and a lot of experience on other marketplaces.

After a seller is approved to sell on Walmart, they gain access to their Seller Center panel, available at seller.walmart.com. They can log in there and start uploading their products, managing orders, refunds, etc. However, this panel is not very user-friendly. It has a lot of limitations, and for less technical sellers, it can be very hard to use.

This is where GeekSeller helps merchants. We are acting as a replacement for Walmart’s Seller Center. A panel allowing users to easily interact with their products, orders etc.

Walmart.com Where customers buy products Walmart Seller Center, where approved sellers can upload their products. It is complicated with little functionality GeekSeller’s interface allows you to interact with a user-friendly panel instead of the Seller Center. Changes made on GeekSeller flow to the Seller Center and to Walmart.com


Amazon

Amazon is the biggest E-Commerce website out there. Basic products can be sold here by anybody, you can just create an account and start selling. On Amazon, many sellers compete with each other, and customers see those different offers and can pick who they want to purchase a product from. Amazon makes it easy for sellers to publish their products with a user-friendly interface and offers a Seller Central panel where merchants can upload their products and easily manage their orders.

Amazon.com where customers buy products Amazon Seller Center, it has everything sellers need to manage their products and orders. 3rd party systems are not really needed to manage Amazon account, but might be necessary if you are interested in multichannel management.


Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM).

In layman’s terms, FBA is a program provided by Amazon in which sellers ship their inventory to Amazon, and Amazon takes care of shipping and warehousing. Once a product sells, Amazon picks, packs, and ships the products directly to the buyer.

FBM is when sellers list a product on Amazon and decide to ship it themselves. It provides you with more opportunities to establish your own branding as a seller (using your own customized shipping boxes, tape, personalized labeling etc.).