The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
To create an ecosystem that connects leaders of all kinds – industry, community, student, educational, civic, investment and entrepreneurial – to help overcome Omnichannel Retail barriers through exclusive, insight-rich content.
The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 93 - Break into Walmart: The Expert’s Blueprint with Lane Carruth
Are you ready to learn how to successfully sell your products on Walmart's extensive marketplace? This episode features insightful discussions with Lane Carruth from SellCord as we unravel the secrets to getting your products into one of the largest retail spaces in the world.
Whether you're new to selling or a seasoned entrepreneur seeking to expand your reach, this episode offers practical strategies and expert insights to guide your journey.
Lane shares her experience as an expert in Walmart's unique selling landscape. We explore the best practices for product optimization, including the essential factors that affect visibility on Walmart's platform compared to others like Amazon.
You'll discover the importance of refining product listings, understanding the algorithms, and adapting your marketing strategies to meet the evolving expectations of today’s omnichannel consumers.
In this engaging conversation, we also discuss initiatives like Walmart's Open Call program, which gives new and innovative brands a pathway to success. Lane explains how to leverage these opportunities effectively for launching your products and growing your business. Tune in now to equip yourself with the knowledge that can help make your products successful on Walmart!
Join us on this journey to transform your business dreams into reality by mastering Walmart's ecosystem.
Don't forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, or leave a review to connect with us and keep the conversation going!
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in Bentonville. My name is Andy Wilson and I am so glad that you're joining us today. I have got such a great guest and a friend, and let me just welcome Elaine Cabruth to Doing Business in Bentonville. Welcome, elaine.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Andy. I'm so excited to be here and I always enjoy having a good chat with you.
Speaker 1:I know, I've been looking forward to this for some time. What we're going to do today is that we're going to get in some great detail. I get these emails and texts from people saying, andy, how do I get my product into Walmart? From people who said, andy, how do I get my product into Walmart? That's you know, and I went. Well, it's not easy, it's complicated. And now, when people send me a text or email, andy, how do I get my product into Walmart?
Speaker 1:I call Lane, okay, or Cellcord. And that's you work for a great company. I do, I'm very lucky. And your company is called Cellcord, yes, and it is just a great company. I do, I'm very lucky. And your company is called Cellcord, yes, and it is just a phenomenal company. It's led by a great friend of mine. His name is Michael and he's not here today. And, michael, I'm going to tell you, man, I'm going to trash you the whole program. I just want to tell you Right up front Lane's already gave you permission. I can do that. No, that, no, really. Michael's a great guy. Lane, let's talk about you, okay, because you're you're, you've been at cell core now for seven plus months so I've been there.
Speaker 2:Yes, just about six and a half months. So I started in august, and before that I was with white spider which is another great company.
Speaker 1:It was a great company, yes I loved being at Spider.
Speaker 2:I was there for eight and a half years, wow, and you know obviously I have a passion for that company and for Eric and JS and just all the people, such a great company.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, they're two great guys, Eric and JS, and in fact I am doing a podcast with them tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Oh, with JS and with Eric. Yes, amazing, I love that.
Speaker 1:So I can't wait to give them a hard time. But you know, spotter is a great company. Now it's sold a couple of times and I'm so glad you have landed at another great company called Cellcord yes, and it's a great company. So why don't you just give us a bit of history and then we're going to get into the depth of how you get product into Walmart. Now CellCorp is expanding beyond Walmart, but we're going to talk about that too. But most people are like I want to get my product and so we're going to get into that, so stay tuned to us.
Speaker 1:We're going to tell you. So talk about CellCorp. Tell us about the company, give us a little bit of history.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so who we are and what we do.
Speaker 2:So we are a Walmart exclusive agency partner. So we understand Amazon, we understand Target, we understand everything, but we just focus on Walmart. We're experts at Walmart and we started initially as just being experts on marketplace. And what I love about that is the founders of Cell Cord, michael. He's a seller himself and so he figured out Amazon. And then he was like I'm going to figure out Walmart. So he knew all the levers to pull and became very successful in his own, you know right as a seller and then formed Cellcord as a company in 2020, 2021.
Speaker 2:And it's so exciting because now we've expanded upon. You know, working with people that maybe have one or two items and have just gotten their golden ticket and like we have no idea what to do next. We can help them figure out what to do next. We have no idea what to do next. We can help them figure out what to do next. And then we also work with major CPG companies that have been in Walmart for a long time and either need help growing and winning from an omnichannel perspective or want to figure out how to do marketplace as well.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that's such a need today and you know, as you talked about the Walmart marketplace, it was such a need today. Uh, you know and, and you know, as you talked about the walmart marketplace, it was such a great start and there's so many wonderful stories, uh, and that I know personal people that that have started. You know, in the garage, yes, got a marketplace and now they're they have a larger facility or they're one of these mini warehouse facilities and things that's around the country today and but it is exciting that the whole free enterprise system, that you've got this great idea, you've got a great product and now someday you get the golden ticket.
Speaker 2:Oh yes. I love that it's amazing and I personally have never been to Open Call. I hope that I get to go this year because I've heard just the experience is just amazing and just the energy and the passion and we work with companies that literally have gotten that golden ticket and they're literally coming to us and like, okay, I have no idea what to do now and they don't. Right, and there's so much that you need to do now, and they don't Right.
Speaker 2:And there's so much that you need to do. And that's what's so great about our company is we can help those brands that have just gotten that golden ticket, and we can help them be successful and learn how to navigate the world of Walmart and Walmartcom. We've also had, you know, clients that started with just items on com and were so successful Then they were able to get distribution in stores, which was their ultimate goal. I mean, how fantastic is that?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, for our guests, I spent close to 30 years at Walmart and I grew up there, basically, and my first job out of school and I had a wonderful career and I got to work with Sam Walton and so many other great leaders in the company and actually I did a stint in merchandising at one time it was part of the Fast Track program. You spent time in all these other areas and then, if you were successful, you could choose where you like to do a deep dive Right. And I chose operations and somehow, 10 years later, I ended up running the people division, human resource.
Speaker 2:But that's a long story.
Speaker 1:But anyway. But the career was exciting Right, and the company is still doing so well. They just released their earnings report for the year and the quarter fourth quarter and I'm so proud of what's taking place. We got to visit the new home office group of us recently.
Speaker 2:I am so excited to see it.
Speaker 1:It's so awesome. Yes.
Speaker 2:It looks amazing.
Speaker 1:The pictures.
Speaker 2:I've seen.
Speaker 1:It is so, it was so wonderful. So now what we want to do is this we want to guide you through sort of the services that CellCore has. And so lean in, Because right now some of you say you know what, I've got, an item I've got. I'm going to open call. You know some of you are doing that. So Lane is going to walk us through this process. The services that CellCore offers, yes, Okay, do that.
Speaker 2:So we have. We have grown significantly just in the time that I've been here, so we have 150 plus employees, and so the process is we have people that are hands-on keyboard doing the work for you. So we're making sure that your title is optimized correctly, your description is optimized correctly, we've got the right keywords that we're using. We're making sure that when someone goes in and types your product in that search filter, that you're going to show up. So you're a part of that decision set, and we do both organic optimization as well as paid media optimization, especially for brands that are new to Walmart. So someone's just gotten that golden ticket. That's one thing that we want to make sure that we're utilizing media spend, because you've got to make yourself where you can be found in the search results in order to be purchased, and so our company. We understand exactly what levers need to be pulled, what you need to do. We can advise on pricing strategies. We can advise on variant strategies. Think if, like your apparel company and you have, you know 14 different colors and you know 10 different sizes and understanding how to get everything set up so it's easy for the shopper to be able to purchase your product and make a decision on your product as well, because we're wanting to advise. You know what what's on there.
Speaker 2:We also have a great understanding of how walmart's algorithm works, because they are changing their algorithm constantly, and which is great, yeah. But a lot of people think, okay, I'm, I'm killing it on amazon and then think that they can replicate the exact same strategies on amazon and it doesn't work, and they don't understand. I don't understand why this is not working on Walmart, and it's because Walmart's algorithm is different from Amazon. The way people are searching is different, there's different keywords, there's different things that are important, and so what's great is we are behind the scenes doing all the work for you, hands on keyboard. We're getting with you up front and we're saying, hey, andy, what, what looks like success for you? Let's kind of put together what some define that success, what some you know KPIs are. Let's do that in the beginning and then let's monitor, let's look back at that every single month to make sure that we're meeting those, and so that's where our team has just such a great understanding, and a lot of our team have been sellers.
Speaker 2:We have team members that worked at Walmart, and so you know we all have different backgrounds, which is great because we bring a lot of different strengths to the table, which I think is super exciting. I mean, I learned so much as my experience at White Spider and then before that I did shopper marketing for, you know, hershey's and Clorox and Tyson Foods, and so I had a lot of great experience and thought that I pretty much kind of had figured it all out. But as Walmart continues to grow and test different things, like we're learning every day of new things that we can do and figure out, you know, any kind of nuances that can help our clients win on Walmart, because ultimately that's what we're trying to do. It's when they're successful we're successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great and we're going to. I want to. I want to come back because you did a great overview. That's excellent, thank you. One of the things that DBB is focused on is really trying to simplify this whole thing called Omnichannel, and we should talk about that for a moment, because this is the new world. When I began my career at Walmart, we were brick and mortar only.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Okay, today, what, what, how, how, how you shop today is so exciting. I mean, it is stinking exciting. I'm just saying.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it. Retail therapy is my passion.
Speaker 1:I love it and but it's, it's, but it can be a bumpy road, absolutely, you know, and because there's a lot of potholes in this process. Yes, so just talk about Omnichannel for a moment, and I know you spend a lot of time talking about that and doing it, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, again, if you're fairly new with a new item because we're sort of talking new items right now- Sure yeah New into the space and we're going to spend some time talking about, if you're existing, how to grow your business, right, yes, so stay focused on the new person with a golden ticket. Yeah, that's moved. It's in the marketplace. Now or soon it'll be broader Talk about Omnichannel and just your thoughts on it.
Speaker 2:So Omnichannel to me is shoppers want to be able to any way they want, anytime they want and anywhere they want, so like, for example, I'll just use my own personal shopping history. So, like I love Walmart delivery, I do Walmart delivery every Sunday and usually a couple other times in the week just to get some you know, pantry staple items that I need, you know.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:It's so amazing just to have my groceries delivered to my door. That's convenient for me. But then there's sometimes I want to, let's say, I want to make something special, and I want to go in and I want to pick out my own produce and make sure I'm getting what I want, or I'm not sure what I want, and so I kind of want to look around. What we're doing is influencing how everyone is shopping right now. So whether I'm on my phone searching or I'm let's say, I'm buying a pair of shoes, typically I'm a size six and a half. It is helpful for me to know, reading the ratings and reviews, if someone is saying well, if you know this, this shoe runs a little big, so you're going to want to size down half a size. That is helpful information to me that helps make the right, helps me make the right purchase decision. So everything that we are doing from a omni-channel perspective is making sure that we're able to capture that shopper again, anywhere, anytime, in any way that they want.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think that's so critical because you know what you want and what CellCore does is help you have I'm going to call it a seamless, consistent customer experience across all channels. And you know, and that's from the app, that's from the online, and that your product can be accessible there, it can be ordered for the convenience of the customer, yes, and then you know, part ofni channel 2 is is the delivery process, that that walmart and other retailers do, and um, but. But you know, you, what the things I'd like underline? You talked about your work and making sure that that product is, is, um, is, is. I'm gonna source correctly online with all the details, yes, and all the algorithms, all of that. That is critical for the new seller, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, if they aren't able to be found.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Then it's not even a part of the consideration set.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because there's millions of items online. It's not like a brick and mortar, where you go into a department and there's the selection of product.
Speaker 2:You're looking at it.
Speaker 1:But you're able to simplify that process for that customer.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we're constantly monitoring and auditing because, as Walmart makes changes in their algorithm, that impacts things from a back-end perspective that the consumer can't see. But we can see and we can make sure that people are able to find your product, especially if you're new to Walmart.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You're building a customer base. The consumer may not even know that your item's on Walmart, and so they're not normally going to search by. You know a brand name per se, Right, right. And if they are, they're already a loyalist and you've already got them as a customer. You're trying to drive incremental sales, which is super important and just being found, and so there's so many different levers that you can pull as a one-party supplier and as a third-party supplier, and we know how to do. We've learned all the tricks.
Speaker 1:I think that's a real critical point. You just mentioned it about a third-party supplier. So Cellcor has a whole range of services elaine has talked about and you know, from accounting application to creativity optimization. You talked about that. You talked about the ppc advertising management, uh, your media creation, account management, yes, um so we have, like I have a dedicated platform to analysis analytics?
Speaker 2:yes, so we have our proprietary software, which which is called dashna by cell cord, and it's a self-serve ad platform. So if someone wanted to go and do their media themselves on walmart, then they have the ability to do that, obviously, Obviously, we get it set up for them, we can advise. Then we also have clients that gosh, I don't have time to do that, I have so much else on my plate. I hear a lot, especially new companies or smaller companies, saying it's just me doing everything, Like I need someone to come in and be an extension of my team, and that's what we do a really good job at and that's fun for us. And you know, like I have a team of people and that's. You know they're enterprise account managers and that is their main job is to be they own. You know six to seven different clients that they're working with and own that business and understand everything about that business and making sure that you know again, that client is showing up from a search perspective.
Speaker 2:And then what we're doing also is understanding where you're winning organically. Then we can have very good efficiencies of ad spend, because if you're winning organically, there's no reason to be paying for it, Right, and so there's just a lot of different things that we can do and we're again a Walmart exclusive agency partner. With that, we're meeting with Walmart on a regular basis. We have JVP meetings with Walmart as well as a company, and it's super exciting because they also believe, you know, believe in what we're doing and they're like referring customers and clients to us as well, which that's probably one of the most exciting things. When someone comes to me and they were like oh, my goodness, Walmart told us we have to talk to you and I just love that and that's that's so exciting.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because Walmart trusts you. Yes, and Michael and the team and you all have built a great relationship there and that's why Walmart recommends you. And so now, so that's. We've talked about what I call the garage to the marketplace, right, and I love that. I love the opportunity that people have, and Walmart has opened up and now even has the event we spoke about, this open call and the golden ticket. Now, if you have a product already online, you also help grow business with a current product. I call right, absolutely, talk us through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean think you know major, any major CPG company, any major company that has brands in Walmart, you know, will come to us and say I'm not winning and I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I don't know how I need to grow my business from an omni-channel perspective, so not only online, but I need to make sure, like delivery, pickup, you know all the different shipping, all the different fulfillment channel methods are being met and that's where we can go in and identify opportunities that we can help help them grow that we can help help them grow and a lot of times you know, there's very simple things that we can do to help them win in their categories and not to give away like the secret sauce or
Speaker 2:anything like that.
Speaker 2:But it's easy for us to identify oh okay, this hasn't been done or this hasn't been done, and so then we can go in and do that, and then they already are going to start seeing their digital penetration go up, and it'll continue to go up year over year.
Speaker 2:We also have clients that are killing it on Walmart and have been both in-store and online. Now they want to figure out the marketplace side of the business and have no idea where to start, have no idea what to do. That is the bread and butter of what we do and we love working with companies like that one that we've worked with for quite some time and you know they, they understood Walmart and brick and mortar and in-store, and we're just trying to figure out the dot com side of the business and the marketplace side of the business, because it is very different and there are some different things that you can do on Marketplace that you can't do as a one-piece seller on Walmart, and so it's exciting to have clients like that too and we can help them open other doors, because Walmart, they want as much assortment as possible, right, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Right, because they want to give their shoppers as many items to choose from and they want new items and innovation and new brands. And it's so exciting because we are getting to work with a lot of those companies and brands and really help them grow and then brands that have been legacy brands for so long, and then help them now figure out, okay, how to successfully have a marketplace side of the business as well. So it's just really fascinating and so fun. On all the different things that we can do, yeah, and you know we're constantly learning and you know Walmart is changing and we're all learning. It's all moving very fast and it's exciting.
Speaker 2:We're still a small company where, like, we can Be nimble and innovative. And if we have a client that comes to us and says, really cool, if I could have either this kind of reporting or this kind of information, like, is that possible? And you know, oftentimes we're like that's a great question. I have no idea, but let's go and see if we can try and figure it out. And that's what we are also doing, for some of our clients is, and you know, if one person is probably having that question, other people probably are too, and so I love that we're able and that's how we're kind of bringing on some new additional services and new like analytics and reporting features is based on to us coming up with a question of like did you do this, can you figure this out, can you help me? And we're doing that, and that's really fun too.
Speaker 1:Well, so you've built, now Cellcore has built a company, now that you're really working with the entire customer, I would say the entire seller, so if you're new or existing, you can help them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So let's just summarize, okay, because this is so good and you've done great and I'm not having Michael anymore, so, anyway, sorry Michael, no, I'm kidding. So if we look at some of the strengths that you have, I mean you really have. You've talked, you really emphasize the data-driven strategies to optimize, to improve product visibility and sales. Yes, so you really do create, as you talk, the visibility of the product which increases the sales of the product, and you manage all of those processes in between to help that seller.
Speaker 2:Correct. It's wonderful. So we're behind the scenes, we're hands-on keyboard doing all the work Right, and when our clients are successful, then we're successful.
Speaker 1:And so you work with a variety of businesses. Yes, and now not just for new, but I want to emphasize again, for existing. Yes, and that's the change it is. It is yes, we started just exclusively marketplace.
Speaker 2:We are still marketplace. We have so many customers that have, you know, one or two items or just getting on Walmart, and then we also have those clients that have been on Walmart for a long time. They just need help winning as more brands and more items and assortment is, you know, coming onto Walmart and just making it more competitive, right?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, when we began this process of doing business in Bentonville podcast, we said we're really going to focus on the omni-channel experience and we're going to try to demystify. Yes, omni-channel, you're doing that. It's so cool Because one of the strengths that I, you know and knowing the company and you and I talking is that you help individuals navigate the complexities of Walmart platform, which is all this omnichannel process. Yes, and you help them navigate. That we do and that is what we're trying to do at GBB is help people to where can they go to get clarity and navigate the complexities, because all these channels the only channel represents today is complex.
Speaker 2:It is. But you have that we do, and you know it's not easy to figure out and, like I said, you know a lot of people that are killing it on Amazon and come in and want to. They're like, oh, absolutely We'll. You know'll figure out Walmart. The recipe is not the same of what needs to be done from a strategy perspective, and that's where we can help those individuals understand and we can put together a strategy that's going to work for them.
Speaker 1:Right, you've done a great job. Thank you, you've done a great job of really simplifying this and how you get, whatever channel you're in, if you're new or if you're existing. And then you talked about how well you work with your clients. Yes, and ultimately you want them to increase sales.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, why not?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and Walmart was the two, by the way.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly and that's just a win-win for everybody. And that's what makes it so fun.
Speaker 1:Okay. How does people get in touch with CellCord? How do you?
Speaker 2:Well, you can obviously reach out to me. You can go to our website at CellCordcom. You can get to us from there.
Speaker 1:How do they reach you?
Speaker 2:So how do they reach me? So you can reach me through LinkedIn. You can reach me through my email, which is lane at sellcordco, okay, and I'm also going to be at a bunch of trade shows here in the next few weeks, so I would love to meet you in person. So next week I'm going to be at the Inspired Home Show in Chicago, starting on Sunday, and then the latter part of next week I'll be at Expo West in California Super excited, I've never been to that show before. And then I'll be at Shop Talk in Las Vegas in the end of March.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, good. So you go out and about. You've got her email. Well, go to LinkedIn and she's giving you an email. Plus, you've got a Cellcor email. So that's awesome, I mean. So here's the thing Get in touch with Cellcor, let them guide you through this process and help you win at Walmart, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I would love to talk to you, so please reach out to me.
Speaker 1:All right, you've done a great job, as I mentioned. What else? Anything else before we exit today?
Speaker 2:I think we've hit the high notes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you have.
Speaker 2:You're doing good and yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Well before our viewers leave us. I want to thank you so much. You can message me on LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn Any thoughts, comments you have. Don't hesitate Amy Wilson at LinkedIn. And one thing I want to thank you all of our viewers and listeners. You have helped us reach a new area, a platform at doing business in Bentonville. We're now have over 2000 views a day. That's so hard, that's amazing, it's crazy. And then the second thing is that we're 90 countries now. Beauty, 90 Countries, oh, wow. Yeah, I know it bogs my mind.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Congratulations and I appreciate the team that's doing this in Bentonville. They do such a great job and you all, our viewers and listeners. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, and I just want to say thank you so much. It was. I just appreciate you having me as a guest and it's always so fun to come and talk with you about Walmart, Okay.
Speaker 1:I want you to come back. I definitely want to come back, thank you, and get out here and grow the business, and then you get back in here soon, okay.
Speaker 2:I love it. I look forward to it Okay. Maybe I'll have Michael with me next time. Oh well, whatever.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank you. Yeah, we'll get Michael back in here, Absolutely Okay. Thank you everyone. Have a good day, Thanks again, brian.
Speaker 2:Thank you, andy, appreciate it Okay. Thank you everyone.