Walmart announced a new program called Walmart Restored offering like-new refurbished goods – and they won’t be tucked away in a corner of the website. Walmart will display refurbished products in search results – and “online now and in select stores later this fall.”
Walmart said all Walmart Restored products will be professionally inspected, tested and cleaned, and they will come with a 90-day free return window.
Walmart said it had already been working with sellers and suppliers on Walmart.com who were committed to refurbishing top-quality products – the Walmart Restored designation and program is new. “In a year when customers are looking for ways to save money, like-new refurbished products have become an increasingly popular way to cut down on costs without sacrificing quality,” it wrote in its announcement.
Rival Amazon.com has offered refurbished goods for years through Certified Refurbished on Amazon, which it rebranded to Amazon Renewed in 2017. Amazon severely limited who could sell through the program in 2019.
eBay has its own certified refurbished-goods program and began severely restricting who could sell through the program in 2020 (see the recent update about the program on this EcommerceBytes Blog post).
With supply chain issues, inflation, and fears of recession, refurbished goods are a golden opportunity for online marketplaces. But sellers who don’t qualify for their certified programs must list their refurbs as “used” – will savvy shoppers catch on?
