Walmart offers a convenient experience for all its customers. Their stores are known for hosting a wide range of products and even offer different services through their AutoCenter, MoneyCenter, and more.
But if you’ve recently shopped at Walmart and looked at your receipt, you may have noticed a Merchandising Fee at the bottom.
What is this fee? What is it used for?
These are questions that haunt many Walmart shoppers as they usually imply that they paid more than expected for their products. So, in this guide, we’ll be diving into the merchandising fee of Walmart, how much it is, and why it’s there in the first place.
Read on to learn more.
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What Is Walmart Merchandising Fee?
The Walmart merchandising fee that many people see at the end of their receipts is a fee charged by third-party sellers on the Walmart website.
Some sellers also have a 0.34% merchandising fee on certain products for imports coming into the US. This is required by the US customs and border control for some products. For orders below $2,500, the fee is capped at $25.
These fees are generally applied to products that require air, ship, or international mail. These additional shipping costs are required by US customs and the rate can vary from state to state.
With that said, the Walmart merchandising fee doesn’t just apply to online products. There are some in-store products that will charge you a merchandising fee such as tires, batteries, mattresses, and iPads, just to name a few.
Why Is Walmart Charging Me A Merchandising Fee?
A merchandising fee isn’t something that Walmart added to the price to increase profits. Instead, a merchandising fee can be viewed as a tax on certain products.
These products are usually ones that require extra resources to dispose of and get rid of such as electronics, tires, and mattresses.
A merchandising fee is present as an incentive for shoppers to dispose of their products through disposal sites since they paid a merchandising fee. A concrete example of merchandising fee is the battery core charge that Walmart applies to all their batteries.
For this example, you can return the battery to Walmart when it’s fully used up and receive cashback for your merchandising fee.
How Much Are Walmart Merchandising Fees?
Walmart merchandising fees vary depending on many things. Primarily, the original price of the product determines the merchandising fee along with local state laws and regulations. The merchandising fee for small packages will generally be lower than large and heavier packages.
And since fragile items require a lot of care during shipping, you can expect higher merchandising fees to cover the cost of transportation.
If your Walmart order is under $2,500, these are considered Informal Entries, so there is a hard cap of $25 for the merchandising fee.
However, orders above $2,500 are considered formal entires. With that, you can expect a higher merchandising fee that can vary between $25-$485.
Can I Choose Not To Pay The Walmart Merchandising Fees?
Technically, you can choose not to pay the Walmart merchandising fee. However, if you fail to pay the fee, your order will be returned to Walmart or the third-party seller.
If your parcel is returned because of not paying the merchandising fee, you can always request another delivery attempt, however, you will have to pay the fee this time.
To make sure that customers pay the Merchandising fee, Walmart automatically adds it to their total during checkout. Walmart will mark your transaction as incomplete until you pay the merchandising fee, and only then will they send out your order for shipping.
Conclusion
If your order or product requires air, ship, or international mail to arrive at your door, you can expect a merchandising fee. If you don’t pay the fee, your order will be marked incomplete and Walmart will not ship out the product to you. To avoid instances like this, Walmart includes the merchandising fee at checkout and customers pay it along with their order.
If your order is under $2,500, it is marked as an informal entry. Informal entries have a hard cap of $25 on their merchandising fee. Orders above $2,500 are marked as formal entries, and the merchandising fees for these orders can vary between $25-$485.
