Walmart Listing Errors: WTF Do These Mean?

There is nothing more miserable than listing a product to Walmart Marketplace, only to have an error message pop up. In most cases, all you see is the error message with little explanation as to why the error appeared or how to resolve your issue. When this happens, you have to decide if you want to try figuring out the issue on your own, or if you should  contact customer support for assistance.  

This blog simplifies your life.  This comprehensive list of common Walmart errors serves as your one-stop source of definitions for all the errors you’ll likely encounter while listing a product. You'll also learn the quickest and most stress-free method for correcting the issue, including tips for when you’re using Zentail. 

Note: Zentail has built-in features for easily resolving errors. Its Listing Errors Dashboard makes it easy to view errors across all of your sales channels.

Primary Image Missing

Isn't it great when listing errors are self-explanatory? The ‘Primary Image Missing’ error means that for some reason your product's primary image didn't load properly. It could be triggered by a connection problem while you were loading or a minor glitch with technology. There have been some instances when the image appears to have loaded properly, but for some reason Walmart's site simply isn't processing it.

How to fix: The issue is usually resolved by simply reloading the image. If this continues to happen, you may have to try uploading a completely different image.

Price Parity Not Satisfied

Walmart attracts customers to both their stores and websites by offering low prices. They expect third-party vendors who use their website to offer the lowest possible price for the product they're offering. If the site does a search and finds that you're offering you product at a significantly lower price (including the cost of shipping) elsewhere, you'll get hit with a price parity not satisfied error. This can be a frustrating error if you struggle to set a price Walmart accepts and still lends to an acceptable profit margins.

How to fix: Updating the price to a lower one that satisfies Walmart is the best way to fix the problem. Once your price is back within an acceptable range, it may take 1-15 minutes for it to get automatically republished. If you investigate the issue further and discover discrepancies between your product and the product that it used to trigger the price parity not satisfied error, contact Walmart Support to discuss the issue.

Price Leadership Not Satisfied/Reasonable Price Not Satisfied

This error message is quite similar to the 'price parity not satisfied' error. If Walmart discovers that a customer can save drastic amounts of money by purchasing your product from another retailer on Walmart.com or any competing site, Walmart will automatically unpublish your product and serve you this error message.

How to fix: The best way to resolve it is by republishing your product at a lower price. Sometimes you only have to lower the price by a few cents. Once your price is back within an acceptable range, it may take 1-15 minutes for it to get automatically republished.

DEEP_MATCHING_MISMATCH_DETECTED

This error indicates that there is something wrong with either your product's title or the price.  Walmart likes products that are similar to one another. A wide selection of items increases the odds of a customer making a purchase from Walmart instead of another retailer.

What Walmart doesn't like is a great deal of variety in the description and pricing of similar items. If you're selling washcloths via the Walmart website, they want the title and price of your washcloths to be similar to the rest of the washcloths posted on the Walmart website. If the price varies too much or the title is unique, you'll get flagged with the DEEP_MATCHING_MISMATCH_DETECTED error message.

How to fix: Check your product's ID, price and title. You've likely made a small, easily correctable mistake. If you don't spot an error, you'll want to contact Walmart or Zentail Support.

Offer End Date Has Passed

This simply means that if you placed an 'end date' on your listing, that date has expired and the offer is no longer available. On rare occasions, a technology glitch can trigger this error even when you haven't set an end date or the end date hasn't passed. 

How to fix: Adjust the end date in Seller Center and resubmit your item without an end date, or an end date far into the future.

Item Published for Order Testing

Many people interpret this as an error. It's really just a message letting you know that Walmart is performing order testing on your product. As long as you don't get another message from Walmart alerting you to a problem, you can ignore this message. Your product will soon be published.

How to fix: No action is required.

Unable to complete the product data setup process. The variant data is either missing or invalid.

This refers to SKUs in a product group. ‘Variant data’ are the attributes by which your products vary, like color, size or pattern. When you get this error, it either means that Walmart is still processing your data, or that you need to define the variations of your product. 

How to fix: If you’re sending SKUs to Walmart for the first time, wait a few hours to see if Walmart will process all the data. It also doesn’t hurt to check that your listing information is correct. In Zentail, go to your Catalog > Manage Groups > check that a pivot attribute is selected.

You are not authorized to set up customized products for this category.

As on other marketplaces, there are certain product categories (like jewelry) that are “hands off” to any seller who hasn’t received specific approval from Walmart. This is to protect the quality and authenticity of products listed under these categories. It goes without saying that you’ll run into this error if you haven’t received approval.

How to fix: Open a ticket with Walmart support requesting UPC exemption for the brand or category that you’re interested in selling. If you’re using Zentail, you can easily sync or create UPC Exempt listings following these steps.

Trust and Safety Violation

A trust and safety violation error is always a scary error to see on your computer screen. As soon as you see this error on your computer screen, you want to pull up your copy of the Walmart Marketplace Retailer Agreement you were supposed to read before listing your product. Walmart is saying that it feels that you've violated the agreement in some way.  

How to fix: The good news is that once you have identified the problem, you can correct it and republish your product. The bad news is, figuring out how you violated the Retailer Agreement isn't always easy. If you can't figure out the problem after reviewing the agreement, you'll have to speak to a Walmart customer service representative.

An Internal Error Occurred While Publishing This Item

Ironically, this error means you've done nothing wrong. There was a simple glitch during the processing and you need to re-submit the product you're selling. 

How to fix: If you have tried to upload the product several times and keep getting the same error. Try a different internet connection. If the problem persists, contact Walmart.

IMS Set up Is Pending

Similar to above, this error message means that you didn't necessarily do anything wrong. It simply indicates that there was a connection error on Walmart's end and they're working to resolve it. 

How to fix: It should only take about 24 hours for the problem to be corrected and your product to live. If it takes longer than that, you'll want to contact Walmart's customer service.

No Item Found with the Given SKU

Receiving this error message means one of three things: 

• Walmart received new data but hasn’t full processed it yet (this will typically resolved itself after a few minutes or, at worst, within 24 hours)
• SKU is missing a shipping or package weight
• SKU is missing other essential data to list successfully
  

How to fix: Double check that none of the above values are missing from your listing in Seller Center or your Zentail catalog. If you see this error persist, you can contact Zentail Support with the SKU and details as to how long you’ve been noticing this error, and we can help dig in further. 

Unable to complete the product data setup process. Unable to override sku because there exists another source product from the same seller/org id.

This is another issue tied to UPCs that you might encounter when you’re trying to use Zentail’s SKU override feature to update a SKU on Walmart. In general, Walmart does not allow multiple SKUs to be published with the same UPC. If it thinks you’re trying to list a SKU that already exists in Walmart, it will reject your entry. Or, if you’ve set one of your SKUs to list on Walmart in the past and are trying to list a different SKU with the same UPC, you will run into this error.

How to fix: In Zentail, go to your Catalog and use the search bar to isolate a given UPC/EAN. (Make sure you’re in the ‘All’ tab of your catalog.) If you see multiple results for the UPC/EAN, decide whether to change the UPC/EAN value on one of the SKUs or understand that you won’t be able to list it. If you decide to change the value, go to the SKU on your catalog page > from the left-hand menu, click ‘Advanced Options’ under ‘Walmart’ > click ‘Send SKU Update’ to initiate a change.

ERR_PDI_0034

This error means there is a problem with your product's UPC. Usually, this is the result of you making a typo while entering the information. For example, a UPC should be 12 characters but yours may be 13.

How to fix: Double check that your product has the the correct UPC and resubmit your product.

ERR_PDI_0001 

The ERR_PDI_0001 error is prompted by invalid data. For example, your listing may be missing a shipping weight (or the weight might be set to 0) or other required detail.

How to fix: Take a look at all the mandatory information and make sure you haven't inadvertently made a typo or skipped an entry. Zentail's Listing Status feature can be helpful in clearly identifying the issue in these cases.

ERR_OFFER_1000

This could be triggered by several things. One reason that your image file names likely include extra characters, making it impossible for the Walmart site to know how to handle the image. Another is that a mistake was made with either the product's start or end date.

How to fix: Review the proper formatting for Walmart image files or other relevant guidelines. Make corrections to your listing as needed. If you've checked multiple things and still aren't sure of the issue, contact Walmart or Zentail Support.

Got Questions?

Running into too many obscure errors, or have questions about any other Walmart error codes? Contact us at hello@zentail.com with your questions and ask us about how Zentail's automation tools can help you mitigate errors in the future.

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