Item setup: single items, Setup by Match, and bulk spec uploads

Collect two kinds of data before opening a template. Product data: the product type, the GTIN (the barcode number), brand, product name, description, key features, required attributes, and hosted image URLs. Offer data: your SKU (your offer identifier), price, quantity, shipping weight and dimensions, and fulfillment and shipping settings. You never supply a Walmart Item ID; Walmart assigns it on catalog entry. Three fail most often:

• GTIN — Walmart validates GTINs against GS1 (the barcode registry) and can reject one whose registration does not name your brand; an invalid or mismatched GTIN fails at submission.
• Image URLs — Walmart fetches images from publicly reachable URLs; each must open without sign-in and return the image itself. Host them first: square, white background, at or above Walmart's minimum resolution; a main image below it is a publishing block, not a row error (check the current guideline; Content maintenance covers the rest).
• Product type — pick the type that fits, not the one with the fewest fields; a wrong type sets the wrong required attributes and filters.

• Single item in Seller Center — enter the GTIN on the add-items page (labels change): if Walmart carries the product you are offered a match and supply only offer data; otherwise, the full form. For a handful.
• Setup by Match — a bulk spreadsheet for items on Walmart.com: GTIN, SKU, price, shipping weight and a few other offer fields. Fast, but you inherit existing content.
• Full Item Spec (now labelled Full Setup Template) — the category-specific spreadsheet for new items: every attribute, image URLs and offer data. Download, complete, upload. It marks attributes required, conditionally required or optional; its reference tab (currently Data Definitions) gives each attribute's meaning, allowed values and format.

Pick per batch: match what exists, create what does not. Walmart matches by GTIN (its Product ID field): a Full Item Spec for a product on Walmart.com is matched to that entry or errors if that GTIN is on another of your SKUs; a wrong GTIN that creates a second entry is flagged as a potential duplicate and unpublished (Catalog troubleshooting).

Check the sheet for four classic faults: blanks in required attributes, inconsistent units (mL in one row, oz in another), duplicate SKUs or GTINs across rows, and values in the wrong column (a case quantity in the unit-count field). Then check what Walmart will test:

• every GTIN is the right length, valid, and registered to the brand on the row;
• every image URL opens without sign-in;
• the product type fits each row, and every attribute it requires is filled;
• offer fields are complete, and the price sits within Walmart's published pricing rules — an offer priced well above the same item elsewhere, or above your own price on another site, can be accepted and then unpublished.

Confirm any missing value from an approved source. A required field filled with a plausible guess passes processing and produces a wrong item. A brand name repeated across rows is normal: duplicates matter for identifiers, not for values items legitimately share.

Every upload becomes a feed with an ID in the Activity Feed: first in progress, then processed — or failed as a whole (wrong template, corrupted file), with no per-item results; fix and re-upload. A processed feed reports per item, not per file:

• Success — accepted: ingestion, not publication. The item list shows whether it is live; Unpublished Items shows why if not — whether the fix is content, offer or compliance (Catalog troubleshooting).
• Error — rejected with a message; nothing created for that SKU. Most are data errors; Walmart-side ones (system, timeout) are resubmitted unchanged later.

The error file lists each failed row with SKU and message; fix and resubmit only those. Common data faults (bad GTIN, wrong product type, missing required attribute, off-list value, unreachable image URL) arrive as a row error or, as Catalog fundamentals warns, as a success and a reason in Unpublished Items. A price outside Walmart's pricing rules is always the second kind: the feed processes, the offer is unpublished, and republishes once the price is in range. Read both.

Published is Walmart's status, not your sign-off. An item can show as published while search has not yet indexed it, an image is still processing, or the offer is live at a price you did not intend. Verify every new item the way a shopper would:

1. Confirm the SKU's status in the item list (often "Manage Items"); if it is unpublished, read its reason in Unpublished Items before anything else.
2. Search Walmart.com for the product name and the GTIN.
3. Open the item page and check the name, images, key features, description and attributes against your source.
4. Check the displayed price and confirm it is your offer at the intended price.
5. Add the item to the cart and confirm the quantity and shipping options shown.

Only then mark setup complete. Setup by Match items deserve the same check: inherited content may not describe your current packaging.