This "How to" should provide you with the necessary steps to implement a working integration with Walmart from scratch using Babelway.

This is applicable for

in the US, UK, Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and China.

If you run into any issues or have any additional questions, feel free to contact Babelway support (support@babelway.com).

Environment Basics

Walmart works with AS2 and X12 (or Edifact for European suppliers). In our experience, they are respectful of the X12 standard. So the most basic of channel setups will involve at the very least:

A channel to send messages to Walmart US:

A channel to receive messages from Walmart:

Configure your Walmart gateways

As a Walmart supplier you can get your connection information from Walmart through their Retail Link application (if you don’t have access to the application yet, you should contact vendoraccess@wal-mart.com).

Walmart does not communicate with third parties, so only the Walmart supplier himself can get this information. To complete your setup you will need to find:

In any case, you will be working with AS2 gateways IN and OUT.

Your basic gateway configuration should look like this for the AS2 In:

You will need to input the AS2 Documentation information of this gateway into RetailLink for Walmart to be able to reach it. You should upload the .crt certificate (rename extension to .cer if necessary) as Walmart does not work with PKCS #7 certificates.

Your basic gateway configuration should look like this for the AS2 Out:

Configuring Walmart message definitions

To complete your Walmart message definition configuration, you can use the sample files we've made available here:Walmart Sample Files

Walmart expects and issues 997 functional acknowledgments for all messages they exchange. This may require some additional channel configuration (more about 997 functional acknowledgements). Note that Walmart expects their acknowledgements to arrive within 24 hours.

Clarify your own connection information

You need to know how you'd like Babelway to interface with you (your preferred protocol, and sample files). Use this information to complete your remaining gateways and message definitions.

Complete your mapping

Complete your transformation mappings so that your fields are correctly mapped to Walmart's.

Note that you will be testing your AS2 connectivity with Walmart before they provide you with ISA and GS qualifiers and identifiers. Once you have them, you will have to go back and adapt your mappings so all the messages you exchange include the correct identifiers:

Depending on the mapping you are setting up, Walmart may have some specific requirements (for example, Walmart invoices require the GLN number to appear in the N1 ST segment element 04 with an appropriate qualifier in element 03). This type of information can be found here.

Initiate the testing phase with Walmart

The first thing you will have to test is your AS2 connection with incomplete message content just to make sure that the certificate information is correct and you can send and receive content. This testing is possible as soon as connection information has been shared between Walmart's EDI support and yourself. It involves sending and receiving a file. You will basically be testing your gateway configuration and nothing else.

Next, Walmart will grant you access, through Retail Link, to their Vendor Self-Testing Portal ( see detailed information here ).

Walmart expects testing not to exceed 6 weeks for basic integration flows (Invoice 810, Claim 812, Address Listing 816, Remittance 820, Purchase Order 850, Text Message 864, 997 Acknowledgment).

Set a "GO for production" date

This is the final stage to complete your integration process. Once testing is finalized, you will have the opportunity to schedule your go to production date within a 15 day window. Once that date has passed, Walmart considers you to be in production.