Walmart’s Valid Tracking Rate measures the share of your seller-fulfilled orders that carry valid tracking information, and the US standard is 99 percent or higher. Tracking counts as valid when it comes from a Walmart-approved carrier, is formatted correctly, is different from your purchase order or sales order number, and has at least one valid carrier scan on record. Walmart’s Valid tracking number policy states that invalid tracking, or missing the 99 percent standard, may result in selling restrictions, suspension or termination. Because the bar is so high, one carrier that does not pass scans or one upload path that sends numbers before the package is tendered can pull an otherwise healthy account under the line within days. Walmart last updated the Valid tracking number policy on February 11, 2026, and the US Seller Performance Standards on July 28, 2026, so the rules quoted on this page reflect those versions.

What the Walmart Valid Tracking Rate Measures

The Valid Tracking Rate is one of the eight metrics in Walmart’s Seller Performance Standards. Walmart defines it as the rate of orders with valid tracking information provided, and sets the seller standard at 99 percent or above. The standards are evaluated over the last 30 or 60 days, and Walmart expects you to watch them from the Performance dashboard in Seller Center, the Walmart Seller app or the Seller Performance APIs. The guide that sets these numbers carries a last updated date of July 28, 2026, and states that the standards are subject to change, so check it again whenever a metric moves.

The Valid tracking number policy explains the obligation in plain terms. You must provide valid tracking information to Walmart as soon as you have shipped an order and marked it as Shipped in Seller Center or through the Walmart APIs. Before you ship, you must give your carrier authorization to share shipment tracking data with Walmart. That second requirement is the one many sellers never think about, and it explains a large share of the invalid tracking we see. A number can be perfectly real on the carrier’s own website and still fail Walmart’s check if the carrier is not passing scan data back.

The four checks behind a valid number

Walmart’s policy lists the requirements a tracking number has to meet. We teach them as four checks, because each one fails for a different reason and is fixed in a different place.

1. Approved carrier. The shipment must move with a Walmart-approved parcel or freight carrier. Walmart’s policy answers the question of shipping with a non-approved carrier with a direct no, because the tracking cannot be validated, and warns that doing so may result in suppression, suspension or termination.
2. Correct format. The number must be formatted correctly and contain no special characters, such as symbols, punctuation or spaces copied in from another system.
3. A real tracking ID. The number cannot be the same as the purchase order number or sales order number. That rule exists because some order tools fill the tracking field with an internal reference when a label fails to generate.
4. A carrier scan. The number must have at least one valid carrier scan on record. A label that was printed but never scanned at pickup or drop-off does not meet this check.

What the dashboard shows when it fails

The Seller Performance Standards list the seller-accountable drivers for this metric, which are no carrier scan, invalid tracking ID, invalid tracking URL, misleading tracking and non-integrated carrier. When you open the metric on the Performance dashboard, Walmart summarizes your standing, the number of impacted customers and the drivers behind the score, and lets you download a report of the affected orders. That report is the single most useful document you have, because it turns a percentage into a list of orders you can sort by carrier, warehouse and date.

Walmart also states that orders fulfilled through Walmart Fulfillment Services have most performance metrics met for them, with the exception of the Negative Feedback Rate. A Valid Tracking Rate problem is therefore almost always a seller-fulfilled problem, and the fix lives in your own shipping stack.

Why the Standard Is 99 Percent

Walmart sets most of its performance standards with some room for error. Cancellations are allowed up to 2 percent and on-time delivery down to 90 percent. Valid tracking gets 1 percent. The reason is practical. Tracking is the data Walmart uses to tell customers where their order is, to measure whether you delivered on time, and to decide whether an order was ever shipped. When the tracking is missing or unreadable, every other metric that depends on delivery data loses its footing.

The arithmetic makes the bar feel even tighter. A seller shipping 400 orders across the measurement period can afford four invalid numbers. A seller shipping 1,000 orders can afford ten. One afternoon of labels created in a backup tool that writes order numbers into the tracking field, or one regional carrier whose scans never reach Walmart, can produce that many failures in a single day. We tell clients to treat valid tracking as a system property. Effort from the warehouse team does not move a 99 percent metric. A clean pipeline from label to scan to upload does.

How tracking connects to the rest of your scorecard

Tracking failures rarely stay inside one metric. The Seller Performance Standards list “no carrier scan” as a driver for both Valid Tracking Rate and On-Time Delivery Rate. Walmart’s Late Shipment Rate, set at 5 percent or below, lists missing or invalid scans among its drivers. The Negative Feedback Rate guide includes invalid tracking as one of the reasons customers leave one- and two-star ratings. A seller who lets tracking slip will often see on-time delivery, late shipment and feedback move in the same direction a week or two later. Our guide to the Walmart On-Time Delivery Rate covers the delivery side of that chain.

First miss compared with repeated misses

Walmart does not publish a warning tier or a fixed number of misses before action. The Valid tracking number policy lists three outcomes, selling restrictions, suspension and termination, without thresholds between them. Walmart’s suppression and termination policy describes what each status means in practice. Suppression makes your seller-fulfilled listings non-transactable while Walmart-fulfilled listings stay live. Suspension makes both seller-fulfilled and Walmart-fulfilled listings non-transactable and non-discoverable, restricts Seller Center access and puts payments on hold. Termination goes further, because every listing comes down and both selling privileges and Seller Center access are revoked for good, with payments held. Walmart revised this suppression, pause, suspension and termination policy on October 2, 2026.

In practice, a first dip that you correct quickly is usually handled through notifications and, at most, suppression of seller-fulfilled listings. A metric that stays below standard, or that drops again after a reinstatement, gives Walmart reason to move further up that list. The suspension policy also notes that Walmart may terminate qualifying accounts that remain suspended beyond a reasonable threshold without a successful appeal, so a slow response carries its own risk.

See also Walmart Seller Response Rate Under 95 Percent and Walmart On-Time Delivery Below 90 Percent.

Supported Carriers and Invalid Tracking

The fastest way to find the cause of a low Valid Tracking Rate is to ask one question first, whether the invalid numbers came from one carrier or from one upload path. In the cases we work, the answer is almost always one of the two. Walmart’s 99 percent bar is high enough that a reviewer looking at an appeal expects you to name the single system that failed and show it is fixed.

Sorting the failure report

Download the affected orders from the Performance dashboard and sort them three ways.

• By carrier. If most failures sit with one carrier or service level, the problem is carrier integration or carrier choice.
• By the system that confirmed the shipment. If failures cluster in orders confirmed through one tool, one integration or one staff member, the problem is the upload path.
• By the driver Walmart assigned. “No carrier scan” points to tender and pickup. “Invalid tracking ID” points to format or data entry. “Non-integrated carrier” points to the carrier itself.

Write down what you find with real numbers. “84 of 96 invalid orders shipped with one regional carrier between the 3rd and the 19th” is a root cause. “Some tracking was invalid” is not.

Business models that trigger the problem

Three operating models produce most Valid Tracking Rate failures. Each can be run compliantly with the right controls.

Sellers using regional or non-integrated carriers. Regional carriers can be cheaper and faster in their territory, but if the carrier is not one Walmart approves, its tracking cannot be validated and Walmart’s policy says plainly that the order is at risk. To run it compliantly, confirm in Seller Center that every carrier and service you use is on Walmart’s approved list before the first order ships. Select the carrier from the list rather than typing a name. Move volume to an approved carrier for any lane where your regional partner is not supported.

Merchant-fulfilled sellers uploading tracking manually. Manual entry is where formatting errors, swapped numbers and missed uploads come from. A busy day, a copied space at the end of a number or a tracking ID pasted into the wrong order is enough. To run it compliantly, connect your shipping software to Seller Center through an integration or the Walmart APIs so tracking posts automatically when the label is created and the order is confirmed, and keep manual entry for exceptions with a second person checking each one.

Dropshippers passing supplier tracking. When a supplier ships for you, you depend on the supplier’s label, the supplier’s carrier and the supplier’s timing. Numbers arrive late, belong to a carrier Walmart does not support, or are shared before the supplier hands the package to the carrier. Walmart’s Shipping and Fulfillment Policy also prohibits buying products from another retailer and having that retailer ship directly to your customer, which it calls retail arbitrage, so the supplier has to be a genuine wholesale or manufacturing partner. To run it compliantly, put carrier and timing requirements in your supplier agreement, require the supplier to use an approved carrier and to send tracking only after the package is scanned, and audit supplier tracking daily until the numbers are clean.

The carriers Walmart will not validate

Walmart’s Valid tracking number policy answers two common questions directly. You cannot ship with a carrier that is not Walmart-approved without risking suppression, suspension or termination. You cannot use stamps or prepaid envelopes, because all orders must have a valid tracking number. Sellers of light, low-cost items sometimes assume an untracked envelope is acceptable for small orders. On Walmart it is not, and each such order counts against the 99 percent.

Fixing Tracking Uploads

Once the report tells you which carrier or path failed, the fix is mechanical. We work through it in the same order every time, because each step removes a category of failure and makes the next one easier to see.

Correct carrier selection and mapping

Walmart’s guidance on invalid tracking is direct. An error after adding a tracking number means the number does not match the selected carrier or the required format. Check for typos and make sure the correct carrier is selected. In integrations, the same mistake shows up as a carrier mapping error, where your shipping software calls a service by one name and sends Walmart a carrier value it does not recognize. Open the carrier mapping in your integration, confirm each carrier and service your warehouse uses maps to the right Walmart value, and run a test order on each.

Upload only after tender

Walmart’s Shipping and Fulfillment Policy requires you to provide accurate and valid tracking numbers and to communicate them to Walmart only once a package has been tendered to the carrier. The Valid tracking number policy repeats the rule in its guidance on purchase order lines, to change the status to Shipped once the package is in the carrier’s possession. Many integrations post tracking the moment a label prints. If the package then sits overnight, or the label is voided and reprinted, Walmart receives a number with no scan or a number that never moves.

The fix is a workflow change. Either post tracking from a step that happens after pickup, such as an end-of-day manifest or a scan-out at the dock, or schedule your integration to confirm shipments after the carrier’s pickup time. If you relabel a package, Walmart’s policy says you must send the new tracking number.

Use the correction window

Walmart allows you to edit a tracking number after you mark an order as Shipped for up to 24 hours, or until the carrier’s first touch scan is received in Walmart’s system, whichever comes first. That window is short on purpose. Build a same-day check into your routine so wrong numbers are caught while they can still be fixed. After the window closes, the order stays in the failure count.

Watch the scan clock

Walmart’s performance notifications guide, last updated March 12, 2026, includes a Late Origin Scan alert for shipped orders that have not been scanned by the carrier for two business days, or 48 hours, after you sent the shipping confirmation. The same guide lists an Auto-Cancelled Orders alert for orders where valid tracking was not provided by the fourth calendar day after the Expected Ship Date, so a missing number can turn into a cancellation as well as a tracking miss. Treat that alert as an early warning for Valid Tracking Rate. It usually means a package was confirmed but not handed over, or a carrier is not passing pickup scans. Call the carrier the same day and confirm the pickup happened.

Multi-box and freight orders

Walmart’s policy also notes that shipping settings must be configured correctly for less-than-truckload products. Large or bulky items that move by freight need a freight carrier on the approved list and a tracking reference that carrier passes to Walmart.

Responding to a Selling Restriction

If the metric has already triggered action, Walmart will notify you by email. That email states the reason, whether you are eligible to appeal and any additional actions required. The appeal guide quoted in this section was last updated on December 9, 2025. Walmart’s appeal guide sets out the process in three steps, which are to review your metrics on the Performance page, write a business plan of action, and submit it through the right channel.

Which channel to use

Walmart separates suppression from suspension. If your seller-fulfilled listings were suppressed, a seller fulfillment deactivation warning appears as a banner on the Performance page, and you select Start appeal to begin. If your account was suspended, you select the Help button in the Seller Center menu bar to contact support and follow the steps to submit your plan. Walmart states that appeals are handled in the order they are received and that it will contact you with the decision. Termination is different. Walmart is not required to give a reason and does not accept appeals.

The plan of action for a tracking failure

Walmart asks for a written business plan of action that describes the violation and the steps you are taking to correct it. Our method for tracking cases rests on one position, that valid tracking now posts on time, and the shortfall traces to a cause that is already corrected. Each bullet below exists to prove that one claim about your carrier and upload path.

• The decision and your position. Name the notice and the Seller Performance Standards metric Walmart cited. State in one sentence that the shortfall came from a specific, identified gap that is now closed.
• Root cause. Name the carrier, the upload gap or the integration error, the date range and the number of affected orders. Reviewers reject vague causes. Do not blame the carrier or Walmart’s systems. A carrier that did not pass scans is still a carrier you chose, so frame it as a carrier selection or integration gap that you have since fixed.
• Corrective actions already taken. List what you have done with numbers, such as carriers replaced, mappings corrected, orders re-confirmed within the edit window and the integration rescheduled to post after pickup.
• Preventive measures. Describe the permanent control, who owns it and how often it runs. Automated upload at fulfillment, a daily check of unscanned shipments and a weekly review of the metric by carrier are the controls reviewers expect.
• Evidence. Attach the notice and metric figures, the affected order list sorted by cause, carrier or scan records showing the corrected flow, and your current metric.

Walmart’s appeal guide states that submitting an appeal does not guarantee reinstatement and that it confirms you understand and agree to comply with the Seller Performance Standards. Write the plan accordingly. Every commitment you make in it should be something your operation is already doing. If the appeal is declined, our guide to a denied Walmart delivery appeal explains how to rebuild a performance plan before resubmitting, and the same method applies to tracking cases.

Shipment Confirmation Routine

The routine below is the preventive section of a plan of action written as a daily habit. It takes a few minutes a day for most sellers and catches problems while they can still be corrected. The prevention lesson is to ship only with supported carriers and upload tracking after the package is tendered and scanned.

Every shipping day

1. Confirm after pickup. Mark orders Shipped only after the carrier has the packages, either through a manifest step or a scheduled confirmation after pickup.
2. Check the day’s uploads. Pull the orders confirmed today and look for numbers that match order numbers, contain spaces or symbols, or belong to a carrier other than the one selected. Fix them inside the 24-hour edit window.
3. Clear Late Origin Scan alerts. For any order flagged with no carrier scan 48 hours after confirmation, contact the carrier and confirm pickup.
4. Review supplier tracking. If a supplier ships for you, compare the numbers received against the orders due and chase any that are missing or invalid.

Every week

• Open Valid Tracking Rate on the Performance dashboard and download the affected orders.
• Sort failures by carrier, ship-from location and confirmation path, and write down the top cause.
• Replace or remove any carrier or service that fails validation more than once.
• Test the integration with one order per carrier after any software update.
• Record the metric, the top cause and the action taken in a simple log. That log becomes your evidence if Walmart ever asks for a plan of action.

Before you add a carrier, warehouse or supplier

Most tracking failures start with a change, such as a new carrier for a cheaper lane, a second warehouse or a new supplier shipping direct. Before any of these go live, confirm the carrier is approved, map it in your integration, ship a test order and watch the first scans arrive in Seller Center. One test order costs far less than a week of invalid numbers.

Our Walmart account health maintenance service runs this routine for sellers who prefer to have it monitored. If you have already received a warning on this metric, our companion guide on the Walmart Valid Tracking Rate warning walks through the triage steps before a restriction lands.

Regional standards and the law behind your shipping records

Walmart runs separate marketplace programs by country, and the standards are not identical. The table below shows what we confirmed on Walmart’s own pages. The legal column describes the consumer rules that sit behind a shipping promise in each country, and it does not replace advice from a lawyer licensed where you sell.

In the United States, the FTC Rule requires a seller who solicits online orders to have a reasonable basis to expect it can ship within the time it states, or within 30 days if it states no time. Section 435.2 adds that a seller without records or documentary proof of systems that assure shipment within the stated time faces a rebuttable presumption that it lacked that reasonable basis in an FTC action. Tracking records are part of that proof. A seller who keeps clean tracking data is in a far stronger position with both Walmart and the regulator.

In Canada, Walmart’s own page lists five performance metrics, including Valid Tracking Rate with a 95 percent target that sellers track on the Order and Fulfillment dashboard, and directs suspended sellers to appeal by opening a Partner Support case with a Business Plan of Action. Walmart Marketplace Canada states it will contact the seller within two to five business days. Canadian sellers should also take care with any delivery promise in their listings, because the Competition Act treats a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect as reviewable conduct. Mexican sellers face their own registration and tax requirements and should check the standards that apply in Seller Center for that market.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Walmart Valid Tracking Rate standard?

The US standard is valid tracking on at least 99 percent of your shipments. Walmart evaluates the metric over the last 30 or 60 days and shows it on the Performance dashboard. Walmart Marketplace Canada uses a separate 95 percent target.

What makes tracking invalid on Walmart?

Tracking is invalid when it comes from a carrier Walmart does not support or has no valid carrier scan on record. It also fails when it is formatted incorrectly, contains special characters, or repeats the purchase order or sales order number.

What happens if valid tracking drops below 99 percent?

Walmart may apply selling restrictions, suspension or termination. Walmart does not publish fixed thresholds between those outcomes, so a fast, documented fix is the best protection. Suspended accounts can appeal with a business plan of action, while terminations cannot be appealed.

Which carriers does Walmart support?

Check the approved carrier list in Seller Center before you ship. Walmart states that shipping with a non-approved carrier may result in suppression, suspension or termination because the tracking cannot be validated, and that stamps or prepaid envelopes are not allowed.

Can I upload tracking before shipping?

No, tracking should be sent once the package is tendered to the carrier. Walmart’s Shipping and Fulfillment Policy says to communicate tracking only after the carrier has the package, and you can edit a number for up to 24 hours or until the first carrier scan, whichever is earlier.

Get Help With a Walmart Valid Tracking Problem

Most sellers can fix a tracking problem with the method above once they know which carrier or upload path failed. Where we help most is when the failures are spread across several carriers, warehouses and integrations, and sorting out the cause and documenting it for an appeal takes real investigation. We build the root cause analysis and the plan of action so they hold up under review.

Go straight to our Walmart suspension and reinstatement service, submit your case for a free assessment, or book a consultation to review your shipping setup. Related guides cover the Walmart cancellation rate, Negative Feedback and Item Not Received rates, Seller Response Rate and high return rates.

When the metric sits close to 99 percent every month, our Walmart account health maintenance team can run the daily scan check and the weekly carrier audit for you. Sellers with problems on Amazon, eBay or TikTok Shop as well can compare every platform we cover on the marketplace reinstatement hub.

Sources

1. Walmart Marketplace Learn: Seller Performance Standards
2. Walmart Marketplace Learn: Valid tracking number policy
3. Walmart Marketplace Learn: Shipping and Fulfillment Policy
4. Walmart Marketplace Learn: Performance notifications
5. Walmart Marketplace Learn: Appeal an account suspension
6. Walmart Marketplace Learn: Suppression, pause, suspension and termination policy
7. Walmart Marketplace Learn (Canada): Seller Performance Standards
8. eCFR: 16 C.F.R. Part 435, Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise
9. Justice Laws Website: Competition Act, section 74.01