Walmart Offers Struggling SMBs a Home Inside Its Stores

Walmart has teamed with pop-up shop marketplace platform Popable to let small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rent spaces in its stores as smaller merchants struggle with rising prices.

The program is aimed at helping SMBs recover from the pandemic without having to sign a long-term lease, according to a Monday (Oct. 31) news release.

Brands can list themselves on the Popable website, where they’ll be paired with a local Walmart and enter into a temporary lease. Leases can run from a month to a year and could become long-term arrangements, the release stated.

The partnership comes as SMBs are facing supplier price increases, which is in turn leading them to drive up prices consumers are paying.

In the PYMNTS study “Main Street Health Q3 2022: SMBs Battle Inflation,” United States businesses said their own fight with inflation on the supply side is invariably showing up in higher prices for consumers in industries from construction to professional services.

A little more than half (54%) of Main Street SMBs said they expect revenues to rise in 2022, which is slightly less than the 56% who felt optimistic in January.

These businesses are also worried about inflation, with 37% of Main Street SMB decision-makers pointing to inflation as their greatest worry for the coming year, something just 23% mentioned in January.

Close to 45% of retail and consumer services Main Street SMBs reported that inflation is the concern that keeps them awake at night. Overall uncertainty about economic conditions is the second most common concern — but that’s a distant second, mentioned by just 17% of the merchants who took the survey.

Another headache facing SMBs is a shortage of warehouse space driven by a glut of inventory at big retailers, such as Walmart. As PYMNTS noted earlier this month, real estate and logistics experts said bigger companies need more space to keep their excess inventories, which has driven up costs for smaller merchants.

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