Mortgages in Walmart – what’s behind the relationship?

The idea is to give its bankers a leg up in the mortgage field by exposing them to potential borrowers among shoppers at Walmart – ranked the No. 1 retailer in the US in terms of size, according to the National Retail Federation. The retail behemoth posted $459 billion in sales late year, the NRF reported. That was more than the $217 billion posted by Amazon, the group found.

Read more: Lenders One Cooperative to sell mortgages at Walmart

And yet, the retailer doesn’t boast being in the top spot in terms of locations. According to Statista, Walmart had 5,326 locations as of last year – an impressive number, but dwarfed by the 18,378 locations run by Dollar General in the top spot, or the 15,857 operated by Dollar Tree. In terms of retail locations, Statista ranks Walmart 10th – sandwiched between O’Reilly Auto Parts (with 5,759 locations) and Ace Hardware (4,807).

Still, the retailers’ dynamics are a good fit for Lenders One, Demola explained: “Walmart is a trusted brand,” he said. “Its customers are loyal, there’s plenty of traffic through every Walmart location on an annual basis. This really puts our members in a perfect position to speak to potential borrowers who may or may not be mortgage-ready at the time of the initial conversation but allow them to harvest very large, type of funnel sales leads all the way through closing.”

The arrangement also helps its members compete with the industry’s biggest players: “When we look at what we do for our members, our primary mission is to help them compete with the larger, better-capitalized mortgage companies in the country,” he said. “That’s through savings, better execution and now, for one of the first times ever, helping them fill the top of their sales funnel with potential applicants.”