You may have heard recently about Amazon overtaking Walmart’s revenues for the first time.
But Walmart is far from being out of the game; I would say they are a serious competitor in ecommerce.
In 2024, Walmart delivered five billion items on the same day they were ordered, twice as many as in 2023. Amazon does not communicate its numbers, but the growth is impressive.
Their huge network of over 4,000 stores is definitely helping, and their dominance in the grocery category is a very strong asset. They built Spark, a network of independent drivers, to expand their reach and can now offer same-day delivery to 93% of the U.S.
I don’t think we will see Walmart beating Amazon at ecommerce anytime soon, but they are making serious progress. The risk for Walmart would be to stop focusing on the customer and shopping experience.
Amazon is getting a lot of backlash for the way its marketplace evolved over the years (for example, the abundance of ads and sponsored listings), and I think Walmart should avoid taking the same route. I also think their membership, Walmart+, is very important here if they want to take market share away from Amazon.
