Following the news of Doug McMillon retiring, I thought of how far Walmart went in ecommerce with McMillon as a CEO. Today, Walmart is killing it, and is a channel ecommerce professionals can’t ignore. But the early days were a little rough for the retail giant. Back in 2000, while Amazon was working on its strong fulfillment network, Walmart.com went live. Limited assortment, glitchy search, and shipping times that would make any Zoomer scream in disgust.
In this post, I’ll go over Walmart’s difficult start, the Jet.com adventure, and the pandemic shift that turned stores into a massive asset. We’ll also see where they stand today and how they compare with the top dog Amazon. Omnichannel is, as we will see, a key part of Walmart’s success. If you’re a seller, shopper, or just curious, there’s a lot to learn from Walmart strategy and how the company went from a retail dinosaur to one of the top ecommerce platforms today.
The Difficult Early Days and the Jet.com Adventure – 2000-2018
Let’s not sugarcoat it: Walmart’s early ecomm days were the complete opposite of todays omnichannel strategies. Picture this: 1996, they build a basic website for Walmart and Sam’s Club. By 2000, Walmart.com relaunches as a real shop, but it is isolated from the rest of the business. No store integration, just two DCs shipping slowly. Traffic was nothing terrible but far from Amazon, and ranked #47 in the US by 2009.
In 2000, Amazon was already hitting $2.8 billion in revenue, with 35 fulfillment centers. Walmart was still using its website as a separate entity, treating it like a separate tool rather than the online extension of their 4600 stores network it could have been.
The 2000s were not Walmart.com best years, with poor search capabilities and clunky supply chain. They experimented with partnerships (anyone remembers AOL?) and website replatforms (the IBM WebSphere Commerce was reportedly a disaster). The company basically treated online like a side business, rather than a key extension. By the early 2010s, Walmart.com was still struggling, while Amazon marketplace was exploding with 3P sellers joining.
2016 was a major shift: Walmart spent $3.3B for Jet.com, a startup founded in 2014. Marc Lore, Jet.com founder, became Walmart’s ecomm CEO. It wasn’t just tech but a cultural shift. In 11 months, they replatform Walmart.com on Jet’s stack. By 2017, grocery pickup rolls out in 1000 stores. But the secret sauce is that stores aren’t just foreign entities, they are now part of Walmart.com supply chain. Ship-from-store cuts delivery to barly 1 to 2 days. Jet wasn’t a silver bullet, but it had a strong impact on Walmart’s ecommerce journey.
The Pandemic Era – 2020-2025
Then COVID hit, and Walmart’s bet paid off. It is true that the pandemic caused an uptick in online sales across the board, but the results are impressive. In Q2 2020, ecommerce sales are up 97% YoY, as locked-down folks tried to panic-buy toilet paper from their couches. September 2020 saw the launch of Walmart+, on a model similar to Prime. It quickly became a success, from 2 million members in 2020 to 30 million by 2025.
2021 was huge for businesses as Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) opened to 3P sellers, again heavily inspired by Amazon’s FBA. By then, 69% of the US population was within 10 miles of a Walmart DC, making shipping very fast, even by modern standards. By 2023, Marketplace GMV hit $35 billion, with 100K sellers (vs. Amazon’s 2M).
In 2022, operations were even more efficient, with same-day delivery in 2,700 stores, 90% of online orders touching a physical location at some point (pickup, ship-from-store, or curbside). The results we saw during the pandemic showed not only that Walmart was becoming a powerhouse, but also how important omnichannel is. While Amazon built mega-FCs, Walmart used its network of stores and DC as a weapon. Ecommerce accounts for 18% of total revenue in FY 2025, up from 11% before the pandemic.
Where Is Walmart Today in 2025?
Fast forward to FY 2025, sales reached $105B globally, with US ecommerce up 21% YoY in Q1 ( which is the first profitable quarter ever, due to margins on the marketplace, Walmart Connect ads, and efficiency gains on fulfillment). Walmart marketplace now has 160K active sellers and growing, and grew GMV by 34% Q4 for FY25.
Now, how does it compare to Amazon? Let’s look at the numbers.
While Amazon is still #1, I can’t help but notice how the gap is narrowing. These days, it feels like most businesses launching on Amazon will also start selling on Walmart.com. I remember talking to a customer years ago, who frequently purchases the product the company I work for sells. I assumed he bought it on Amazon, but he corrected me : “No, I buy on Walmart.com. Shipping to my house is faster.”
On November 14th , CEO Doug McMillon (in the role since 2014) announced his retirement effective Jan 2026. During his decade as the CEO of Walmart, stock went up 323%, ecomm went from a side business to a $100B+ source of revenues.
Conclusion
Walmart is teaching us an important lesson here. Having a flashy website is great, but it won’t help much if what happens behind the scenes is subpar. Fulfillment, supply chain, customer service: an ecommerce business is more than a storefront. And omnichannel is not just another buzzword, it matters more than ever.
What can we expect under John Furner, future CEO? Personally, I am expecting the company to follow a similar trajectory, at least for its ecomm operations. Reinforce their grocery business, and grab a larger share in pharmacy hopefully.
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-acquisition-of-jet-gave-ecommerce-boost-2019-6
https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2016/09/19/walmart-completes-acquisition-of-jet-com-inc
https://www.junglescout.com/blog/walmart-ecommerce-growth
