It will not be wrong to say that the story of American retailers begins and ends with Amazon and Walmart; such is the dominance of the retail giants that are closely contesting to overtake the other. It seems a never-ending race when it comes to Walmart vs. Amazon. The competition gets hot every day as both players compete to get the share of the pie of the same market with none ready to give in an inch to another. Walmart and Amazon are the true giants of the retail space in the US that together collected 1 trillion in revenue last year. By all counts, they are the largest sellers in the world, and the retailers are neck-and-neck while waging the battle for supremacy. The Amazon vs. Walmart battle will remind you of car racing due to the intensity of the competition.
Walmart vs. Amazon – the background of the battle
The battle between the giant retailers is two decades old and only gets hotter with each passing year as the players want to get the better of the other. FIt is hard for those keenly following the see-saw contest to predict any outright winner as the battle goes on with no end in sight. These days, Amazon dominated the retail space absolutely in the e-commerce space because it is the retailer’s primary business model. On the other hand, with a hybrid business model, Walmart has a physical presence and an e-commerce platform, with the former contributing handsomely toward the business growth. Therefore, it might be challenging to compare the companies in equal terms gather insights about the Amazon vs. Walmart battle.
Big stakes for both for retail and e-commerce dominance
While it is easy to compare the companies’ overall sales to determine who is ahead, there is a caveat to keep in mind. Remember that Walmart has a hybrid business model while Amazon solely relies on e-commerce. In 2020 Walmart sales touched $559 billion, and Amazon sales recorded $386 billion, which might make it appear that Walmart is well ahead. However, the e-commerce sales from walmart.com constitute only 13.4% of the total sales. Therefore, comparing the performances against the same yardstick is not possible.
However, things will change as Amazon remodels its business by opening retail stores like Walmart. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has plans to build its large-format stores to mark its foray into the physical retail space to take on Walmart on a larger scale. Although the 30,000 square feet stores in Ohio and California are minuscule compared to the sprawling and gigantic Walmart stores, Amazon is taking the battle to the enemy camp.
Selling on Walmart and Amazon
Sellers must weigh the pros and cons when deciding about selling on Walmart vs. Amazon. Before taking a call, they must look at every detail of the selling techniques and the controls exercised by the companies on sellers, along with some other aspects. Brands that rely heavily on Amazon have become central to the consumers’ lives to sell their products while staying profitable and relevant. As e-commerce sales skyrocketed since the pandemic and Walmart had been on the back foot for some, Amazon is the obvious choice for business continuity in any circumstances.
Although Walmart has a smaller share of the e-commerce space than Amazon, which maintains absolute dominance, brands feel it necessary to be present on walmart.com. To grow the consumer base, brands must avail all online selling opportunities as online shopping is growing at a breathtaking pace.
As both companies are growing incredibly fast, sellers must develop suitable strategies to gain from it by being present on both platforms to stay relevant with all sections of the audience.
The choice for buyers
Given a choice, anyone would opt for online shopping, and the scales tilt in favor of Amazon when someone weighs the options to buy from Amazon or Walmart, which is better. That customers love Amazon more than Walmart is evident from the 112 million members of Amazon Prime to 8.2 million members of the Walmart + program. The worldwide customer of Amazon is 330 million to Walmart’s 220 million.
It is hard to predict the winner of the Walmart vs. Amazon epic battle that becomes more intense as the market grows.
