The gap between Amazon and Walmart continues to widen? Q3 retail business comparison

It is learned that Pymnts recently released the retail business performance and data comparison of Amazon and Walmart in the third quarter, showing that Amazon's retail share in the United States continues to lead Walmart, and the gap is widening. In some categories, Amazon has a clear advantage over Walmart.

In recent years, Amazon and Walmart have been competing fiercely for the top spot in US retail, and their market share has been close. But in 2023, Amazon's performance in the first three quarters of the same year exceeded Walmart's for the first time. In fact, Amazon's retail business share has exceeded Walmart for five consecutive quarters.

The fourth quarter ushers in the holiday shopping season, and Amazon's advantage in e-commerce may help it further widen the gap with Walmart. Pymnts' latest report analyzes the earnings reports of the two giants from the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2023.

Retail market share in the third quarter

In the third quarter of 2023, Amazon's retail sales were close to $150 billion, accounting for 8.2% of total retail spending by U.S. consumers. Walmart's sales in the same period were $131 billion, accounting for 7.2% of total retail spending in the same period. This is the first time that Amazon has led Walmart by more than 1%.

At the end of 2020, Amazon's retail market share surpassed Walmart for the first time, and remained on par in 2021 and 2022, but in the long run, Amazon eventually surpassed Walmart. As Amazon's share continues to rise in categories where it has a par with Walmart, its full-year performance in 2023 will surpass Walmart for the first time.

Retail e-commerce share in the third quarter

Amazon has always dominated the U.S. e-commerce sector, but Walmart is also catching up. Its e-commerce sales increased by 24% year-on-year last year, exceeding Amazon's 19% growth in the same period.

In the third quarter, Walmart's e-commerce sales reached $18.6 billion, accounting for 6.8% of the US retail e-commerce market, an increase of 24% year-on-year, higher than 17% in the same period last year.

Amazon's share of e-commerce sales in the United States is much higher, reaching 53% in the third quarter, up from 48% in the same period last year, and sales increased by 19% year-on-year. Since 2019, Amazon's e-commerce market share has increased by nearly 13% from 40.8% in the first quarter of 2019, making it the undisputed leader in the US e-commerce field.

Key categories where Amazon dominates

Data from the third quarter showed that Amazon's market share in certain key categories was significantly higher than Walmart's, including clothing accessories, home furniture, electronics, sporting goods, and music books.

According to data, Amazon's share of the electronics and home appliances category is 37%, which is 6 times that of Walmart. Compared with the third quarter of 2022, Amazon's market share in this category increased by 4.4% year-on-year, while Walmart remained at 6%.

Amazon surpassed Walmart in the furniture and home furnishings market for the first time at the end of 2019. Since then, Amazon's sales share in the category has continued to grow, reaching 16.2% in the third quarter of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%. For Walmart, its market share in the category in the third quarter was 7.6%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.1%.

Amazon's share of sales in the apparel category also continues to grow, from 7.9% in the first quarter of 2019 to 16.2% in the third quarter of 2023. Walmart's share of the apparel category was comparable to Amazon's at 8% in the first quarter of 2019, but reached 11% in the second quarter of 2022 and fell to 6.7% in the third quarter of 2023.

In the sporting goods, books, and hobbies category, Amazon continues to dominate, with a market share of 33.4% in the third quarter of 2023, up from 29.3% last year. In contrast, Walmart's market share remained unchanged and is now 5.9%, down 0.1% year-over-year.

Key categories where Walmart dominates

Overall, Walmart dominates the food and beverage category, with a 19.1% market share, more than seven times that of Amazon. Walmart's share of sales in the food and beverage category grew by 0.5% year-over-year. However, despite Amazon's much smaller share, it increased its participation in the category from 2.4% to 2.6% last year.

Another category where Walmart has an advantage is health and personal care, and Amazon is also continuing to catch up in this category. After achieving positive growth for two consecutive quarters, Amazon's sales share in the health and personal care category has shrunk to 0.1%.

At the beginning of 2019, Walmart held 6% of the health and personal care market, while Amazon's share was nearly three times lower at 2.1%. Since then, Amazon's share of the market in this category has continued to climb. In 2023, the market share of Amazon and Walmart in this category narrowed from 0.8% to 0.1%, which is the smallest gap since 2019.

Editor✎ Ashley/

Disclaimer: This article is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission.