Comparison of Amazon and Walmart’s third-party marketplace in 2023

Walmart has always regarded Amazon as its main competitor in the e-commerce field. Although the scale gap is still large, Walmart is working hard to catch up. Unlike platforms such as eBay and Wish that only sell third-party sellers' goods, Amazon and Walmart adopt a 1P and 3P hybrid model. But for Amazon and Walmart, it is still important to expand the scale of third-party sellers.

Recently, Walmart held its first seller summit event and announced a number of seller services to further expand the third-party seller market. As sellers seek more sales channels, the development of Amazon and Walmart's third-party markets has also attracted more attention. DigitalCommerce360 compared the latest development status of the two.

Comparison of the number of third-party sellers on Amazon and Walmart

According to research by DigitalCommerce360, by 2022, the number of third-party sellers on Amazon will reach 1.9 million, and on Walmart 155,000.

Although Walmart has far fewer third-party sellers than Amazon, it is still growing. In 2021, Walmart's third-party marketplace was opened to sellers outside the United States. According to MarketplacePulse data, that year, the number of Walmart sellers roughly doubled from 69,000 in 2021 to about 130,000.

In September this year, Walmart announced plans to launch its third-party marketplace in Chile in early 2024. So far, Walmart's third-party marketplace has been operating in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. In contrast, Amazon has nearly 20 sites around the world, covering a wider geographical area than Walmart.

However, neither Amazon nor Walmart disclosed many details about the proportion of sales from third-party sellers and their own products. But an Amazon press release stated that on Prime Day 2023, its third-party seller sales growth exceeded its own business. During the Walmart+ week event, most of Walmart's sales came from third-party sellers.

Comparison of GMV of third-party sellers on Amazon and Walmart

According to DigitalCommerce360, Amazon's GMV reached $576.5 billion in 2022, compared with Walmart's GMV of $118.6 billion in the same period. Amazon is also ahead of Walmart in terms of third-party sellers' GMV.

Data shows that in 2022, 63.7% of Amazon's GMV came from third-party sellers, an increase from 62.4% in 2021 and 59.9% in 2020. However, only 27.5% of Walmart's GMV came from third-party sellers, which has remained stable since 2020.

Both marketplaces are expanding the GMV of third-party goods on their platforms. In 2022, Walmart's third-party seller sales GMV grew 10%, twice as fast as Amazon's 5%. However, in 2021, Amazon grew faster than Walmart, at 25% and 16.5%, respectively.

It is worth mentioning that in 2020, the GMV of third-party seller sales on Amazon and Walmart both achieved significant growth. Amazon's third-party seller sales GMV in 2020 increased by 40%, while Walmart increased by an astonishing 110% year-on-year.

Comparison of logistics services for third-party sellers on Amazon and Walmart

Amazon and Walmart both provide logistics services for third-party sellers. Amazon provides FBA services to sellers. According to a survey conducted by JungleScout in 2023, currently, 86% of Amazon's third-party sellers use its FBA service.

Walmart provides WFS service. Recently, Walmart announced that it will provide large-scale transportation services to sellers through WFS. In addition, if the goods sold online by the seller are available in physical stores, local pickup and delivery services can be provided. Goods delivered using WFS can carry the Fulfilled by Walmart label, and the GMV of goods with this label will increase by an average of 50%.

As a relatively mature e-commerce market, American consumers are more accustomed to shopping through shelf e-commerce platforms, and have higher requirements for delivery experience.

A recent survey by DigitalCommerce360 showed that 44% of online shoppers said they shop on marketplaces at least once a week, with 76% of respondents having shopped on Amazon in the past year and 35% having shopped from third-party sellers on Walmart.

In terms of delivery experience, a survey conducted by DigitalCommerce360 and BizrateInsights on 1,039 consumers in May 2023 showed that the two issues that consumers are most concerned about purchasing goods from the market are both related to transportation. 39% of consumers said that the transportation time is long and 38% said that the transportation costs are too high.

Notably, nearly half (46%) said they have a hard time distinguishing whether a product on Amazon is listed by a third-party seller or by Amazon itself.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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