Review of the competition between Amazon and Walmart in 2022! Who will be the final winner?

It is learned that on December 21, PYMNTS reviewed and summarized its 2022 "Amazon and Walmart" series of reports, analyzing the competitive situation and future trends of the two retail giants this year.

In March of this year, PYMNTS data showed that after a 10-year battle, Amazon surpassed its rival Walmart for the first time in US retail spending share at the end of 2021. Due to sales growth during the fourth quarter holiday season, Amazon's share of retail spending at the end of 2021 was 9.4%, while Walmart's share was 8.6%.

Prior to this, Walmart's retail market share was slightly ahead of Amazon by 0.3%. The e-commerce sales growth driven by the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed Amazon's retail market share to lead Walmart by 0.8%.

Category Competition

In the competition among different categories, the study found that Walmart still dominates in the food and beverage sector with an 18.6% share, while Amazon's share of the grocery business is 1.9%, which is growing exponentially.

However, Amazon has the upper hand in clothing and apparel, sporting goods, hobbies, music and books, and furniture and home furnishings.

In the clothing sector, data from the first quarter of this year showed that both Amazon and Walmart's clothing market share declined, but Amazon still led Walmart by 8%. By the end of 2021, Amazon and Walmart's shares in clothing and accessories were 14.6% and 6.5%, respectively.

Online and offline sales battle

PYMNTS's second-quarter report showed that as of the second quarter of 2022, Walmart's share of consumer retail spending had slipped below the 2019 level of 7.1%, but it still maintained a leading position in the field.

Walmart's share of total consumer spending increased very slightly, from 2.8% in the previous quarter to 3% in the second quarter of 2022, as pandemic restrictions eased and consumers returned to physical stores.

Amazon remains the market leader in online sales, with 45% market share, compared to Walmart’s 5.4%. In addition, Amazon dominates online sales in some categories, including sporting goods, hobbies, music and books (56%), electronics and appliances (54%), and health and personal care (43%).

Walmart is overtaking Amazon

By the third quarter of 2022, Walmart appears to be on track to surpass Amazon.

Amazon's stock price fell nearly 20% after the release of its third-quarter earnings, while Walmart's stock price was unchanged, which narrowed the gap in market value between Walmart and Amazon to 2.5 times. For the entire third quarter, Amazon's stock price fell 35%, while Walmart rose 8%.

In its upcoming third-quarter "Amazon vs. Walmart Competition Report," PYMNTS data shows that in the third quarter of 2022, Amazon accounted for 7.0% of consumer retail spending, while Walmart accounted for 7.1%.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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