Walmart ramps up e-commerce to rival Amazon's Prime Day event
Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma breaks down Walmart's latest push to grow its e-commerce and grocery businesses.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here.
Amazon's Prime Day deals will take front and center stage for most shoppers this week, as it extends its signature shopping period to four days for the first time. But this year, as in recent years, it is not alone. Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma joins us now with more, Brooke.
Good afternoon to you both. Certainly what we've seen in recent years is really Amazon get taken on by their retail rivals. Think Target, think Walmart specifically, but so many others are looking to get in on this big splash of savings like Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, even Tractor Supply and Ulta Beauty. Well, they're looking to get in on the action, too. But let's take a closer look at one of their biggest competitors, Walmart. Well, Walmart, they're really upping their ante when it comes to their e-commerce business. In the last quarter, that e-commerce business here in the U.S. just turned profitable, and now they're really doubling down on their offering this week. They're instead of just having a four-day event like Amazon Prime, they're looking to do it bigger. And so Walmart's having a six-day event from July 8th to July 13th. That's trumping Amazon Prime's Day event from July 11th, or July 8th rather, to July 11th. Now, some sources tell me that Amazon is clearly the big winner this week. And sure, customers, just top of mind, they'll go to Amazon first, they'll look at the prices. But then ultimately, what they might be doing is going elsewhere in this environment where consumers are so conscientious about how much things cost. They really are conscientious about where exactly they want to spend here. And so they'll go elsewhere. They'll go to that Walmart, they'll go to these other retailers. But this could be a prime opportunity for Walmart. That's what some analysts tell me. Specifically, what they really want to gain here is memberships. The Walmart Deals Week, they're ultimately enticing those Walmart Plus customers, something that launched back in 2020, to sign up. They're saying, hey, through mid-July, we're going to offer 50% off, and that could be a big opportunity for Walmart. But when you really look at another business that Walmart's winning on, that's Walmart Grocery business here. Of course, they've been touting that on recent earnings calls that they're gaining more high-income shoppers, and that Walmart Plus membership also tends to be higher income as well. But when you take a look at the numbers, guys, Walmart's e-commerce business is far, far lower than Amazon's business here when it comes to just how much money they're bringing in. If you take a look at last year right here, you could see that Walmart brought in around $121 billion when it comes to their e-commerce business. That's of course, far lower than Amazon's e-commerce business online stores. And also, when you think about just how much membership fees they bring in, Amazon also surpasses by a landslide how much Walmart Plus brings in when it comes to membership fees. And also, the top side here is that Walmart Plus subscription is far lower than Amazon Prime. Also, they're offering that half off right now. And so it could entice customers. That's ultimately what Walmart wants here. They want to take the eyes away from Amazon.
Will there be certain categories, Brooke, where Walmart would think, okay, we have maybe some type of competitive advantage here? Would it be, you know, for example, would it be food sales?
Yeah, certainly. So 60% of Walmart's U.S. sales is grocery. And that's what ultimately Amazon has to worry about here. One analyst telling me that one of the biggest things that Amazon, or rather Walmart has to look out for, is if Amazon gets competitive on their grocery business. And what we've seen in recent months is really Amazon invest, look around, see exactly how they could really integrate and grow that Whole Foods acquisition that happened back in 2017, just a few years ago now, it seems like with the pandemic. But really, they're trying to entice consumers here with that.
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