Can Walmart Catch Amazon In E-commerce?

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From partnering with Instacart to launching Walmart+ as a competitor to Prime, here are all the ways Walmart is looking to catch up with Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce as the pandemic pushes more shoppers online.

Walmart is partnering with Instacart to offer same-day delivery starting in a few U.S. markets, making it the latest major grocery chain to team up with Instacart in its fight against Amazon and Whole Foods.

The partnership is currently in a pilot phase in four markets across California and in Oklahoma.

Walmart’s partnership comes at a key time. Consumers are relying on grocery delivery at an unprecedented rate due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and some analysts believe customers will continue to shop online even as things go back to normal.

“Today, we welcomed Walmart to the Instacart marketplace for the first time in the U.S. Instacart now delivers from Walmart locations in three California markets — Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego — as well as Tulsa, Oklahoma,” an Instacart spokesperson said in a statement. “The new partnership brings thousands of items — from groceries, alcohol and pantry staples to home decor and improvement, personal care, electronics and more — at everyday low prices from Walmart stores to customers’ doors in as fast as an hour.”

Instacart already partners with or delivers goods from Aldi, Target, Costco, Albertsons, Kroger and Walmart’s Sam’s Club, along with smaller grocers and drug stores.

By offering quick delivery, big chain grocers have a stronger position against Amazon, which offers grocery delivery services Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now from its own warehouses and Whole Foods stores.

In his testimony before the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust on July 29, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said companies such as Shopify and Instacart are emerging as competitors to Amazon’s business.

“In recent months, curbside pickup of online orders has increased over 200%, in part due to COVID-19 concerns,” Bezos said. “We also face new competition from the likes of Shopify and Instacart — companies that enable traditionally physical stores to put up a full online store almost instantaneously and to deliver products directly to customers in new and innovative ways — and a growing list of omnichannel business models.”

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What It Would Take For Walmart To Catch Amazon In E-commerce

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32 COMMENTS

  2. I prefer in person shopping. This rising trend of having everything brought to your home so you don't ever have to leave really bugs me.

  3. Amazon is just a middle man. Now that Bezos really isn't in charge anymore I wonder if we'll see Amazon decline slowly over the next few decades. I remember when Sony was huge. They started to diversify from music to TV and gadgets to finally only being a Video Game company. I can see that happening to Amazon. They have so many other services now, when not if but when their general retail business declines, they'll probably fall back and focus on their Amazon services product lines.

  4. I never understood why Walmart let Amazon get this far ahead of them in the first place. Walmart's website still sucks for online shopping. They haven't really tried very hard in the last 15 years to be online competitive. Remember how agressive they were when they first cropped up? Building and undercutting all Kmarts for 0 profits just to put them out of business. What happened to that backbone over the last 20 years? ? ? I just don't get. Walmart just gave up or the CEO retired or something. I don't know.

  5. I used to purchase all kind if vegetables, Chickens, Pea nuts, Curry Masala, Fruits, mush rooms, chockolates etc from WAL MART near to the Hotel Marriot. I used to go to WAL MART by walikng frim Hotel Marriot at Pullman street. In between one Church was existing. I used to go to the church each time when i used to go WAL MART. Everything is very systematic. Few times hotel drivers accompanied me to go to WALMART.

  8. I created Walmart and own it therews no such thing as the Walton's Walmart worth is only like a one million dollar to like three million dollar contract. Amazon is a one hundred million dollar to one hundred billion dollar contract. Basic math and general education at city college would show you that Walmart can never compete or even be in the same ball park the difference is like d league and actual national sports levels.

  11. Why is Walmart not operating in countries like India… Amazon sells over the region, whereas we do not buy or visit Walmart stores/websites at all… I think they need to rethink outside the US for faster growth, in addition to diversifying their own business… Walmart can surely beat Amazon if it takes the odd route…

  13. In my experience Walmart online ordering is horrible. Horrible Quality control., always delayed or late delivery, severe price discrepancies of what is advertised versus what is charged in the end. Good luck trying to get it resolved with their customer service.

  14. In Canada it’s the worst online experience I ever had..seriously thought it was just a bunch of monkeys in a barrel control ing things..buyer beware there are thousands of one star reviews about Walmart.ca shopping online nightmare

  16. unless Walmart does something miraculous or amazon screws up big time, it's hard. It's like google, they have a monopoly on many things. But then again big companies like Nokia have gone in a matter of years. But the point to remember is google and amazon have various branches if one shuts down there is always the other. In that aspect, apple might have a catastrophic fall if they don't diversify much. Yes they are working on autonomous cars and others but I don't see much

  20. Navigating Walmart’s website is one of their biggest problems, definitely not user friendly. If they can fix that issue, more people will use them.

  21. Walmart online is absolute garbage. Almost 20% of my Walmart orders get canceled for apparently no reason at all because you can repurchase right after and it goes through. They are very slow at shipping. They slow at fulfilling. I gave Walmart a chance for a long time and have given up on them.

  22. The Walmart online experience is a joke compared to Amazon. It's not almost as good. It's painfully bad! Even with effort on the part of buyers, it's bad, while my purchases on Amazon are effortless.

  24. I find I don't buy ANYTHING from Walmart online anymore. I buy from Amazon. For example I wanted a new heavy duty sewing machine. It was the same exact price at Walmart and Amazon. BUT, Walmart wanted $100 for shipping! Damn. Walmart had 3 week delivery time. Not good. Needed it asap for my business. Amazon however, offered FREE shipping and it got to me in 3 days. I bought through Amazon. 😊 And this was before I signed up for Amazon prime.

  31. Whole Foods started charging $10 for delivery of groceries. Why am I paying $119/yr then for prime? Definitely time to look into Walmart +. People will just stop tipping drivers and Amazon makes off with all the cash. So ruthless.

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