Amazon V/s Walmart – Case Study

1. Who is winning the battle amongst the two players, Amazon and Walmart? Discuss
Product Range
Both Walmart and Amazon have a wide choice of products available in many different
categories, such as groceries, furniture, cosmetics, books, stationery, electronics, and home
goods. Both Walmart and Amazon have their own product lines that fall into many categories.
Walmart owns more than 50 brands, while Amazon has over 40 unique labels registered
under its name. Customers have the choice to buy their favourite products from either
Amazon or Walmart as they compete head-to-head.
Customer Focus
When it comes to giving customer reviews priority, Amazon beats Walmart hands down.
Amazon is renowned for its customer-centric culture and emphasis on providing excellent
customer service throughout the entire organisation. In order to improve the quality of the
customer experience, Amazon places a high value on better, more outstanding customer
service and has a simple return policy. Amazon's online shopping experience is greater to
Walmart's because it provides a variety of delivery alternatives, discounts, rewards, and
affiliate marketing programmes.
Sustainability
Compared to Amazon, Walmart has made more impressive sustainability measures. For
instance, it gets goods from producers who follow sustainable practises and powers its retail
locations with 100% renewable energy. In addition to investing in efforts to cut carbon
emissions, Walmart has always been more transparent about its carbon footprint. Despite its
efforts to reduce its environmental impact, Amazon generates a lot of packaging waste and
has just lately revealed its carbon emission figures. Walmart is unquestionably the winner in
terms of sustainability.
Shipping and Delivery
When it comes to product delivery and shipping, Amazon has an advantage. With the
convenience of choosing their chosen time, communication channel, and alternative delivery
locations, Amazon offers customers the freedom to choose their preferred delivery method.
With the introduction of same-day and next-day delivery, Amazon's sales soared.
Additionally, compared to Walmart's 31 specific e-commerce fulfilment centres, Amazon has
185 fulfilment centres worldwide, making its delivery significantly quicker and more
efficient. In addition, Amazon offers multi-channel fulfilment, enabling vendors to use
Amazon FBA for sales on websites other than Amazon. The long-awaited Amazon delivery
drone, which can carry products in 30 minutes or less, finally obtained FAA permission.
International Presence
With roughly 180 countries where it is available and 13% of all e-commerce sales worldwide,
Amazon has a much wider global reach. There are around 11,300 Walmart stores globally,
although they are only present in 28 countries. Amazon has a greater global audience thanks
to its dominance in e-commerce. Customers can purchase via Amazon's international website
because the company offers worldwide shipping in addition to domestic shipping. Amazon
wants to boost their global distribution in order to cut costs and make purchasing abroad
more simple, quick, and economical.
Technology
Amazon and Walmart have worked to improve their offerings by implementing cutting-edge
technical innovations. Both businesses use cutting-edge technology and inventive approaches
to enhance the consumer experience. For instance, Walmart changed the architecture of its
store to make it simpler for shoppers to find merchandise, and it installed digital kiosks to
streamline in-store buying. The Alphabot technology, another noteworthy development by
Walmart, enables it to automate its grocery delivery service and convert more of its stores
into completely automated fulfilment hubs, making up for its lack of delivery capabilities.
The implementation of self-checkout via digital carts (cashier-less checkout), pick-up and
walk-out (auto-billing), which relies on IoT sensors and transforms their stores into smart
stores, has been one of Amazon's greatest technological achievements. Amazon and Walmart
compete head-to-head in terms of innovation and the use of cutting-edge technologies to
improve operations.
Retail Dominance
Amazon presently has close to 600 retail locations worldwide and is quickly growing its
offline retail presence. However, Walmart's already well-established retail presence is in no
way comparable to Amazon's efforts to create a physical retail image. While only 18% of
Amazon's revenue comes from its retail stores, more than 80% of Walmart's revenue comes
from offline retail. Walmart thereby maintains its hegemony over the offline retail sector.
Subscription Model
The subscription services provided by Amazon and Walmart, respectively, are Amazon Prime
and Walmart+. Free shipping, same-day delivery, early access to specials, cashback, and
reward points are just a few of the advantages of Amazon Prime. Customers can use their
mobile devices to scan the products at contactless checkout at Walmart, which offers free
delivery and shipping with no minimum purchase value. While Amazon Prime is accessible
to customers worldwide, Walmart's subscription model is only available to those in the US
and Canada. When it comes to the value-added services it provides and their accessibility
worldwide, Amazon Prime beats Walmart+.
Pricing
Depending on the product category, you can find inexpensive items on Amazon and Walmart.
Walmart is recognised for having inexpensive household products, kitchenware, and
groceries. Amazon also offers excellent discounts on clothing, home goods, and technology.
During the festive and holiday seasons, Amazon and Walmart both hold sales where they give
enormous discounts on a wide range of goods.Both Walmart and Amazon provide consumers
things that are reasonably priced and of high quality.

Amazon outprofits Walmart in terms of revenue

With over 9 million sellers and 1.5 million active merchants on its marketplace, Amazon
leads the e-commerce industry. Third-party vendors make up more than 82% of these sellers.
Amazon's sales have increased dramatically in both the retail and e-commerce sectors.The net
income of Amazon exceeds that of Walmart. Amazon's net income in the most recent fiscal
year was roughly 33.36 billion USD, compared to Walmart's 13.67 billion USD. Because
third-party sellers make up the majority of Amazon's sellers, it has a higher net income.
While Amazon only provides them with inventory space to store their goods, these sellers
handle the majority of processing and order fulfilment. Amazon's expenses are reduced as a
result of using third-party merchants, improving net profits for the business.
According to the parameters indicated above, Amazon is on its way to overtaking Walmart as
the world's largest retailer. Amazon will maintain its position as the most widely used e-
commerce platform and grow its share of the physical retail sector thanks to its outstanding
customer service and e-commerce dominance. With its rising growth rates, Amazon may
possibly surpass Walmart in revenue in the upcoming years. Walmart will continue to hold
the top spot in retail, despite Amazon's focus on operating online. These two retail behemoths
will inevitably compete with one another. The business strategies of Amazon and Walmart
will continue to resemble and compete with one another.

Submitted By -Bethmi Jayawardena

Roll no – 22206081 (MBA- ABM)
Section B