The pandemic’s surge in online shopping accelerated a retail milestone: People now spend more at Amazon than Walmart, making it the world’s largest retail seller outside China.
Here’s how it happened →
Back in the 1940s, A&P was doing so well that antitrust authorities pursued the grocery chain.
Then, in 1962, just as Sears overtook A&P, Sam Walton founded Walmart, offering products at low prices. His logistics network operated with such precision and efficiency that it crushed many competitors.
In the early 1990s, Walmart surpassed Sears. And then it kept growing.
Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1994 as Walmart flourished.
He drew customers to online shopping with convenient delivery of a vast selection, and has kept them buying there ever since.
Amazon played a different game. Walmart has hardened its lock on physical stores and groceries. But shopping online is growing far faster, and Amazon captures 41 cents of every dollar spent online in the United States, according to eMarketer.
Amazon has thrived in part because it let marketplace sellers list their products alongside items that Amazon buys and resells itself. That greatly expands the selection of items but makes it harder to determine Amazon’s true scale.
Wall Street analysts have to estimate how much customers buy on Amazon, regardless of whether it comes from Amazon’s inventory or a seller’s.
And according to their estimates, people spent more than $610 billion on Amazon over the 12 months ending in June. Walmart on Tuesday posted sales of $566 billion for the 12 months ending in July.
That’s how the retail baton passed yet again.
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