Amazon Overtook Walmart in Quarterly Revenue in Q4
Amazon overtook Walmart in quarterly revenue in the fourth quarter.
Walmart said Thursday (Feb. 20) that it earned $180.5 billion during the quarter, while Amazon said Feb. 6 that it brought in $187.8 billion in the same period, CNBC reported Thursday.
These results marked the first quarter since 2012 that Walmart has not been the top revenue generator, according to the report. In 2012, it overtook oil company Exxon Mobil.
Walmart still leads in annual sales, the report said.
Walmart’s fourth-quarter earnings were better than expected, PYMNTS reported Thursday.
“Our business model is delivering as it’s designed to do,” Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “Becoming more convenient has helped increase our growth with higher engagement across income cohorts and positive traffic and unit growth across markets.”
Amazon’s fourth-quarter results showed net sales rising 10% year-over-year, PYMNTS reported at the time. Amazon Web Services (AWS) played a pivotal role, with a 19% increase in sales contributing substantially to overall profitability.
“There is a lot of innovation to come,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Feb. 6 during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “And if you run a business like AWS, you have a core belief that we do that, virtually, all the big, generative AI apps will use multiple model types. Different customers will use different models for different types of workloads.”
Walmart is making strides in expanding its online presence and has cemented eCommerce as a core element of its strategy, but remains a distant second to Amazon, whose overwhelming online sales continue to set the standard, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Walmart Holds Grocery Lead Over Amazon Despite Overall Share Declines.”
The report found that Walmart’s eCommerce share has risen since the first quarter of 2019, illustrating a strategic shift toward prioritizing online retail as part of its plans to capture a larger share of the retail market.
While Walmart’s online expansion continues, its share remains a fraction of Amazon’s, showing the need for new strategies and incentives to attract more online shoppers, the report said. The competition for eCommerce leadership is still very much in play.
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