A single discount store with the motive of selling more for less, Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Now it is the largest retail corporation in the world that operates more than 11,300 hypermarkets, discount and grocery stores in 27 countries and under 55 different names. The company has 2.2 million employees with 1.5 million merely engaged in the United States.
Walmart has different operating divisions i.e. Walmart U.S, Walmart International, Sam’s Club, and Global eCommerce offer several retail formats with the help of these divisions. Walmart was able to generate $559.2 in the year 2021 billion in revenue and is known for everyday low pricing.
Here is the list of top Walmart competitors in the retail industry.
- Amazon
- Costco
- Kroger
- Walgreens
- The Home Depot
- Tesco
- Carrefour
- Target
- CVS Health Corp
- Walmart China Competitors
- Walmart India Competitors
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Amazon
Amazon is the largest e-commerce retailer founded by Bezos in 1994. The company is headquarter in Seattle Washington, United States. Amazon is a Tech giant and the top competitor of Walmart in the United States and outside China, India, and many other places. It has several business segments i.e. online retail business, Amazon web services, digital stream and now looking for success in offline retailing.
Amazon.com dominates the U.S e-commerce market and grab almost 50% of the total online market sales. Amazon key competitive advantage is change and adaptability. The company has different segments and each segment contributes strong numbers to its revenue stream. The company reported $232.887 billion revenue with a net income of US$ 10.073 billion. Amazon is a constant threat to Walmart and forced it to redesign its e-commerce strategy.
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is a multinational membership-only warehouse club. Founded in 1976 by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, United States.
The total number of Costco membership warehouses is 770, out of which 531 warehouses are operating in the United States, 100 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 28 in the United Kingdom, and 4 in Puerto Rico, Japan and South Korea, and Taiwan has 26, 15 and 10 respectively. The company has more than 94 million cardholders and memberships worldwide.
Costco primarily targets large families and businesses and offers bulk quality products at low prices. The company earned $141.6 billion revenue and $3.13 billion net income. Costco is the key competitor of Walmart Inc. in the retail industry.
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is a multinational company founded in 1883 by Bernard Kroger and now one of the largest retailers in the world by revenue and the largest grocery store in the United States. It is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kroger has more than 2764 retail stores – supermarkets, digital shopping options and multi-department stores – which operates through different formats directly or through its subsidiaries. Kroger reported $121 billion revenue with higher profit margins the company generated $3.11 billion net profit. On the other hand, Walmart generated $5140 billion revenue with a net profit of $6 billion.
Kroger has fierce competition with Walmart and other retail stores like Amazon and Aldi. According to a survey, every third American purchases from Kroger stores. The retail industry is very competitive and Kroger has been successful over the years to retain their customers’ trust.
Walgreens
Walgreens started its operations in 1901 as a drug store and was founded by Charles Rudolph Walgreen. The company merged with Alliance Boots in 2014 and became Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. The American company hold one of the largest pharmacy store chain and operates 9560 stores in the United States. WBA is building its brand around Pharmacy, front end, health care and consumer services.
Walgreens is another Walmart competitor that generated $131.5 billion revenue with a growth of 11.3% in 2018. The company USA Division contributed 74% of the total revenue. Walgreen is committed to providing its customers better health care and retail experience. One of the key measures was the relaunch of Walgreen’s brand as “Trusted since 1901” based on three main ingredients trust, care and accessibility.
The Home Depot
Home Depot Inc. is known for home improvement products and sells tools, hardware, gardening equipment and plants, construction products and services. It is the largest home improvement retailer in the world. The company’s total number of employees are 400,000 and operates more than 22,000 stores in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The company offers 35,000 in-store products and more than 1 million products online.
Home Depot generated $108.2 billion with a net income of $11 billion. This Home Depot net income is double as compared to Walmart’s net income which was $6 billion. The company generated $7.3 billion increased revenue in 2018 whereas its online sales grew 26.2%. These figures make The Home Depot a strong competitor of Walmart and Amazon in both offline and online retail industries.
Tesco PLC
Tesco is serving its customers since 1919. It is a British grocery and merchandise retailer and it’s headquarter is located in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. It has 450,000 employees and more than 6800 shops around the world. In addition to Tesco grocery operations in UK and Europe, it is also operating China, Thailand, Malaysia and India. Its annual revenue in 2018 is reported $80.8 billion.
In UK retail grocery market, Tesco is the major competitor of Walmart ASDA. In 1999 Walmart acquired ADSA Group Ltd for $10.8 billion. ASDA retail network has a huge presence in UK and has a prominent market share in the UK retail industry.
Carrefour S.A
Carrefour is a well-known French retailer founded in 1958. This retail brand has a global presence and operates in Europe, The Americas, Asia, and Africa where it serves millions of customers. The company operates hypermarkets, supercenters, Cash & Carry, Warehouse Clubs, Discount stores, and supermarkets. Carrefour means Crossroad and it’s headquartered in Billancourt, France.
It has generated 77.91 GBP in 2018 with a growth of 1.4% and has more than 370,000 employees. The company has 12,300 stores and e-commerce websites in 30 countries and regions.
Target
Target is another well-known retail brand and one of the key Walmart competitors. One of the largest retailers in the United States, it was founded in 1902 by George Dayton and headquartered in Minneapolis. Target has 1851 stores operating in the United States. The company has 360,000 employees globally.
Target Corporation reported $75.365 billion revenue in 2019 with a 3.6% increase from last year 2017. Majority of revenue is generated from food and beverage, clothing and beauty and households product. The last quarter April 2019 net income was 0.97 billion which is a significant growth. Both Target and Walmart are strong competitors in the U.S Retail Industry. Both has a significant neighborhood stores and also started e-commerce sales through websites. Target Corporation e-commerce sale contributed US$5 billion to its revenue stream. This performance is a huge threat to Walmart and Amazon.com.
CVS
CVS Health Corporation is a retail pharmacy headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1963 by three partners. There are different divisions of CVS health i.e. Corporate Division that deals with administrative and managerial function, the second one is the pharmaceutical division take care of pharmaceutical solutions and finally the retail division is known for general merchandise and prescribed drugs.
It is one of the largest pharmacy retail businesses in the United States and operates 9,600 stores in 49 different States. Under the loyalty program, there are 70 million members and cardholders. The company has generated US$194.579 billion revenue and it has 295000 employees. All these figures make it one of the world’s most valuable brand.
Walmart China Competitors
Walmart is facing stiff competition in the Chinese retail industry from Chinese local retailers. Alibaba is the undisputed giant of e-commerce platform that caters to customer needs by offering both low-priced local items and premium brands. Alibaba websites listed more than 800 million products combing with huge payment and logistic system in place.
To counter Alibaba, Walmart and JD.com formed a strategic alliance. This alliance is a strategic move for Walmart to survive in the Chinese competitive retail market. In Chinese e-commerce market Amazon has less than 1% market share which was 15% in 2011-12. Amazon has already decided to partially retreat from Chinese market.
Walmart India Competitors
Flipkart is a leading eCommerce platform headquartered in Bengaluru, India. It was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. In the Indian e-commerce market, the company mainly competes with Amazon.in and domestic companies like Snapdeal. Flipkart held a 39.5% market share of Indian online market in the year 2017. In 2018, the U.S retail giant Walmart acquired Flipkart’s 77% controlling shares for US$ 16 billion. Amazon is a major Walmart competitor in Indian eCommerce market.
