US Consumers Spend 10x More on Groceries at Walmart Than Amazon

Last year, Amazon captured almost five times the share of U.S. household spending on electronics, appliances, sporting goods, hobbies, music and books than Walmart.

But Walmart still has a massive edge in one major category: food, which has long been Walmart’s single largest category.

The average American household still spends roughly 10 times as much on food and beverages at Walmart than at Amazon. Walmart has always had a comfortable lead on Amazon in this category, capturing a total of $264 billion in sales in 2021, compared to Amazon’s $27 billion.

Amazon has never taken in more than 2.1% of consumers’ total spending on food and beverages and shows no sign of raising that percentage anytime soon. Since acquiring Whole Foods in 2018, the share of food and beverage spending won by Amazon has shifted between 1.7% and 2.1% — a leeway of just 0.4 percentage points.

That makes it very clear that the food and beverage sector is a refuge for Walmart, which is positioned to retain its title as America’s chief grocer for several years to come. It’s a lead Amazon has been unable to overtake, despite its purchase of Whole Foods.

Meanwhile, Walmart captured just 1.6 percentage points (about $13 billion) more of consumers’ health and personal care spending than Amazon last year, the slightest yearly difference we’ve marked since 2014. The health and personal care market is one of the few segments in which Walmart still enjoys a lead over Amazon, but that lead is shrinking fast.

Walmart commanded a 4.7 percentage-point lead over Amazon in this field eight years ago. Now, it earns just 1.6 percentage points more of the average U.S. household’s health and personal care spending compared to Amazon, which comes to a total difference of $13 billion.

This waning lead is primarily thanks to the fact that Amazon keeps earning more of consumers’ health and personal care purchases with every year that goes by, while Walmart has captured roughly the same share of this spending since 2014.

In all that time, Walmart has regularly taken in between 5% and 6% of the total dollar amount that U.S. households spend on health and personal care purchases. If this trend does not shift, Amazon is likely to overtake Walmart in this sector over the next few years.

Download “Amazon vs Walmart Q4 2021: The Ongoing Battle For Consumer Retail Spend” to find out more about the ongoing clash of these retail titans.