Amazon captured the retail mountaintop in 2021 for the first time in its 27-year history, taking the upper hand in its ongoing battle with Walmart for dominance of the United States retail space — and it is not letting go. 
The eCommerce giant now generates more retail sales in all but three sectors — food and beverage, consumer health and personal care – and it is gaining even more ground against its competitor in two of them.
In Amazon Versus Walmart Q4 2021: The Ongoing Battle For Consumers’ Retail Spend, PYMNTS takes an in-depth look at the latest consumer spending data to discover how much of total consumer retail spend Amazon and Walmart managed to win in the final months of 2021, how Amazon has managed to gain an edge over Walmart and what it means about the future of their ongoing rivalry — and for the future of U.S. retail in general.
More key findings from the report include:
• Amazon captured nearly five times the share of U.S. household spending on electronics, appliances, sporting goods, hobbies, music and books than Walmart last year. By 2021, the average U.S. household spent nearly five times as much on electronics and appliances on Amazon than they spent on the same types of products from Walmart. Twenty-five percent of consumers’ total electronics and appliance spend and 17% of their total sporting goods, hobbies, music and books spend went to Amazon in 2021.
• The average U.S. household still spends roughly 10 times as much on food and beverage at Walmart than on Amazon. Food and beverage is the only area where Walmart can truly be said to have a firm grip on its share of consumers’ total retail spend. Walmart is and always has been far ahead of Amazon in the battle for food and beverage sales. It currently earns nearly 10 times as much of consumers’ total spend on food and beverages than Amazon.
• Amazon secured more than twice the clothing and apparel spend than Walmart in 2021.
Amazon has been capturing more of U.S. consumers’ spend on clothing and apparel every year since 2017, and 2021 was no exception. Amazon won roughly 15% in 2021, while Walmart’s share of consumer clothing and retail spend was 6.5%, giving Amazon nearly a three-fold lead over its rival.
These are only a few of the latest snapshots from these two retail giants’ ongoing rivalry. Amazon Versus Walmart Q4 2021: The Ongoing Battle For Consumers’ Retail Spend provides a blow-by-blow of how — and why — Amazon is pulling ahead.
To learn more about how Amazon is on course to defeat Walmart in its battle for consumers’ cash, download the report.