In the US retail industry, there are a lot of players, such as Walmart, the leader in stores, and Amazon, the leader in online sales. In recent years, the retail industry has grown significantly, primarily because of the rise of online shopping and higher spending due to a more robust economy and more jobs.
In the fiscal year of 2020, Walmart’s online sales and income grew significantly. By 2019, the company had made $25.11 billion from online sales. Then, in the fiscal year of 2020, that number grew to $35.9 billion.
Walmart has a lot of rivals in the US, and the list includes both big and small companies. Here are some of Walmart’s biggest competitors in the US.
Who Are Walmart’s Biggest Competitors in 2023?
Costco, the second-largest retail organization, founded in 1983 and runs 800 department stores globally, is Walmart’s biggest competitor.
The range of products offered by Walmart includes groceries, car parts, party supplies, craft materials, pet supplies, fitness equipment, health and beauty products, jewelry, apparel, home furnishings, electronics, movies, and music, among other things.
Bill payment, check cashing, prepaid cards, money orders, and other financial services are among them, too. Walmart is up against the fierce competition in every area of its business, including Costco. Here is a brief analysis of Walmart’s biggest competitors.
Costco
One of the top US-based retail brands is Costco. In the US and a few international markets, it runs membership-based warehouses. It has a totally distinct operating model compared to Walmart or other stores.
Like Walmart, Costco has been putting money into technology to boost e-commerce sales more quickly. Because of its strong customer focus and an organizational culture that prioritizes diversity, inclusion, and the satisfaction of customers, employees, and stakeholders, Costco has a very high reputation in the US retail sector.
In 2019, Costco ran 785 warehouses, of which 546 were in the US and Puerto Rico, 100 in Canada, 39 in Mexico, 29 in the UK, 26 in Japan, 16 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, 11 in Australia, two ere in Spain, one in Iceland, one in France, and one in China.
A direct rival of Sam’s Club, Costco also has a private label brand known as Kirkland Signature. Costco’s net sales totaled $149.4 billion in 2019 (6% growth compared to last year).
Home Depot
In terms of home improvement goods, Home Depot is the biggest retailer in the US. The company reported the fiscal year 2018 revenues and net income of $108.2 billion and $11 billion, respectively. With one million online products, the brand is one of Walmart’s biggest competitors in the retail industry.
Home Depot was established in 1978 by Kenneth Langone, Pat Farrah, Ron Brill, Arthur Blank, and Bernard Marcus. It is a publicly-traded company with American roots. Its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, provides services to the US, Canada, and Mexico.
It has 2,285 locations throughout these three countries. Millions of people visit homedepot.com each month, which has aided the company in retaining its market dominance.
Home Depot is connected to the retail sector and offers a diverse range of goods, including a supply of building materials, tools, services, and home appliances. With 90 distribution centers across the country and big-boss-sized stores, it competes very well with the Walmart brand.
Walgreens Boot Alliance
Charles R. Walgreen founded the US retail and wholesale pharmaceutical firm Walgreens in 1901. It began as a drugstore before growing to compete with the most prominent retail businesses in the nation today.
It runs about 18,750 outlets throughout 11 territories and collaborates with 400 distribution centers to provide 25,000 pharmacies, physicians, and health facilities with supplies each year. Walgreens Boot Alliance is the owner of Rite Aid and Duane Reade.
74% of Walgreens’ yearly revenues come from the sale of pharmacy products such as prescription medications and pharmaceutical services. The company also runs a retail store selling general stuff, over-the-counter medicines, and personal care and beauty items.
About 26% of its income comes from the latter. With 342,000 people, the company’s 2019 revenue was $136.8 billion. The chain is the fifth largest in the world.
Target
Target is connected to the retail sector and offers a wide range of products, including toys/games, footwear, pet supplies, small appliances, lawn and garden items, jewelry, furniture, cuisine, electronics, accessories, clothes, health, beauty, and bedding among others.
It is one of Walmart’s biggest competitors as it is the largest retailer in the US.
John Geisse and George Dayton launched Target, a publicly-traded company with American roots, in 1902. One thousand eight hundred sixty-eight outlets around the US are part of its network of operations there. Its headquarters are located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Target offers small format, hypermarket, and discount store retail options. To entice more customers and capture a larger piece of the market, the corporation has introduced programs like Expect More Pay Less and Low Price Promise.
The company, regarded as one of the market’s strongest companies, reported the fiscal year 2019 revenues of $75.356 billion.
Amazon
In the e-commerce market, Amazon is a significant rival to Walmart. The tech behemoth has a substantial presence in the US, controlling nearly 50% of the entire online market share. While Amazon rules the online market, Walmart is the market leader in terms of physical space.
The best thing about Amazon is that it offers a wide range of products in its lineup that has significantly aided in keeping high revenue levels. The Walmart rival reported $280.52 billion in sales for the 2019 fiscal year.
Its product portfolio includes Amazon Kindle, Fire OS, Fire TV, and Echo. Plus Amazon Alexa, Web services, Prime Video, Prime, Music, Appstore, and Amazon.com. It is connected to various industries, including e-commerce, AI, cloud computing, consumer electronics, grocery stores, and digital distribution.
Jeff Bezos, the business’s founder and current CEO and chairman, established Amazon, a publicly-traded company with American roots, in 1994. It operates from its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and has expanded to 73 locations in 33 countries.
Amazon’s product portfolio and active users surpass one hundred nineteen billion products and one hundred million, respectively, making it the most valuable firm.
Lowe’s
One of Walmart’s biggest competitors in the retail sector, Lowe’s reported the fiscal year 2018 revenues of $68.61 billion. It is home to the second-largest hardware store chain worldwide.
Lowe’s is a publicly-traded firm with American roots established in 1921 by its founders, Carl Buchan and Lucius Smith Lowe. Its headquarters are in Mooresville, NC. By the end of 2018, the company had expanded its footprint in nations like Canada and the US, with more than 2,150 shops.
Lowe’s operates in larger markets using big-box concept stores and smaller-area classic format locations. Other products like groceries, lawn and garden, outdoor power equipment, paint tools, bathroom products, storage and organization systems, smart home appliances, and building and hardware materials make it a big player in the retail sector.
To recruit and keep a customer base, the business has implemented some programs, including the Price Match Guarantee and Free In-Store Pick-Up.
Kroger
Bernard Kroger established the international corporation The Kroger Co. in 1883. It is currently one of the world’s top retailers in terms of revenue and the biggest supermarket in the US. Its main office is in Cincinnati, Ohio.
More than 2,764 retail locations are operated by Kroger, including supermarkets, online shopping portals, and multi-department shops, in various ways, either directly or through its subsidiaries. With better profit margins and $121 billion in revenue, Kroger recorded $3.11 billion in net profit.
On the other hand, Walmart brought in $5140 billion in revenue and had a $6 billion profit.
Walmart, as well as other retailers like Amazon and Aldi, are formidable competitors for Kroger. Every third American, according to a poll, shops at Kroger outlets. Kroger has successfully maintained its consumers’ trust throughout the years despite the intense competition in the retail sector.
IKEA
Since 2008, IKEA has been the world’s biggest furniture retailer. Ingvar Kamprad, the company’s creator, was ranked eighth most affluent in the world in January 2018 by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of 58.7 billion US dollars.
The company sold 44.6 billion worth of items in 2018, making it one of the strongest Walmart rivals worldwide.
Incorporated in 1943, IKEA is a privately held enterprise with Swedish roots. Its headquarters in Delft, the Netherlands, provides services and locations in fifty-two countries worldwide.
The international corporation competes with Walmart since both are retail behemoths trying to grow their customer bases. The website offers a catalog with 12,000 products, saving the customer from searching for a similar item under a different brand.
IKEA is involved in the planning and marketing of furniture that is already assembled. The product line also offers home furnishings, accessories, kitchen equipment, and home services.
eBay
With its corporate headquarters in San Jose, eBay is a firm with American roots. Its online website, established in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, enables B2C (business-to-consumer) and C2C (consumer-to-consumer) businesses.
With operations in close to thirty countries and revenues of 10.746 billion US Dollars after the fiscal year 2018, this multimillion-dollar company has been able to compete successfully against Walmart.
The e-commerce company eBay facilitates international trade in products and services by facilitating transactions on its website between individuals and corporate entities. Buyers can use it for free, but sellers must pay a charge to post products.
After a certain number of goods are listed without being charged, the seller is responsible for paying for all additional products.
In the online retail market, eBay is a significant rival to Walmart. To grow its customer base, eBay has implemented many creative marketing strategies. The website handled online money transfers using PayPal, an eBay subsidiary that is owned in its entirety.
ALDI
ALDI is the name of two chains of discount stores that earned an estimated €53 billion in 2020. It competes with Walmart in the retail business because they both sell things.
ALDI is a private company with roots in Germany. It was started in 1946 by brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht. In 1960, the business was split into two separate groups, each with its own headquarters.
The headquarters for ALDI Nord was in Essen, Germany, and the headquarters for ALDI Sud were in Mulheim, Germany. The company now has 11,234 stores in 20 countries around the world.
ALDI is known for several household and grocery items, like baked goods, frozen foods, cheesecakes, and alcohol, among other things. The best thing about ALDI is that their stores are set up so customers can easily find the most popular items.
About 40 to 50 new finds are added every few days for a short time to keep customers interested.
Carrefour Group
Carrefour is a supermarket chain started in 1960 by the families Fournier, Badin, and Defforey in France. It began in the city of Annecy, Haute-Savoie, and grew until it was sold worldwide. It now has 12,000 stores in 30 different countries.
It was the world’s sixth-largest retail store chain with 360,000 employees and $85 billion in sales in 2018.
Carrefour has been using a strategy based on two ideas: the growing number of organic products it buys from more than 30,000 farmers and the criteria of sustainable production, seasonality, location, and conservation.
The second idea is that more money is being put into the online platform, and an omnichannel strategy is being implemented.
CVS Health Corporation
Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and Ralph Hoagland started CVS Health Corporation, a chain of pharmacies, in the United States in 1963. It runs 9,900 stores and 1,100 medical clinics that anyone can walk into. There are pharmacy benefits for 92 million people.
In 2018, the company had 295,000 employees and $72 billion in annual sales. It is the 10th biggest store in the whole world. In the same year, it combined its health care products with those of the Aetna brand, which CVS bought.
The group has also bought other companies, such as Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Omnicare, and Apria Healthcare Group. It fits into three groups: pharmacy services, retail/long-term care (LTC), health care benefits, and corporate.
Competitor Stats
| Name | Founded | Headquarters | Employees |
| Walmart | 1962 | Bentonville, Arkansas | 2,300,000 |
| Costco | 1983 | Issaquah, Washington | 288,000 |
| Home Depot | 1978 | Atlanta, Georgia | 490,600 |
| Walgreens Boot Alliance | 1901 | Deerfield, Illinois | 225,000 |
| Target | 1902 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | 409,000 |
| Amazon | 1994 | Seattle, Washington | 1,622,000 |
| Lowe’s | 1921 | Mooresville, North Carolina | 300,000 |
| Kroger | 1883 | Cincinnati, Ohio | 465,000 |
| IKEA | 1943 | Delft, Netherlands | 220,000 |
| eBay | 1995 | San Jose, California | 10,800 |
| ALDI | 1946 | Essen, Germany | 25,000 |
| Carrefour Group | 1958 | Massy, Essonne, France | 321,383 |
| CVS Health Corporation | 1963 | Woonsocket, Rhode Island | 295,000 |
Conclusion
Walmart has a lot of rivals both in the US and all over the world. But Walmart’s biggest rivals are Kroger, Target, Amazon, and Costco. Also, like Walmart, these stores sell a wide range of things, such as groceries, electronics, household goods, and clothing.
Low-priced goods can be found at stores like Costco, Kroger, and Target. This makes them more of a competitor to Walmart, known for having low prices all over the store.
Even though there are online sites and online chain stores and supermarkets that compete with Walmart, Walmart is still alive and well.
