It is a no brainer when it comes to determining who the industry leader in the retail industry is, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Wal-Mart’s biggest competitor, Target Corporation, had $68.47 billion in net sales in 2011, compared to Wal-Mart’s $418.952 billion.
The question is no longer who can dominate the retail segment at brick and mortar locations; the new question is who can dominate the online retail market. Amazon.com is the largest online retailer with net sales of $17.43 billion in 2011, accounting for 33% of total E-Commerce sales in the United States. Wal-Mart’s market share is 13.4% of the consumer market, though impressive, not as impressive as Amazon’s 33% market share in E-commerce.
Demand for E-Commerce is increasing quickly based on sales growth, and we must now ask whether companies like Wal-Mart and Target will just sit around and let Amazon have the entire market share, or whether they will try and dominate E-Commerce as well as they have in retail locations.
Amazon is the 5th most visited website in the United States, Wal-Mart ranking in at 41, it is obvious that Wal-Mart is going to give Amazon a run for their money.
The same goes for Target, which has introduced their “Mobile and Web Solutions” which allows their guests to shop anywhere from their mobile devices; ranked “2010 Mobile Retailer of the Year” by Commerce Daily.
If anyone should be worried about market share, it should be Amazon; Walmart already has a website, Amazon doesn’t have storefronts.
