Amazon is still the dominant player in US e-commerce, but Walmart is seeing strong gains and is poised to become the number three online retailer, a market tracker said on Thursday. Amazon's sales are likely to grow a robust 30 percent and its market share is likely to grow to 48 percent of online retail sales, according to research firm eMarketer.
Meanwhile, eBay will hold its number two position but will see its market share dip to 7.2 percent, the report said. Walmart meanwhile "has one of the fastest growing e-commerce businesses" and will capture four percent of internet retail sales this year, overtaking Apple as the number three seller, according to eMarketer.
"Walmart's e-commerce business has been firing on all cylinders lately," said eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman. "The retail giant continues to make smart acquisitions to extend its e-commerce portfolio and attract younger and more affluent shoppers. But more than anything, Walmart has caught its stride with a fast-growing online grocery business, which is helped in large part by the massive consumer adoption of click-and-collect."
Walmart acquired startup retailer Jet.com in 2016 and earlier this year launched a subscription service called Jetblack, with a variety of benefits and delivery options to ramp up competition with Amazon Prime. According to eMarketer, Walmart will see nearly 40 percent growth this year in its total online sales.
Total US e-commerce was projected to grow 16 percent to reach $525.7 billion this year. That means online will make up 9.8 percent of total US retail sales this year, and Amazon will capture almost half of online dollars spent, the eMarketer study showed. The other top online sellers included Home Depot, Best Buy, Qurate (which includes shopping channels HSN and QVC), Macy's, Costco and Wayfair.