Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
- Amazon is continuing to lose market share to Walmart in the online grocery space, per new data.
- By 2024, "it will be difficult for Amazon to reverse the trend," per Insider Intelligence.
- Amazon has spent 2023 reevaluating its grocery strategy, particularly for its Amazon Fresh stores.
After years of trying to get shoppers to order groceries online, Amazon is still losing ground to Walmart.
Walmart's grocery sales online have eclipsed Amazon's by increasingly wide margins since 2019, according to data from Insider Intelligence.
By the end of 2024, Walmart will have 26.9% of online grocery sales, while Amazon will have just 18.5%, according to the data. Last year, Walmart's online grocery sales totaled $39.40 billion, while Amazon's were $32.41 billion.
"By next year, the gap will have widened by such a large margin it will be difficult for Amazon to reverse the trend," Insider Intelligence said in a summary of the data released Tuesday. Insider Intelligence and Business Insider are both owned by Insider Inc.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
The spread of coronavirus starting in 2020 pushed many shoppers to try ordering groceries for delivery or pick-up for the first time. But over the last couple of years, customers have turned to big-box stores like Walmart to save money in the face of inflation, said Brian Lau, a forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence.
Walmart uses its approximately 4,600 stores around the US to help fill grocery orders. For grocery delivery, the company works with thousands of gig worker delivery drivers.
Meanwhile, Amazon uses a mix of warehouses and stores, including Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh locations, as well as its own force of delivery drivers, to get shoppers their food.
Both online and in stores, grocery "is a big growth opportunity for Amazon," CEO Andy Jassy wrote in his annual letter to shareholders in April.
In the US grocery market, estimated to be valued at about $800 billion, Walmart is the largest US grocer by market share with about 25% of sales, according to data from Chain Store Guide reported by Axios. Meanwhile, Amazon-owned Whole Foods claims 1.8% of sales.
Many of Amazon's ventures into grocery have yet to catch on broadly with shoppers.
Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017. Since then, it has cut prices on many basic items and bolstered delivery and pick-up options through the chain.
In 2020, it also started opening Amazon Fresh stores, which tend to be more affordable than Whole Foods.
But the company paused openings of new Amazon Fresh stores earlier this year, saying that it planned to revamp some stores with brighter decorations and features like self-checkout kiosks, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in August.
Earlier this month, Amazon said that it now offers delivery and pickup to all customers, regardless of whether or not they are Prime members, Bloomberg reported. The company will also start delivering Whole Foods groceries to non-Prime members and resume opening new Amazon Fresh locations, according to the report.
"Amazon is still trying to figure out how to compete with Walmart in the grocery space, both online and offline," Lau wrote.
Do you work at Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, or Walmart and have a story to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@insider.com