Two retail giants, two different race paces. Amazon has long dusted Walmart in eCommerce, capturing 56% of total United States online retail spending in the third quarter of 2025, just before the holiday spending season started. That’s nearly six times the 9.6% share for its rival over the same period. And it’s nothing new for Amazon, which has won a double-digit share of U.S. online spending for years thanks to its core business online marketplace business model.
Although far smaller in total volume, Walmart’s eCommerce sales are growing at a fast clip. From July through September, Walmart saw a 27.2% year-over-year increase in eCommerce sales, compared to Amazon’s 9.6% growth. Amazon is still America’s online retail giant by a long margin—but Walmart is picking up the pace.
The numbers highlight the digital transformation of Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, America’s biggest retailer. With $569 billion in U.S. sales last year and more than 5,200 stores, including big-box outposts, Sam’s Club and “neighborhood markets,” the behemoth is seeking to expand its online shopping capabilities to capture a bigger share of today’s digital shopper. While it still lags Amazon by a wide margin, the strategy appears to be working. As of Q3 2025, eCommerce sales accounted for 19.9% of Walmart’s total sales, up from 11.4% in Q1 2022. Since the start of 2022, Walmart’s eCommerce sales have increased by 115.6%, compared to 63.2% for Amazon.
These are just some of the findings detailed in “Walmart Aims at Closing Amazon Online Sales Gap, the latest edition of Share of Wallet: Amazon vs. Walmart, a PYMNTS Intelligence exclusive series. This edition examines how Amazon and Walmart capture online consumer spending. The report draws on PYMNTS Intelligence estimates derived from Amazon and Walmart earnings reports, as well as national data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
Walmart’s Digital Sprint
While Amazon far outpaces Walmart in online sales, the latter is gaining ground.
Amazon is the undisputed king of digital checkout, capturing 55.7% of all U.S. eCommerce retail spending in Q3 2025. The online marketplace now accounts for 3.7% of total consumer spending in the United States.
In certain categories, Amazon is the market. In sporting goods, hobbies, music and books, Amazon has built a virtual fortress with a 75.3% eCommerce market share. It is nearly as dominant in consumer electronics and appliances, holding 60.5% of that digital pie. However, there is a “but”—Amazon still faces a significant hurdle in the food and beverage aisle, where it holds 14% share of eCommerce sales, leaving a big window open for the competition.
That digital prize is firmly in Walmart’s sight line. While the big-box behemoth’s total eCommerce market share stands at a more modest 9.6%, the velocity of its growth stands out. In Q3 2025, Walmart’s eCommerce sales surged by 27.2% year over year, nearly triple Amazon’s 9.6% growth rate for the same period.
In effect, Walmart’s new race jersey is moving ahead faster. Digital sales now represent 19.9% of its total U.S. sales, close to double its 11.4% at the start of 2022. Since Q1 2022, Walmart’s eCommerce business has surged by 115.6%, while Amazon’s has grown by 63.2% in that same time frame.
In other words, Walmart is no longer just a “brick-and-mortar” store; it is becoming a hybrid powerhouse. In early 2020, only a tiny fraction of Walmart’s business happened online, but by Q3 2025, nearly one-fifth (19.9%) of its total sales were digital. The story behind the numbers is one of an agile giant Walmart running a high-speed race of digital catch-up with the incumbent Amazon.
Retail Food Fight
Amazon is nowhere near winning ‘Hamburger Hill’ but makes inroads.
A tough competition has twists and turns, and this one is no exception. The most contested place on the retail eCommerce race course is the kitchen. Walmart is the undisputed titan of food and beverage sales, bringing in $87.5 billion in gross sales in the third quarter. For most Americans, Walmart is where the fridge gets filled.
Amazon has tried to pull ahead on this front. But despite its digital prowess and ownership of Whole Foods, it remains a smaller contestant in the grocery world, with total food and beverage sales of $11.9 billion in Q3. Yet the online giant is a determined, if plodding, runner. It is slowly getting consumers to buy groceries online, where its share of digital food spending is now 14%.
Steady State Versus Dash
Amazon and Walmart are taking different paths to capture eCommerce spending.
In their bid to capture digital shoppers, both companies are moving to different rhythms. Amazon is a racer of seasons, experiencing dramatic peaks and valleys and typically surging during the fourth-quarter holiday rush and Prime Day events. Walmart, by contrast, is the steady hoofbeat of the consumer retail economy. Its growth is more consistent throughout the year and less prone to periodic swings of the retail calendar, reflecting its role as a provider of daily essentials. While Amazon’s intra-year changes in sales reflect the seasonality of consumer shopping, Walmart keeps a slow and steady pace.
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Methodology
“Amazon vs. Walmart Whole Paycheck: Walmart Aims at Closing Amazon Online Sales Gap” is based on PYMNTS Intelligence estimates derived from Amazon and Walmart earnings reports and on national data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The report examines how Amazon and Walmart are capturing online retail sales.
About
PYMNTS Intelligence is a leading global data and analytics platform that uses proprietary data and methods to provide actionable insights on what’s now and what’s next in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Its team of data scientists include leading economists, econometricians, survey experts, financial analysts and marketing scientists with deep experience in the application of data to the issues that define the future of the digital transformation of the global economy. This multilingual team has conducted original data collection and analysis in more than three dozen global markets for some of the world’s leading publicly traded and privately held firms.
The PYMNTS Intelligence team that produced this report:
Lynnley Browning: Managing Editor
Scott Murray: SVP, Head of Analytics
Lucas Funes: Research Analyst
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