Who are the main competitors of Walmart?
Walmart is the biggest retail brand of USA and the battle in the retail industry has continued to heat up. While the retail industry has continued to evolve, competition in the industry has continued to intensify. There are several large retail brands in the market and apart from them some retailers like Amazon are also adding to the intensity of competition in the industry. The list of Walmart’s competitors is quite long and this article discusses only the main competitors. In the recent years, Walmart has continued to grow its international presence faster. Apart from everything, it is entering the Indian market through the acquisition of a large and controlling stake of 77% in the Indian E-commerce brand Flipkart. Before continuing to its competitors, let’s have look at some stats for 2017:
Walmart Important Stats 2018:
Walmart Revenue 2018:- 500.3 Billion US dollars.
Walmart Net Sales 2018:- 495.76 Billion US dollars.
Number of total stores:- 11718
Number of Employees:- 2.3 Millions.
The Kroger Company:
The Kroger company is headquartered at Cincinnati, Ohio. It is one of the largest food retailers of the world with fiscal 2016 sales of 115.3 Billion dollars. In 2017 it achieved net sales of 122.7 Billion dollars.It has 782 convenience stores operational under 6 banners in 9 states and the brand also has 2782 Super markets and Multi Department stores. It has 42 distribution centres for a well managed supply chain. Kroger covers 35 states as well as District of Columbia.
Costco:
Costco is one of the biggest retail brands of US that operates a chain membership warehouses in US as well as some other nations including UK, Canada,Mexico, Spain, Japan and Australia. In 2016, it entered two new markets and opened its first warehouses there including France and Iceland. the total number of Costco warehouses in 2018 had reached 749. Its total revenue in 2017 was 129 Billion dollars and that from the US market was 93.9 Billion dollars. Costco has grown fast in a challenging retail brand which makes it a very tough contender for Walmart.
Home Depot:
Based on its 2017 Net sales, Home Depot is the largest home improvement company of the world. The brand offers a very large assortment of home improvement products as well as building material, lawn and garden products and home decor products. Apart from these, it provides Home improvement products and services. By the end of 2017, Home Depot had 2284 Home Depot Stores in US. In 2017, its sales grew 6.7 % to 100.9 Billion dollars. The brand’s financial results for 2017 were quite appreciable. Since, Walmart also sells a large range of home improvement products, Home Depot is one of its significant competitors with an impressive presence all over US.
Walgreens Boots Alliance:
Apart from health and Wellness products, the brand also sells beauty products including lifestyle products and toiletries. It had 8100 retail stores operational as of August 31, 2017 in its US pharmacy retail division. Apart from them its retail pharmacy international division also operated 4722 stores. the brand achieved sales of 118 Billion USD in 2017 and a Gross profit of 29 Billion.
Target:
Target is also a major retail player in the US market that offers a wide assortment of general merchandise and food products. In 2016, the brand achieved Net sales of 69.5 Billion Dollars. While total sales might have decreased at Target in 2016, it was still a significant year. The brand is undergoing a transition to a new operating model. During this period, its signature categories including Style and Kids gained market share. Over the last two years, its digital channel sales also achieved impressive growth. the retail industry is evolving fast and Best Buy has performed in a challenging environment which shows it is a strong competitor for Walmart in the US retail market.
Amazon:
Amazon is the biggest brand in the world of E-commerce and it has grown very fast during the recent years. Apart from that it has also managed to grab an impressive share in the entire retail industry. While Walmart is continuing to grow its presence and even investing in E-commerce, Amazon’s fast growth has brought it into the list of significant competitors.
Lowe’s :
Lowe’s is the world’s second largest home improvement retailer. As of February 2, 2018, it operated 2,152 home improvement and hardware stores. Its main market which accounts for more than 90% sales of Lowe’s. It offers large range of home improvement products in several categories. A large range of merchandise offered by Lowe’s is also available at Walmart and Home Depot. In 2018, February, it had 310,000 employees of which 200,000 were full time and 110,000 part time. Its 2017 revenue was 68.6 Billion dollars around 3.6 Billion USD higher than 2016.
Best Buy:
Best Buy is also a major player in the US retail industry. At the end of fiscal 2018, Best Buy had 1200 large and 300 small format stores. the number of employees was at 125000 including full time and part time. The brand showed strong financial performance in the year 2018 when its total revenue went up by 7% as compared to 2016 reaching 42.2 Billion Dollars.