Amazon Surpasses Walmart as Top U.S. Retailer by GMV; High-Frequency Household Purchases Become Focal Point of Competition

[Ebrun Original] July 1 - According to multiple research reports recently released by J.P. Morgan and PYMNTS Intelligence, Amazon has surpassed Walmart by gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2025 to become the largest retailer in the United States.

J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth and his team believe Amazon achieved this leap primarily due to its vast product selection, more competitive pricing, and continuously improving delivery speed.

It should be noted that the GMV mentioned in the reports is not net sales.

GMV measures the total value of goods transacted on a platform, including both first-party sales and goods sold by third-party sellers. Therefore, Amazon's lead in total volume is driven by its massive third-party marketplace.

Walmart, on the other hand, still maintains its nationwide network of physical stores, a deeply rooted grocery business, a large-scale first-party retail system, and an expanding online sales channel. The two companies have significant differences in their business models.

The reports also show that in the first quarter of this year, the growth rate of Amazon's retail business has exceeded the overall growth of the U.S. e-commerce market, with Amazon holding a market share of approximately 47%.

On the broader level of consumer retail spending, PYMNTS Intelligence's tracking data indicates that Amazon's lead is also widening.

As early as the first quarter of 2024, Amazon's share of consumer retail spending had already surpassed Walmart's. By the first quarter of 2026, Amazon's share of this metric reached 9.3%, up from 8.6% in the same period last year. During the same period, Walmart's share was 7.8%, unchanged from the first quarter of 2025, widening the gap between the two.

Looking at specific categories, Amazon's advantage is particularly evident in items typically suited for parcel delivery.

Among the seven major retail categories monitored in the report, Amazon holds a clear lead in four: sports and hobby goods, music and books, consumer electronics and appliances, furniture and home furnishings, and apparel and accessories.

Additionally, in the health and personal care category, Amazon leads Walmart by a narrow margin of 0.1 percentage points.

Analysts summarized this as: "These are precisely the items best suited for box delivery, most of which can be delivered same-day or next-day—Amazon has won in these categories without needing any physical shelves."

In contrast, Walmart's remaining moats are concentrated in the food and beverage and automotive parts categories, where it still holds a higher market share.

Among these, groceries remain Walmart's strongest defense line.

Performance data cited by CNN shows that in the last quarter, Walmart's U.S. sales grew 4.6% year-over-year, driven mainly by middle- to high-income families seeking to save money.

Because food purchases are frequent and can cultivate long-term shopping habits, Walmart continues to secure a place in household budgets, even as it falls behind Amazon in more standardized product categories. Leveraging the consistent, high-frequency foot traffic from weekly fresh food and grocery purchases, Walmart remains an unavoidable shopping destination for tens of millions of American households.

This leads to a key question: Can Walmart effectively leverage the high-frequency in-store and online traffic generated by groceries to encourage consumers to purchase more other goods simultaneously? This has become the core proposition for future competition between the two giants.

In response to market changes, Walmart CEO John Furner maintains an optimistic tone, telling CNN, "The pace of change in retail continues to accelerate. Our financial performance demonstrates that we are not only adapting to this change but leading it."

Amazon, on the other hand, has countered. An executive recently revealed that groceries and household essentials will be "focus categories" for this year's Prime Day promotion.

Some analysts point out that the focus of competition between the two is increasingly narrowing to the weekly household shopping basket:

Amazon aims to capture a larger share of routine purchases, integrating consumers' fixed spending on groceries and daily essentials into its ecosystem. Meanwhile, Walmart is striving to prevent a routine grocery trip from becoming a single-purpose journey for just fresh food and groceries, which could divert other consumer spending to Amazon.

Ebrun will continue to track and report on this development. To learn more about related information, please scan the QR code to follow the author on WeChat.