For the past five years, the Fortune 500’s No. 1 and No. 2 spots have reflected a direct rivalry between retailers. Walmart, which has ranked No. 1 or 2 on the list of America’s top-grossing companies every year in the 21st century and was No. 1 for 12 consecutive years, began competing with Amazon for the top spot with the 2020 list released this spring. (On the 2022 and 2024 Global 500 lists, Amazon was also No. 2.)
The 2020 edition of the Fortune 500 was released amid the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic, but the rankings reflected 2019 results—pre-pandemic financial performance. But from that point on, Amazon’s rise to second place, long in the making, seemed to be a permanent fixture on the list for years to come, as consumer behavior during the stay-at-home era fueled online shopping out of both necessity and boredom.
Walmart, of course, has its own robust e-commerce business, and consumers were ordering toilet paper and disinfectant, among other things, from wherever they could get them. But in the past Assets Staff writer and contributor Brian Dumaine wrote in the magazine in May 2020, on the occasion of the publication of his book Bezonomy That same month, he wrote, “If you were to build a company from scratch that could capitalize on a global crisis, it would probably look a lot like Amazon.” That fact goes beyond the company’s status as an “everything store”: Amazon Web Services cloud computing runs much of the world’s digital infrastructure (which proved increasingly lucrative after COVID hit). And Prime, Amazon’s subscription business, continues to lure new customers with offers ranging from retail discounts to entertainment streaming. Prime reportedly has three times as many members as its analogue Walmart+.
A key advantage Walmart has over Amazon is its stores. Amazon acquired Whole Foods, launched brick-and-mortar brands like Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh, and has partnered with many other retailers for grocery delivery and shipping. Still, given that about 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store, Walmart has an advantage when it comes to the physical infrastructure that underpins selling goods online.
The rivalry between Walmart and Amazon is a microcosm of many of the important economic dynamics that define the Fortune 500. There is much to examine about the rise of these companies to become the world’s top-selling corporations—and about their competition with one another.
The numbers you should know
28%…Amazon’s average year-over-year revenue growth between 2002 (the year Amazon entered the Fortune 500 at number 492) and 2020 (the year it reached number 2).
100 billion US dollars… Walmart’s global e-commerce sales reached this threshold for the first time in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.
574.79 billion US dollars… Amazon’s revenue (in 2023 dollars) on the Fortune 500 list of 2024. In just six years, Amazon’s revenue has increased from 177.87 billion US dollarsThat was its revenue in the 2018 Fortune 500 ranking (2017 dollar value), the year the company entered the top 10 for the first time (8th place).
648.13 billion US dollars … Walmart’s revenue (in 2023 dollars) on the 2024 Fortune 500 list. Over the same six-year period, Walmart’s total revenue increased 29.5%, from 500.34 billion US dollars (List 2018/Dollar 2017).
60 million… the number of Walmart+ members reported last year compared to about 180 million Amazon Prime members.
1.86 trillion US dollars … Amazon’s market capitalization today exceeded 2 trillion dollars briefly in June.
611.55 billion US dollars … Walmart’s market cap today.
The big picture
The editorial and research teams of Fortune 500 companies have been looking to the horizon for years and wondering when (not IfBut When) Amazon will overtake Walmart and become number 1 for the first time – they estimate this will happen within three years. As we continue to report and monitor the performance and activity of the Fortune 500 contenders, no other top 10 companies are included. Apple, number 3, is trailing Amazon with a total of $191.5 billion less in revenue. The difference between Walmart and Amazon’s revenue today is about 73.34 billion US dollars.
A trend in recent years among the Fortune 500 has been the rush of healthcare companies to the top of the list, and both Amazon and Walmart have regularly made and just as regularly abandoned deals to expand further into this space. In one case, they jockeyed to buy the same pharmacy startup when Assets Tech correspondent Jason Del Rey wrote in his 2023 book: The winner sells everything.
Deeper insights
You beat the competition
In the Fortune 500 2019 edition you will find the summary analyses of Assets Staff members of the year’s biggest changes didn’t even mention Amazon. But a major retail article in this issue covered the demise of Sears, a long-standing company that disappeared from the list this year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2018. Assets Senior editor Phil Wahba noted in an accompanying article that by eliminating its catalog, Sears suffered a setback in the area of e-commerce, which would soon become crucial.
In 1995, when the Fortune 500 first included service companies in addition to industrial companies, Walmart was number 4. There were only five other “general merchandisers,” such as the retail was listed on the Fortune 100 that year: Sears Roebuck (No. 9), Kmart (No. 15; acquired by Sears a decade later), Dayton Hudson (No. 30), JC Penney (No. 32), and May Department Stores (No. 82). Amazon was founded the year before, in 1994. Dayton Hudson is now Target Corporation, which is now ranked 37th. The last year JC Penney was on the Fortune 500 list was 2020, while May Department Stores ceased operations in 2005.
They used technology
Just as the Fortune 500 has evolved over the years, with more healthcare companies topping the list, technology companies have also become some of Walmart and Amazon’s biggest rivals for dominance. In fact, the average person might consider Amazon more of a technology company than a retailer.
In his 2020 article, Brian Dumaine wrote that since its inception, Amazon has been a “data-driven company that happened to be in retail.” The data it collects and processes about its own operations and the habits of its customers has made it a formidable force when it comes to logistics, warehousing, shipping, advertising, and virtually every other facet of selling and delivering goods imaginable. The company has wormed its way into the most mundane and intimate areas of people’s lives.
Walmart has sharpened its technological lead over time. It has a 3.4 billion US dollars advertising business from its e-commerce data and a recent 2.3 billion US dollars The purchase of smart TV manufacturer Vizio is intended to complement these efforts. Although the acquisition of Jet.com was only a four-year phase, as Phil Wahba explained in his profile of the company and CEO Doug McMillon in the 2024 Fortune 500 edition: “Working with digitally focused brands and leaders has helped instill a sense of boldness in Walmart employees while boosting their technology metabolism.”
Lydia Belanger
Production Manager, Assets
[email protected]
