Walmart Is No Longer the Largest Retailer. This Magnificent Growth Stock Just Took the Title Away.
Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a new name at the top of the retail industry: In the fourth quarter of 2024, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) generated net sales of $188 billion. By comparison, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) generated revenue of $181 billion, marking the first time it ever came in below Amazon.
For what it’s worth, Walmart still took the top spot for the year. The company grew its revenue by 5% year over year to $681 billion, which was well ahead of Amazon’s full-year net sales of $638 billion.
However, considering Amazon is growing roughly twice as fast as Walmart right now, it’s likely that Amazon will pass Walmart on a full-year basis in 2025.
Here’s what Amazon has done to take away Walmart’s crown and what it will keep doing in the coming years to stay atop the world of retail.
Sales on Amazon’s website are the largest part of the business, and this is what many people think of when they think about the company. But it’s important to note that its biggest growth is occurring elsewhere in the business.
For starters, Amazon sells things on its website but enables third-party sales, as well. When it comes to facilitating third-party sales, the company makes money with things such as commissions and fulfillment fees. In Q4, this was a $47 billion revenue stream, jumping 9% year over year and helping it move ahead of Walmart.
Additionally, Amazon’s advertising business is one of its fastest areas of growth. Q4 advertising revenue of $17 billion is still relatively small but was up 18% and has plenty of more room to grow. Launching its advertising business and ramping it up in recent years has been a great catalyst for growth because Amazon leverages the digital platform that was already built.
Finally, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-computing business continues to deliver outsized financial results. After growing by just 13% in the fourth quarter of 2023, AWS delivered 19% growth in the most recent quarter. That’s an impressive growth rate, considering that AWS generated more than $100 billion in revenue in 2024.
With all of these business segments booming, Amazon’s business is now bigger than Walmart’s business and the reason the company’s stock has performed so well. And ongoing growth points to good future returns for shareholders, too.
Walmart might not officially be the biggest name in retail anymore, but investors shouldn’t overlook the company now that’s it’s in Amazon’s shadow.
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