Feb 21 - E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN, Financial) achieved its milestone by surpassing retail giant Walmart with its latest quarterly revenue exceeding Walmart's in the first such occurrence in history. Amazon produced $187.8 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, which exceeded Walmart's (WMT, Financial) quarterly revenue of $180.5 billion. Amazon demonstrates its market dominance through its diversified business segments, which extend from retail sales to cloud computing via Amazon Web Services, advertising, and third-party seller operations. Third-party seller services led to 24.5% of Amazon's sales last year, and AWS produced almost 17% of the overall revenue.

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Despite this quarterly win, Walmart still leads in annual sales. Walmart brings in about $708.7 billion in fiscal year sales, and analysts expect Amazon to have $700.8 billion in sales in 2025. To defend its share of the market, Walmart is ramping up its digital game through the development of a third-party marketplace, providing enhanced fulfillment services, developing an ad business, and promoting the states of its loyalty program, Walmart+.

Both companies have their own corresponding adjustment strategies, given the competitive retail environment. Amazon can derive revenue from any of the portfolios with which it operates (unless it shifts its focus to innovation or technology), which is not so with Walmart and relies on scale and physical presence to maintain its market position. Industry watchers are viewing these quarterly figures as indications that consumers are shifting their habits and as evidence of how companies are fighting to stay competitive. Here, both retail giants are sharpening their strategy axis, and the retail cradle play is becoming aggressive, where both entities aim to fulfill the ever-changing interests of the customers and the market.