Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT): Who is Winning the Retail Battle?

E-Commerce battle is finally heating up in the U.S with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) announcing it has redesigned its website, as it looks to fend off the ongoing competition from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in the online space. Wal-Mart is also in a way trying to increase its 11% market share in the U.S, although Davidowitz & Associates Chairman and Founder, Howard Davidowitz, in an interview on Bloomberg, said that the battle of the retail was solely won by Amazon.

“I think Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) wins in the end, but, of course, Wal-Mart is not going away it is 11% of US sales, so you can’t too excited, Wal-Mart is not going away. It’s got resilience in cash flow, it’s not disappearing, it’s still a growth vehicle […],” said Mr. Davidowitz.

Davidowitz is opposed to the idea of Wal-Mart buying Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO) maintaining they have been “screwing small stores for 15 years” without giving them the opportunity to grow to the lengths they ought to. One of the other problems, according to Davidowitz, is the fact that Wal-Mart is not convenient enough to consumers as its stores tend to be a bit far away from residential areas, therefore, customers cannot go shopping whenever they feel like.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) needs to turn itself into a smaller big box store just the way customers are asking for, to offer the highest level of convenience in terms of shopping experience.

“The consumers want them, because they are closer to where the consumer lives, that’s a huge issue, convenience is tremendous. Those big super supercenters are far out, that’s the only way you can get to them,” said Mr. Davidowitz.

The drug sector led by the likes of Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) is doing extremely well in the market according to Mr. Davidowitz as the stores offer more convenience in terms of shopping opportunities, as a result of being a block away from many homesteads. Davidowitz remains confident that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be the biggest winner in the retail space as opposed to Wal-Mart.

Disclosure: none