Amazon dominates ecommerce. That’s not new or up for debate.

But in food and beverage, Amazon controls just a fraction of online category spend. The underutilized growth engine — the platform gaining share, scaling ecommerce faster, and winning grocery loyalty — is Walmart.

The brands leaning into Walmart right now aren’t doing it to check a diversification box. They’re doing it because that’s where the volume is moving.  

And they’d rather build position while it’s still affordable than fight for it after everyone else wakes up.

Amazon Built the Foundation. Walmart Is the Expansion.

Amazon dominates ecommerce, capturing 56% of all U.S. online retail spending.  

In categories like sporting goods, books, and electronics, its market share exceeds 60% to 75%. For many brands, Amazon is where they built their business, and it remains a powerful engine for reach and revenue.

But for food and beverage brands, there’s a greater opportunity elsewhere. According to PYMNTS, Amazon holds just 14% of ecommerce sales in the category. That is not a weakness in Amazon's model. It reflects where consumer grocery behavior has historically lived, and it reveals where the next opportunity is waiting.

Walmart’s Momentum Is Undeniable

Walmart generated $87.5 billion in food and beverage sales in Q3 of 2025. Amazon generated $11.9 billion. Walmart is not catching up in grocery. Walmart owns grocery.  

And its ecommerce business is accelerating faster than any other major retailer.

Walmart's global ecommerce sales grew 27% year over year in Q3, with U.S. ecommerce up 22%, led by store-fulfilled pickup and delivery.  

Since 2022, Walmart's ecommerce business has expanded by 116%, nearly double Amazon's rate over the same period. Digital now represents almost one-fifth of Walmart's total U.S. revenue, a share that has nearly doubled in three years.

This is not a platform preparing for growth. This is a platform already delivering it.

Why Food and Beverage Brands Should Care

Food and beverage is not like other ecommerce categories. Your customers don’t comparison shop for a new peanut butter every week. They find a product they like, and they buy it repeatedly.  

This habit-driven purchasing behavior is the fuel behind Walmart.com's growth engine, and it’s exactly why the platform offers such asymmetric upside for brands in these essential categories.

Walmart's own earnings reflect this: food units reached their highest level in four years, with grocery comps up mid-single digits and broad-based strength across categories.

Amazon's revenue pattern is event-driven, with spikes around Prime Day and the holiday season. Walmart's growth follows a different rhythm, one built on the steady, year-round purchasing habits of consumers buying what they need for daily life: Coffee. Snacks. Cleaning supplies. Pet food.

For food and beverage brands, this distinction matters. A platform built on daily essentials aligns naturally with how your customers already buy.  

Acquiring a customer on Walmart is not a single transaction. It is the start of a recurring relationship that compounds month after month, improving brand loyalty over time.

Walmart Connect Advertising Is Accelerating Too

Walmart Connect, Walmart's advertising platform, grew 26% in the U.S. in Q3 of 2025. Marketplace sellers are driving growth in advertiser counts, and the infrastructure for performance-driven advertising is maturing rapidly.

For brands accustomed to Amazon's advertising ecosystem, the mechanics will feel familiar.  

But the competitive dynamics are different.  

Fewer advertisers means lower CPCs, stronger positioning, and better return on every dollar spent.  

And that window will not stay open forever.

What We Are Seeing Across Our Customer Base

The market data tells a compelling story, but the proof is in the performance. Across Quartile's food and beverage customers running campaigns on both Amazon and Walmart Connect, the differences are striking:

Across our food & beverage customer base, Walmart Connect advertising campaigns deliver 40% lower CPCs compared to equivalent Amazon advertising campaigns. For brands already optimized on Amazon, Walmart Connect represents untapped margin and incremental growth.

These are not outliers. They reflect what happens when brands bring the same strategic rigor to Walmart Connect that they have already developed on Amazon.

The Case for Starting Now

If you're already selling on Walmart, but treating it as an afterthought by running the same playbook that works on Amazon, you’re likely wondering why results are underwhelming.  

Walmart rewards a different approach. The brands seeing disproportionate growth are the ones investing in a Walmart Connect-specific advertising strategy, not strategies copied and pasted from Amazon.

If you are Amazon-only, you have already built the operational muscle, advertising expertise, and supply chain infrastructure that translates directly to Walmart. The foundation is there. The question is whether you will use it.

As more brands recognize the opportunity, the cost of entry will rise.  

The question is not whether Walmart belongs in your strategy. The question is whether you will move early enough to capture growth before the open field looks like every other crowded marketplace.

What This Means for Your 2026 Plan

The brands winning on Walmart right now share a common trait: they stopped treating the platform as a secondary channel and started treating it as a growth lever.  

They invested in advertising. They optimized for Walmart's algorithm. They built a presence before they had to fight for it.

You've already done the hard work of building a brand that performs. The next step is not abandoning what works. It is expanding into the channel where food and beverage growth is accelerating fastest.

The opportunity is now. The only question is whether you will act on it.

Ready to Unlock Your Next Phase of Growth?

Quartile has helped hundreds of brands scale Walmart Connect advertising with the same precision and performance they expect from Amazon.  

Our platform is built for brands ready to expand, combining automation, AI-driven optimization, and deep Walmart expertise to accelerate results from day one.

The early mover advantage will not last forever.  

Let us show you what your brand could be doing on Walmart today.

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