How Amazon and Walmart.com Customers Order Shows Their Differing Origins
Amazon has redefined shopping behavior in numerous ways. Amazon has become a sort of hybrid mass merchant and convenience store. It offers a mass merchant assortment and low prices, while promoting convenience store shopping habits. Products range from electronics and apparel to groceries and household items. And whatever the need, Amazon can provide it almost immediately.
In contrast, Walmart.com still operates more as a mass merchant, and a grocery-driven mass merchant at that. Walmart physical stores started as broadlines discounts stores and successfully transitioned into the largest grocer in the US. It’s the very rare Walmart physical store shopper who gets out with only one or two items. With the breadth of selection and the “cost” in customer time and travel of shopping at Walmart, the average physical store shopping cart is likely in the double digits.
The Amazon vs. Walmart.com comparison becomes most clear by looking at the number of items customers included in their most recent order. Amazon customers average just over two items per order, while Walmart.com customers order an average of well over three items per order.
Specifically, almost two-thirds of Amazon.com customers ordered only one or two items in their most recent order (Chart 1). Only 11% ordered five or more items.
Chart 1: Number of items in most recent order, Amazon and Walmart.com (twelve months ending March 2026 [Amazon] and January 2026 [Walmart.com])