It’s the battle for the online shopping market as the country’s e-tail giants once again go head to head in a recent study conducted by SimilarWeb.
The research firm, which analyzed online traffic volumes of its list of the top 100 shopping sites in the U.S., found that Amazon not only generated more than five times the amount of web traffic but also garnered “higher-quality” traffic with visits averaging 2.5 minutes longer, or five more pages per visit, compared with Walmart. The data, representing figures over the past 12 months, further revealed that the former owned a 48 percent share of desktop traffic, trumping the latter’s 28 percent.
As for where the traffic originated, SimilarWeb credited referral sites. According to the report, Amazon.com received around 20 percent from referrals, while Walmart saw only 9 percent of its traffic from the same source. Of the total volume of referrals that link to Amazon and Walmart’s e-commerce platforms, 95 percent went to Amazon, which it can likely chalk up to its widely used affiliate program, Amazon Associates.
“Amazon understands the paramount importance of partners. In building out its affiliate program, Amazon ensures that it offers appropriate rewards to referring sites that send traffic that converts into sales,” report author Daniel Sevitt wrote. “For Walmart, this is an underdeveloped source of traffic … Walmart is not realizing the full potential of affiliate shopping to bring consumers to discover this advantage.”
Both Amazon and Walmart managed to improve their share of traffic, with the Seattle-based e-tailer peaking at 30.7 percent, from 29.6 percent, and the Arkansas native at 5.9 percent, from 5.3 percent. The retail titans have been been competitively vying for larger shares of the e-commerce market, marked recently by expanding their delivery services as well as diversifying their acquisitions portfolios.
Want more?
Amazon Prime Shipped More Than 5 Billion Items to its 100 Million Prime Members in 2017
Walmart Throws the Latest Punch in Amazon Fight: Will Now Offer Grocery Delivery in 100 US Cities
How Google and Walmart Are Teaming Up to Take on Amazon