When the world came to a screeching halt in March 2020, it seemed plausible that the pandemic would pave the way for Amazon to wipe all its ecommerce pretenders off the map. With brick-and-mortar chains left with empty parking lots, who could match Amazon’s logistic, pricing, and data gathering behemoth? So far, none have.
But now that consumers are returning, Target and Walmart are finding traction by leveraging the one thing Amazon lacks — a brick-and-mortar network.
For Target, it seems shoppers still like the personal touch — its click-and-collect business is booming at its almost 1,900 U.S. stores. Walmart has the advantage that its fulfillment/distribution infrastructure is much bigger than Amazon’s (150-plus centers versus 110, according to JungleScout), and it has 4,700 retail locations where click orders can be collected.
Both companies had been trying to develop a credible ecommerce platform before the pandemic struck but the global shutdown gave those efforts urgency.
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