Walmart Similar Companies And How To Identify Them

Walmart Similar Companies And How To Identify Them

How to identify Walmart similar companies and what indices make a good Walmart competitor? Walmart is the world’s largest chain of retail stores and the single most significant private entity globally. As impressive as Walmart is, it might interest you to know that over 100 others around the globe are similar to Walmart. 

Walmart, with over 11,443 Walmart stores worldwide, operates many successful businesses around the globe, and its competitors are both big and small. There are over 5800 businesses in Walmart’s industry. So, it’s essential to identify their competitors as early as possible. 

The process of identifying these companies is known as competitive intelligence analysis. To help you with this process, I have compiled a list of the top 20 similar companies and the strategies you could use to identify other potential competitors.

What is Walmart?

Source: Think School

Walmart Inc., headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is an American multinational retailer that owns and manages a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery shops.

Sam Walton created the corporation in 1962, and on October 31, 1969, it was organized. The company also owns Sam’s Club retail warehouses. As of January 31, 2020. Walmart has 11,484 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 56 different names. 

Walmart is an American and Canadian corporation. Known as Walmart de México y Centroamérica in Mexico and Central America, Asda in the U.K., the Seiyu Group in Japan, and Best Price in India. 

Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa are all completely owned subsidiaries. Since August of this year. Walmart Brasil was a minority shareholder, with only 20% of shares. Advent International, an investment group, owns 80 percent of the company.

According to the Fortune Global 500 list for 2019, Walmart is the world’s largest company, with revenue of around US$500 billion. With 2.2 million employees, it is the world’s largest private employer.

Criteria To Identify Similarities

Similar companies, in a nutshell, are companies that operate within the same industry as a given company. To be included in this list, the companies must meet specific criteria based on size and market capitalization:

  • They have to be of a similar size or larger than your company.
  • They have to be publicly traded on one of the major U.S. stock exchanges.

It’s essential to keep tabs on your direct competitors and the companies you don’t consider as direct competition. It may be targeting many of the same clients as you. Analyzing similar companies can help you understand what marketing efforts are working well and which ones need some improvement.

It’s like getting a behind-the-scenes look into the operations of another corporation. You can see new trends in their pricing or messaging and even find new opportunities for your own business.

Similar companies aren’t just about immediate competition either.

It’s also about how your brand compares to industry leaders regarding financials, growth, and strategy. For example, it may be worth looking at how big-box retailers like Walmart and Target are structured compared to your e-commerce store.

Whether it’s a small business much like yours or an industry giant with millions more in revenue, finding new insights from other companies helps you make better decisions for your own business.

For example, Walmart is an enormous retailer with a mammoth market cap. But it has much more debt than its peers and trades at a significantly higher valuation multiple.

How to identify Similar Companies to Walmart?

To extract the names of similar companies, we used:

  • Google search to identify the list of similar companies and websites.
  • We used these websites to identify the sectors in which they operate and the financial information such as revenue, number of employees, etc.

To get an idea of what makes Walmart successful, it helps to look at similar businesses that have been able to replicate its business model and become profitable enterprises in their own right.

#1: Amazon.com Inc.

Walmart’s primary competition comes from online retailers like Amazon.com. Amazon is the largest online retailer in the United States and internationally, with 85 million unique visitors per month. The company sells a broad range of products, including books, music, videos, and electronics. It also acts as an online auction house and provides services such as hosting Web sites.

Amazon has a wide moat based on network effects and brand power that help it dominate e-commerce. Its platform is a gateway to the Internet for millions of customers and businesses, making it difficult for competitors to dislodge it.

Amazon’s competitive strength comes from its scale and brand power. Amazon has the website infrastructure to accommodate many customers, giving it a competitive advantage against smaller e-commerce companies that can’t match its traffic volume or selection. Economies of scale also benefit the company as its sales increase.

The company’s dominance in online retail has allowed it to acquire new customers at a meager cost, which has helped increase its customer base by 40% over the past three years. In addition, Amazon’s strong sales growth of 30% over the past three years has been driven by profitable growth in high-margin segments like streaming media content and advertising.

#2: Target Corporation

Target is also another well-known leading retailer that competes with Walmart. It was established in 1919 by George Dayton and is based in Minneapolis, making it one of its largest stores. In the United States, Target has 1851 locations. Internationally, the corporation employs 360,000 people.

Target Corporation generated sales of $75.365 billion in 2019, up 3.6 percent from the previous year. Food and beverage, clothes and cosmetics, and household products account for most income. 

The net income for the first quarter of 2019 was 0.97 billion, representing a considerable increase. Target and Walmart are big rivals in the commercial industry in the United States. 

Both have large community storefronts and have begun e-commerce services through their websites. The sale of Target Corporation’s e-commerce attributed.

#3: Costco Wholesale Corporation

There’s no surprise that Costco Wholesale Corporation is a popular stock choice among investors since it is America’s largest membership warehouse club chain. The company is known for catering to price-conscious consumers who are willing to trade a higher-end shopping experience for lower costs on necessities.

The company was founded in 1983 and has built a reputation as one of the best employers in the country. Costco has also developed a dedicated following of loyal customers, focusing on quality products and exceptional service.

Costco operates over 750 locations around the globe, with roughly half of them located in the United States. It is also one of the few retailers that do not accept credit cards, preferring instead to rely on cash and debit cards for payment processing.

While Costco may be best known as an operator of brick-and-mortar retail stores, it sells merchandise online through its website and mobile app. The company is also expanding into other areas, such as food delivery services and auto repair shops.

Costco appeals to massive businesses and families, offering high-quality products in quantity at reasonable prices. The corporation made a profit of $3.13 billion on sales of $141.6 billion. In the retail sector, Costco is Walmart Inc.’s main competitor.

#4: Home Depot Inc.

a store shelf filled with lots of different items

This section looks at the stock of Home Depot Inc. to see how it ranks within its similar companies in the Retail sector.

The stock’s price is $1.34 above its 20-day simple moving average, which suggests the market is relatively bullish on the stock. Its PEG ratio of 1.69 ranks below 78% of industry peers and indicates a possible value opportunity with H.D.

The company has a market cap of $188.3 billion and is part of the Retail sector, which includes stores that sell goods or services to customers for personal uses. It has a dividend yield of 2.21%, putting it in the top 25% of stocks that pay dividends.

Home Depot Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer.

Besides selling building materials, landscaping products, and lawn and garden products, The Home Depot also offers installation services. 

As of February 1, 2020, the company operated 2,291 stores in all 50 states of the United States (U.S.), the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, and Mexico. Home Depot made $108.2 billion in sales and $11 billion in profit. Home Depot’s total revenue is more than double that of Walmart’s, $6 billion. 

In 2018, the corporation raised income by $7.3 billion, while internet sales surged by 26.2 percent. Both in the physical and online retailers, these results make The Home Depot a formidable opponent to Walmart and Amazon.

#5: Best Buy Co

Walmart is a retail giant, the largest of its kind in history. It has over 11,000 stores worldwide, employs 2.3 million people, and generated total revenue of $514.4 billion in 2017, more than the GDPs of countries like Ireland and Singapore.

And then there’s Best Buy, which is a third of Walmart’s size in terms of revenue but is still a large retailer with over 1,000 stores worldwide.

The two companies are both growing sales at about 3% annually and have almost identical profit margins. Both Walmart and Best Buy also sell a significant amount of consumer electronics, one sector where Amazon hasn’t been able to crush them yet wholly.

Walmart has a market capitalization of $247 billion compared to just $19 billion for Best Buy. So while they’re both big retailers, they are not on the same scale.

#6: Kroger Co.

A Cincinnati-based retailer founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883, The Kroger Co. is a leading retailer in America. According to its fiscal year 2019 revenue of $121.16 billion, it is the country’s largest supermarket, the second-largest general retailer, and the third-largest company.

Kroger runs over 2764 retail outlets, including supermarkets, virtual shopping services, and multi-department shops, under various formats and affiliations. Kroger claimed $121 billion in sales, with a $3.11 billion net profit due to better company profits. On the other hand, Walmart brought in $5140 billion in profits and had a $6 billion margin.

Walmart and other retailers such as Amazon and Aldi compete fiercely with Kroger. As per a poll, one-third of all Americans shop at Kroger locations. The retail market is fiercely competitive, and Kroger has maintained its customers’ trust.

#7: Lowe’s Companies Inc.

Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer based in Mooresville, N.C., has a market capitalization of $81 billion.

Lowe’s operates 2,355 retail stores in North America and reported revenue of $68 billion in fiscal 2017. By revenue, it is among the largest retailers in the world and a member of the S&P 500 Index.

Lowe’s employs more than 310,000 people and is the second-largest home improvement retailer globally after The Home Depot Inc. Lowe’s operates stores in Canada and Mexico.

The company expects to boost yearly revenue by 22% or the same profits by 23% in 2020. Therefore, Lowe’s is a primary Walmart opponent and substitute in the home maintenance industry.

#8: CVS Health Corp.

assorted medication tables and capsules
Photo by CVS Health

A global pharmaceutical company with a market cap of $114.1 billion, CVS Health Corp. is one of the largest. The company is one of the leaders in the mail-order pharmacy business. It has been expanding its offerings to include clinics at its retail locations and health care plans for employers.

The company’s retail stores continue to be a key driver of sales growth. During the latest quarter, CVS saw revenue rise nearly 10% to $47 billion, thanks mainly to more store visits and increased customer spending.

However, investors should pay close attention to the company’s earnings reports over the next two quarters. While CVS’ revenue growth was strong during its latest quarter, adjusted earnings per share fell from $1.50 to $1.48 year over year, marking the fourth straight quarter of declines in this metric.

In addition to its core operations, CVS has several other revenue streams driving growth for the company, including PBM (pharmacy benefits management), long-term care and specialty pharmacies, Medicare Part D prescription drug plan administration, and healthcare clinics and medical insurance plans for employers and individuals.

#9: Walgreens Boots Alliance

It has a market capitalization of $60.7 billion and is the most significant drug retailer in the United States. Currently, Walgreen’s has more than 8,100 locations in all 50 states and Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. 

In addition to its retail locations, Walgreens also owns several manufacturing companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which operate through its AllianceRx Walgreens Prime unit. For some other Walmart competitors, Walgreens had $131.5 billion in sales in 2018, up 11.3 from the year before. The company’s USA Division accounted for 74% of overall revenue. 

Walgreens is dedicated to offering quality healthcare and a better shopping experience for its clients. The rebranding of Walgreen’s as “Trusted since 1901” was also one of the primary steps, with three basic materials: Care, accessibility, and trust.

#10: Dollar Tree Inc.

Dollar Tree Inc. is a discount, single price-point retailer in the United States and Canada. The company offers merchandise at a fixed price of $1.00. It operates through two segments: Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. 

The Dollar Tree segment is the operator of the Dollar Tree stores that offer consumable merchandise, including candy and food, health and beauty care products, and everyday consumables, such as household paper and chemicals, and frozen and refrigerated food. 

Its Family Dollar segment operates Family Dollar stores that provide consumable merchandise, including perishables and packaged food.

Unlike Dollar Tree, all these companies have market caps above USD10b. They are likely to be established players with established business models, which can sometimes make them better investments. However, this is only a rough guide and not a replacement for your thorough analysis.

For example, while Walmart’s size makes it more attractive than Dollar Tree as an investment prospect, it has also had a significantly lower earnings growth rate over the past five years of 7.2%. Meaning that while there is an opportunity for higher relative returns from Walmart compared to Dollar Tree, it comes with more risk

#12: Walmart China Corporation

Walmart China is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc. based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. The company was founded in 1996 and is the world’s largest retailer, with over 6,000 stores in 15 countries. In the United States and Canada, Walmart uses Walmart’s name, while in the United Kingdom, Asda applies.

Walmart China has 309 stores in 156 cities nationwide and employs more than 120,000 associates. Its product selection is nearly 90% local.

The company’s first-quarter sales were $32 billion; its second-quarter sales were $33 billion; its third-quarter sales were $34 billion; and its fourth-quarter sales were $35 billion.

#13: Walmart India Competitor – Flipkart

The retail sector in India is witnessing a significant disruption led by a handful of e-tailers, but it’s not just these online-only players who are making their presence felt. U.S. retail giant Walmart recently acquired a 77% stake in e-commerce platform Flipkart for $16 billion. This acquisition has made Walmart one of the leading contenders for dominant market share in the retail sector in India.

The food and grocery segment contributes about 70% of the total retail sales in India currently; this segment is expected to reach $400 billion over the next five years. While Walmart is expected to benefit from its acquisition of Flipkart, it’s not just a one-way street — Flipkart will also be able to leverage Walmart’s global expertise and expertise in managing supply chains, logistics, and warehousing.

This deal between Walmart and Flipkart will have a massive impact on the retail sector in India and businesses such as Amazon that already have a strong presence here.

#14: Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, founded in 1999, is Chinese multinational e-commerce, retail, Internet, A.I., and technology corporation that offers business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, and sales services through web portals. Digital payment options, data-centric cloud platforms, and a retail web search are also available.

Alibaba.com, a business-to-business network that connects Chinese producers with global clients, was created by Jack Ma in 1999. Alibaba’s two websites processed 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) in sales in 2012.

The company primarily operates in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and other countries. Including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.

Alibaba’s market value was US$231 billion at the close of trading on the day of its initial public offering (IPO), September 19, 2014. 

The stock has since dropped in value, with a market capitalization of around $212 billion in 2018. It ranks among the world’s topmost valuable and most prominent corporations.

Bottom Line

To identify Walmart competitors, start by researching significant competitors in the industry. Certain companies will often control a large share of market capitalization and become critical contenders. 

Once identified, review the financial information on these similar stores and compare them to Walmart. Determine whether they are growing more slowly or faster than Walmart and take a look at their earnings per share. This can help give you an indication of where Walmart is with its investing strategy.

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