Who Are the Customers of walmart.com?

Over the past twelve months, walmart.com has been the second most used online store in the United States. According to our data, 49 percent of U.S. onliners said they recently ordered from walmart.com.

Back in the 1960s, when Walmart’s rise began, the store scored with its low prices. The goal of that strategy was not to increase profits through price, but through higher sales volumes. With its website, Walmart seems to be transferring that strategy to the online business. The “Deal drop” category is prominently placed and promises discounts of up to 40 percent.

This approach is quintessential to the company’s success, but also attracts price-sensitive customers: 74 percent of walmart.com customers surveyed said they had searched the internet for other offers before making a major purchase decision. That is eight percent higher than the U.S. average.

So, who are walmart.com’s customers?

With an average age of almost 40 years and about 34% of high-income customers, walmart.com customers tend to be older and have a lower income than the average U.S. customer. In addition, 38% of walmart.com customers are small families, and more than 50% of them are living in medium-sized towns or large cities.

When Walmart entered the online trade in 1996, demand was low. Beside the fact that online shopping wasn’t as popular during that time as it is today, another reason might have been the limited choice of goods. At the start of the new millennium, Walmart expanded its online presence. The products on offer doubled from a mere 300,000 to 600,000. In addition, customers were able to compare products on the website using a new function. Recently, Walmart also planned to increase its online fashion sales significantly.

According to the Global Consumer Survey, 69 percent of Walmart customers stated that they recently bought clothes online. At amazon.com, the figure was only 64 percent. At the same time, however, 29 percent also stated that they returned the clothing they had bought. At Amazon, the figure was only 27 percent.

The main reasons to buy items online for walmart.com customers are the home delivery service (69% of walmart.com customers), cheaper prices (65%) and the convenience of online shopping (64%).

In addition, 72 percent of walmart.com customers mostly use their smartphone when they are shopping online. This makes mobile purchasing an even more important issue for them than for the customers of competitor amazon.com. Only 68 percent of amazon.com customers use their smartphone as their primary shopping device.