Walmart and Target compared: pictures, details

Walmart has an app for its in-store pharmacies.Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

• Walmart and Target have both been shifting their strategies to better compete with Amazon.
• Both Walmart and Target offer free two-day shipping on orders over $35, grocery delivery, and in-store pickup options to meld their online and physical retail strategies. 
• While both stores have vastly improved their e-commerce offerings, there is a striking difference between the physical presence of each store. 
• On Wednesday, Target reported same-store sales were up 6.5% in the second quarter. On August 16, Walmart reported second-quarter same-store sales were up 1.8%.

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Walmart and Target are both fighting to keep up with Amazon. One way that both big-box stores are doing this is by shifting their e-commerce strategies to make the transition between in-store and online shopping more seamless.

Walmart offers free two-day shipping on orders over $35, grocery delivery, and free same-day store pickup on certain orders. Similarly, Target offers free two-day shipping on orders over $35 and in-store pickup. Target announced earlier this year that it plans to offer same-day delivery of groceries from half of its 1,800 stores using Shipt, a delivery startup it acquired late in December. Both stores also offer free returns within 90 days of purchase and have store cards that reward frequent shoppers with discounts. 

According to Cowen’s Consumer Tracker analysis and research from Frank N. Magid Associates, which was reported on by Retail Dive, Amazon has a large overlap of customers with both Walmart and Target, though Target’s is slightly larger. In the third quarter of 2017, 86.9% of Target shoppers also visited Amazon. At the same time, 82.9% of Walmart shoppers also visited Amazon.

But there’s one major advantage these two retailers have over the e-commerce giant: the stores themselves.

In Walmart’s earnings call on August 16, the retail giant reported second-quarter same-store sales were up 1.8%. It announced earlier this year that it is remodeling 500 stores and building 20 new locations.

In an earnings call on Wednesday, Target reported same-store sales were up 6.5% in the second quarter. Target is working towards improving its physical outposts, and it plans on expanding its store fleet while many brick-and-mortar stores are closing. Target is opening more small-format stores — which can often be more profitable per square foot than its standard stores — in urban areas and near college campuses.

To see which store is best prepared to compete against Amazon, we visited a Walmart and Target in Westchester County, New York, and found that one offered a far superior shopping experience: