How Walmart Is Potentially Poised to Beat Amazon At Holiday Sales This Year

Amazon may be starting to lose its shiny crown jewel when it comes to the major retailers raking it in this holiday season, as it is potentially being usurped by the websites of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers by shoppers eager to find the best bargains.

According to advertising technology company Captify, the online retailer known for events like its Prime Day sales and its dominance in the online arena over the years, had fallen behind Walmart, Target and Kohl's when it came to searches for Black Friday discounts by Friday morning. Walmart was doing impressively well, with searches for discounts on the site surging 386% year over year.

The news of Walmart leapfrogging over Amazon comes as online sales were poised to break records over the Black Friday weekend. On Thanksgiving Day, they had climbed 2.9% year over year to $5.29 billion, CNBC reported and were expected to top $9 billion total before Black Friday was through.

Overall, an analysis from Adobe found that Cyber Week, which consists of the five days between Thanksgiving week and Cyber Monday, would generate $34.8 billion in online spending, with Cyber Monday expected to be the biggest day for online sales, which are forecast to top $11.2 billion.

Overall, Black Friday online shopping saw order volume up 12%, with toys seeing the highest demand. These numbers are promising after weaker sales in October and November had some retailers spooked about how well they would perform during the holidays due to inflation still hovering at extraordinarily high levels and eating into the budgets many have for traditional holiday spending.