walmart-revenue-vs-profit

Walmart Revenue vs. Profit

Business / By / June 13, 2023

Walmart generated over $572 billion in revenue in 2022 and over $13.6 billion in net profits in the same year. Compared to over $559 billion in revenue in 2021 and over $13.5 billion in net profits.

Key stats

  • Revenue increased steadily from $485.65 billion in 2015 to $572.75 billion in 2022, indicating consistent growth in the company’s top line.
  • Profits peaked at $16.18 billion in 2015 and have fluctuated since, with a low of $6.67 billion in 2019 and a slight uptick to $13.67 billion in 2022.
  • The number of stores increased from 11,700 in 2018 to 11,400 in 2021, indicating a slight decline in the company’s brick-and-mortar presence.
  • The number of customers has decreased steadily from 270 million in 2018 to 230 million in 2022, indicating a decline in the company’s customer base.
  • The trend in profits shows a decline from 2015 to 2019, likely due to increased competition and changing consumer trends, followed by a significant increase in 2020, likely due to the impact of the pandemic on consumer behavior.
  • The store trend shows a slight decline, also due to the company’s focus on expanding its online and e-commerce presence.

More about Walmart’s business model

Walmart Business Model

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With over $572 billion in net sales in 2022, Walmart operates a differentiated Omni business model with three primary units comprising Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club (a membership-only warehouse club), together with Walmart+. This subscription service includes unlimited free shipping, unlimited delivery from its stores, and discounts launched in 2021.

Walmart Revenue vs. Profit

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Walmart generated over $572 billion in revenue in 2022 and over $13.6 billion in net profits in the same year. Compared to over $559 billion in revenue in 2021 and over $13.5 billion in net profits.

Walmart Revenue

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Walmart generated over $572 billion in revenues in 2022, compared to over $559 billion in 2021.

Walmart Customers

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Walmart had 230 million global customers in 2022, compared to 240 million customers in 2021 and 265 million customers in 2019.

Walmart Stores

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In 2022, Walmart had 10,500 employees globally, compared to 11,400 employees globally, in 2021.

Walmart Employees

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Walmart had 2.3 million associates globally in 2022, the same number in 2021. While in 2020, Walmart had 2.2 million associates globally.

Walmart Mission Statement

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Walmart’smission can be summarized as “helping people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores and through eCommerce.” While its vision is to “make every day easier for busy families.” Walmart defines “busy families” as the bull’s eye of its business strategy.

Walmart Organizational Structure

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Walmart has a hybrid hierarchical-functional organizational structure, otherwise referred to as a matrix structure that combines multiple approaches. On the one hand, Walmart follows a hierarchical structure, where the current CEO Doug McMillon is the only employee without a direct superior, and directives are sent from top-level management. On the other hand, the function-based structure of Walmart is used to categorize employees according to their particular skills and experience.

Walmart SWOT Analysis

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From humble beginnings just over 50 years ago, Walmart has become the world’s largest retail company. A single small discount store in Arkansas has now expanded to over 11,000 stores in 28 countries. Some reports suggest that the company makes $1.8 million of profit every hour.

Amazon Business Model

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Amazon has a diversified business model. In 2022 Amazon posted over $514 billion in revenues, while it posted a net loss of over $2.7 billion. Online stores contributed almost 43% of Amazon revenues. The remaining was generated by Third-party Seller Services, and Physical Stores. While  Amazon AWS, Subscription Services, and Advertising revenues play a significant role within Amazon as fast-growing segments.

Amazon Revenue By Country

Amazon Revenue By Country
In 2022, most of Amazon’s revenue came from the US, with over $356 billion in revenue, followed by Germany with $33.6 billion, the UK with $30 billion, Japan with $24.4 billion, and the rest of the world generated almost $70 billion in net sales.

Amazon Cost Structure

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Both the North American and International segment of Amazon are running at negative margins. Indeed, in 2022, for the North American segments, of almost $316 billion in revenue, Amazon spent almost $319 billion in operating costs to run it, thus it generated $2 billion in operating losses in 2022. For its International segment, of $118 billion in revenue, Amazon spent almost $126 billion to operate it. Thus, it reported a $7.7 billion operating loss. While for AWS, with $80 billion in revenue, Amazon spent $57 billion to operate it, thus generating almost $23 billion in operating income. The high operating costs are primarily due to the high cost of running Amazon’s inventory and fulfillment infrastructure behind its e-commerce operations. Indeed, Amazon is as much as a physical player as a digital one.

Is Amazon Profitable Without AWS?

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Amazon was not profitable once AWS was removed in 2022. In fact, Amazon, without AWS generated $10.6 billion in operating losses. While Amazon, without AWS, generated $12.2. billion operating income.

Amazon Profit Breakdown

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Amazon is subdivided into three operating profit segments: North America, International, and AWS. Amazon AWS is the most profitable segment, with almost $23 billion in operating profit in 2022. While Both the North American and International segments run at negative operating losses, with $2 billion and $7.74 billion in operating losses, respectively, in 2022.

Amazon Revenue Breakdown

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Amazon Revenue Per Employee

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Amazon vs. Walmart

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eBay vs. Amazon

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In 2021, Amazon generated almost $470 billion in revenue, vs. eBay’s over $10.4 billion. In comparison, looking at revenues, Amazon was 45x times larger than eBay.

Amazon Mission Statement

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Amazon’s mission statement is to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.” Amazon’s vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” 

Customer Obsession

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In the Amazon Shareholders’ Letter for 2018, Jeff Bezos analyzed the Amazon business model, and it also focused on a few key lessons that Amazon as a company has learned over the years. These lessons are fundamental for any entrepreneur, of small or large organization to understand the pitfalls to avoid to run a successful company!

Amazon Revenues

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Amazon has a business model with many moving parts. The e-commerce platform generated $220 billion in 2022, followed by third-party stores services which generated over $117 billion; Amazon AWS, which generated over $80 billion; Amazon advertising which generated almost $38 billion and Amazon Prime, which generated over $35 billion, and physical stores which generated almost $19 billion.

Amazon Cash Conversion

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Working Backwards

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The Amazon Working Backwards Method is a product development methodology that advocates building a product based on customer needs. The Amazon Working Backwards Method gained traction after notable Amazon employee Ian McAllister shared the company’s product development approach on Quora. McAllister noted that the method seeks “to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it.”

Amazon Flywheel

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The Amazon Flywheel or Amazon Virtuous Cycle is a strategy that leverages on customer experience to drive traffic to the platform and third-party sellers. That improves the selections of goods, and Amazon further improves its cost structure so it can decrease prices which spins the flywheel.

Jeff Bezos Day One

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In the letter to shareholders in 2016, Jeff Bezos addressed a topic he had been thinking quite profoundly in the last decades as he led Amazon: Day 1. As Jeff Bezos put it “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”

More Resources

About The Author

Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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