Amazon follows Walmart's lead with mobile shopping and food stamps
Online retailer, Amazon, continues to make headway into Walmart’s coveted consumer territories with mobile shopping and food stamps.
The Business Insider cited a note published by investment firm Oppenheimer that Amazon has grown its lead in the mobile shopping space by a wider margin than before, tripling its US unique visitors to its mobile app over the last two years. It also noted that Amazon’s closest competitors, including eBay, Target and Walmart saw nearly stagnant growth during the same time.
According to the note, in 2014 Amazon was roughly equal in its mobile unique visitors as Walmart and eBay but by 2016 had more unique visitors than both companies combined.
As the largest online retailer, Amazon has also increased its mobile footprint in the US – 50% of online shoppers are now on the app. Amazon has positioned itself for the mobile surge by consumers. It recently announced that the company will add 100,000 new jobs over the next 18 months in the US, upping its workforce by 50% and adding warehouses that will bring products closer to its consumers in efforts to cut down on delivery times.
The hiring spree is a move that incoming President Donald Trump tried to take credit for, due to his push to add more US jobs, but it is unclear whether he had anything to do with it at all. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was outspoken against Trump during the campaign, but reversed course and tweeted his congratulations to him after he was elected and wishing him success.
Amazon will begin accepting food stamps from online shoppers
As Walmart has long been one of the largest acceptors of food stamps, Amazon is now looking to get into the market as part of a pilot program to extend the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Grocers FreshDirect, Safeway, ShopRite and Hy-Vee are also joining the pilot program.
This will allow Amazon to court low-income shoppers. They are also authorized to start experimenting with the SNAP program this summer in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. If successful, the retailer would be one of the few to appeal to both higher-end and lower-income shoppers. Since its distribution and logistics are so widespread over the US, it may be able to accomplish its goal.