Fresh Is the New Battleground: Amazon’s Grocery Speed Push and What It Means for Walmart Suppliers

Grocery competition is tightening around the weekly basket

Grocery has always been the most valuable battleground in retail because it is routine. Customers may shop for apparel or electronics occasionally, but they shop for food constantly. Grocery drives trip frequency, household loyalty, and the repeat behavior that fuels the entire retail ecosystem.

Walmart’s leadership remains the defining reality. Numerator’s latest market share work, reported by the trade publication Store Brands, places Walmart at approximately 21.2% of U.S. grocery share, far ahead of every other competitor.

But the grocery market is not standing still. The next chapter is being shaped by how quickly retailers can deliver the weekly basket, and how reliably suppliers can support that promise.

Amazon is pushing hardest where grocery habits are formed: fresh

Amazon’s newest momentum is not about shelf-stable pantry items. It is about perishables.

In a recent company announcement, Amazon said it has expanded same-day delivery for fresh groceries to more than 2,300 cities and towns across the United States. The company also noted that it has increased the perishable selection available for same-day delivery by over 30% since August.

Even more telling, Amazon reports that in markets where same-day perishable delivery is available, nine of the top ten bestselling same-day grocery items are perishables.

That matters because fresh is what turns online grocery into routine. If a customer trusts a retailer for produce, meat, and dairy, they are far more likely to consolidate more of their household spend into that same cart.

Amazon leadership is reinforcing that point. Jason Buechel, Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores and CEO of Whole Foods Market, recently shared that groceries and everyday essentials now account for roughly half of the items delivered to U.S. Prime members the same day or next day.

The signal is clear: Amazon is treating grocery frequency as a strategic growth engine.

Walmart is still the leader online, not just in stores

It is easy to assume Amazon dominates online grocery because of its broader e-commerce footprint. But the data tells a different story.

eMarketer’s U.S. digital grocery forecast estimates the online grocery market at $220.48 billion in 2025. In that same analysis, Walmart holds the largest share of U.S. online grocery sales at 31.6%, with Amazon second at 22.6%.

Walmart’s advantage is still scale, trust, and reach. But Amazon’s perishable expansion is a credible attempt to close the gap by winning more of the weekly basket, especially in markets where speed and convenience drive behavior.

What Walmart suppliers and sellers should take from this shift

For suppliers, the most important takeaway is not that Amazon is growing. It is where the pressure is moving inside Walmart’s ecosystem.

The next era of grocery competition will reward brands that can execute across three realities at once: the shelf, pickup and delivery fulfillment, and the digital shelf experience that shapes conversion and substitution.

This is where suppliers should pay attention.

Fresh raises the bar on operational excellence

Perishables are unforgiving. If a general merchandise item arrives a day late, it is inconvenient. If a fresh item is missing, substituted, or damaged, it changes tonight’s meal.

That puts new weight on fundamentals Walmart teams already care about. Accurate item data, durable packaging, consistent replenishment, and fewer fulfillment exceptions are no longer just supply chain metrics. They are brand loyalty drivers.

For suppliers in fresh, frozen, and consumables, this is where execution becomes strategy.

Omnichannel in-stock is now a growth lever

In grocery, availability is everything.

Walmart suppliers have traditionally focused on store-level in-stock and replenishment. That is still critical, but now it must extend into omnichannel reality.

An item can be “in stock” in a building and still unavailable for pickup or delivery because of pick constraints, substitution logic, or fulfillment flow.

Suppliers that can improve availability across all fulfillment paths will quietly win share, even without louder marketing.

Substitution is not just an inconvenience, it is a competitor entry point

Online grocery introduces a unique risk: the customer may not simply leave empty-handed. They may accept a substitute.

Over time, frequent substitution can train shoppers away from your brand.

For Walmart marketplace sellers and 1P suppliers alike, monitoring substitution patterns is becoming as important as monitoring out-of-stocks.

If you are losing baskets through substitution, you are losing loyalty without ever seeing a formal complaint.

The weekly basket is becoming “one cart” competition

Amazon’s strategy is increasingly about consolidation: groceries plus household essentials in one fast order.

Walmart has been building similar behavior through pickup, delivery, and Walmart+ adoption.

For suppliers, this means your competitive set is broader than the aisle. You are competing for inclusion in the routine basket that contains food, paper goods, personal care, baby, pet, cleaning, and more.

Winning that basket requires two things: a strong digital shelf presence and flawless fulfillment reliability.

Practical priorities for Walmart suppliers right now

If you are building for growth in 2026, the highest-return moves are not complicated, but they are disciplined.

Treat item setup and content accuracy as revenue drivers, because in online grocery they are.

Pressure test packaging through real fulfillment conditions, not just shelf presentation.

Align retail media investment with in-stock strength, because demand generation without availability teaches shoppers to buy something else.

Track substitution and fulfillment exceptions as brand risk indicators, not just operational noise.

These are the areas where Walmart’s ecosystem will reward consistency.

The bigger takeaway for the Winning With Walmart audience

Walmart remains the country’s grocery leader by a wide margin, and it continues to hold the top position in online grocery.

At the same time, Amazon’s rapid expansion in same-day perishables is a credible attempt to win more of the routine grocery occasions that drive long-term share.

For Walmart suppliers and sellers, the opportunity is not to chase headlines. It is to become indispensable to Walmart’s omnichannel grocery machine by executing better than competitors on availability, freshness readiness, digital shelf clarity, and fulfillment reliability.

In grocery, the brands that win are not the ones with the loudest story. They are the ones that show up, every time, in the cart.

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