If you are a pet or consumer product brand selling online, the Amazon versus Walmart question is coming up more frequently than it did even two years ago. Walmart.com has invested heavily in its marketplace infrastructure, and its seller base and sales volume have grown significantly. But Amazon remains the dominant force in e-commerce.

So which should you prioritize — and does the answer depend on your specific situation?

The Case for Amazon First

For most pet brands, Amazon remains the primary opportunity. The platform has over 300 million active customer accounts worldwide, a deeply embedded shopping habit, and a fulfillment infrastructure that gives small and mid-size brands access to fast, reliable delivery without building their own logistics operation.

Amazon’s advertising ecosystem is also significantly more mature. Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP give brands a full advertising funnel with robust reporting and attribution. The ability to see exactly how ad spend translates to sales – and at what cost – makes Amazon a measurable, manageable channel.

Pet products is one of the fastest-growing categories on Amazon, with strong year-over-year volume growth across supplements, food, accessories, and health products. If you are building a marketplace-first strategy, Amazon’s ceiling is high.

The Case for Walmart

Walmart.com’s greatest strength is access to a customer segment that shops differently than the average Amazon customer. Walmart shoppers tend to be more value-oriented and loyal to brands they already know from brick-and-mortar retail. For pet brands with existing retail distribution, Walmart.com can be a natural extension of that presence.

Competition on Walmart is also meaningfully lower than on Amazon in most pet categories. That means it is often easier and less expensive to achieve visibility on Walmart – at least for now.

That window will not last forever as more brands recognize the opportunity.

Walmart also provides strategic value for brands that want to diversify their marketplace exposure. Over-reliance on a single platform is a genuine business risk, and Walmart offers a meaningful alternative channel.

How to Think About Both

The approach TMA typically recommends is an Amazon-first strategy with Walmart as a structured secondary investment. Establish strong foundations on Amazon – optimized listings, active advertising, healthy review velocity, stable inventory — and then layer in Walmart once those systems are in place.

Trying to scale both simultaneously without the operational bandwidth to manage both well often results in mediocre performance on both platforms.

The one exception: if your brand has significant existing Walmart retail presence, launching on Walmart.com alongside Amazon can make strategic sense, since you can leverage your existing brand equity with that customer base.

Amazon should be the primary focus for most pet brands in 2026. Walmart is a legitimate and growing channel that deserves a place in your long-term strategy – but not at the expense of building a strong Amazon foundation first.

TMA manages Amazon and Walmart for pet and consumer brands. Schedule a free consultation at themachineagency.com/free-amazon-audit to talk through your marketplace strategy.