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The market continues to punish Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock, with another drop after it released its latest earnings results.
Today, the market seems to value Amazon more for its artificial intelligence (AI) development than advances in retail e-commerce, but e-commerce is still its largest business. Although the company has no real competition in the space right now, accounting for nearly 40% of U.S. e-commerce, many other retailers are building thriving e-commerce segments to complement their retail businesses.
If you’re looking for top choices, I recommend Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) and Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST).
Walmart has fallen to second-largest retailer in the world behind Amazon as of the end of 2025, but the market continues to prize Walmart’s consistent growth and emerging digital business. It has the largest store footprint in the U.S., with more than 5,000 stores, and it keeps finding new ways to boost its business.
E-commerce has been a major growth driver over the past few quarters. E-commerce sales increased 24% year over year in the 2026 fiscal fourth quarter (ended Jan. 27), with a 27% increase in U.S. e-commerce.
It has its own Prime-like membership program called Walmart+, which has been growing quickly, and membership income increased 15% year over year in the fourth quarter. Members are enjoying the quick delivery, and Walmart has an advantage in fast delivery because of its huge store base. Fast deliveries increased 60% year over year, demonstrating the opportunity here.
Walmart is a dependable Dividend King. And it’s both resilient and innovative, making it a top long-term play.
Costco stock is finally back in the market’s good graces after reporting another stellar earnings report for the 2026 fiscal second quarter (ended Feb. 15). Sales were up 9.1% year over year, and comparable sales rose 7.4%. Whatever reservations the market had about Costco’s ability to keep growing despite inflation seem to have vanished.
E-commerce has been a major growth driver for Costco, too. Like Walmart, Costco is leveraging its distinctive edge to boost what it calls digitally enabled sales, which encompasses its robust order pickup business in addition to home deliveries.
Digitally enabled sales increased nearly 23% year over year in the quarter. Total app visits were up 63%, while site traffic rose 35%, and average order value increased 15%. That bodes well for the company’s future in this space.