Retail’s Omnivorous Expansion: How Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot Are Redefining the Business Model

Amazon Prime delivery vans sit parked near a Walmart store (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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Amazon unveiled Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) last month, opening its logistics network to any business—even those that never sell on Amazon.com. Walmart, meanwhile, announced the acquisition of Vibe.co, a connected‑TV advertising platform, extending its ad ecosystem around Vizio. Within weeks of each other, the two retail giants signaled that the future of retail is no longer about being a store alone.

The common thread is control. Retailers have traditionally layered the customer experience to streamline operations, but that model is shifting. Omnichannel capabilities are now viewed as a baseline, not a differentiator. To stay competitive, companies must absorb and build new businesses, reclaiming layers they once outsourced. This evolution is giving rise to the “omnivore” retailer—a multi‑hyphenated enterprise operating at full speed.

New Multi‑Hyphens

Walmart operates more than 4,600 U.S. stores, with 90 % of Americans living within 10 miles of a Walmart or Sam’s Club. At that saturation level, further growth must come from sources other than new locations. While the retailer has built a strong e‑commerce presence and omnichannel capabilities, retail media is becoming a critical focus. Walmart Connect’s advertising revenue reached $6.4 billion in the last fiscal year, up 46 % year over year.

Amazon faces a comparable ceiling. The company’s advertising business generated $68 billion in fiscal 2025—a 22 % increase—while also holding roughly 37.6 % of e‑commerce sales. Its forays into physical retail, including Whole Foods and short‑lived concepts such as Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Style, and Amazon Books, have been scaled back. Instead, Amazon’s growth has emerged from separate verticals like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon Fulfillment Services (AFS). AWS delivered $128.7 billion in 2025 revenue, a 20 % rise that accounted for 57 % of Amazon’s operating profit. AFS competes directly with UPS and FedEx, and ASCS expands the logistics network for third‑party businesses, prompting stock drops at UPS and FedEx when announced. Companies such as Wayfair, Shein, and Beyond are emulating these models to replicate success.

Gap, Sephora, and Home Depot have taken a different approach by building their own creator storefront platforms instead of relying on third‑party influencer marketplaces. By integrating a direct discovery layer into their operations, these retailers retain customer relationships and the valuable data that accompany them.

The Single Hyphen

Experiential retail continues to evolve, with coffee concepts such as Ralph’s Coffee and the newer Coach Coffee Shop gaining traction. Shop‑in‑shop arrangements are also expanding: IKEA operates small stores inside select Best Buy locations, while Best Buy provides advisory spaces within IKEA outlets. Target has launched Warby Parker shop‑in‑shops in certain locations, following a failed partnership with Ulta. Home Depot has strengthened its supply chain through vertical acquisitions—buying SRS Distribution, GMS, and Mingledorff’s—to better serve contractor customers. Meanwhile, Walmart and Dillard’s have pursued horizontal moves by acquiring malls.

The Risk Of All Things

Walmart’s past attempts to enter streaming with Vudu and its recent retreat from Walmart Health illustrate the perils of overreaching. After Vudu’s failure, the retailer is betting anew with the Vizio and Vibe.co acquisitions to capture the screen‑based audience.

Other health‑care ventures have also faltered. CVS spent $10.6 billion to acquire Oak Street Health, aiming to deepen ties with prescription customers, while Walgreens invested over $8.7 billion for a majority stake in VillageMD and later purchased Summit Health. Both companies have since pulled back as reimbursement complexities and operating costs proved misaligned with pharmacy fundamentals. Although these deals appeared synergistic on the surface, the cost structures, regulatory exposure, and margin profiles ultimately proved unsustainable.

The key difference between those missteps and current bets lies in the health of the underlying business. Walmart’s streaming play follows the development of its retail media network, giving it a stronger platform. In contrast, CVS and Walgreens were still grappling with core pharmacy and insurance challenges when they ventured into health care, leaving insufficient foundation support. A stable core business is essential before extending capabilities, data, scale, or logistics.

Hunger For Margin

New retail revenue models—including retail media, marketplace fees, logistics services, and financial products—already accounted for 15 % of sales and 25 % of profits in 2024. This share could approach half of industry profits by 2030. The trend underscores where margins are shifting, with Amazon and Walmart’s recent announcements signaling continued acceleration.

Revenue diversification also serves as a safeguard. Controlling logistics, advertising, and discovery layers shields a retailer from third‑party outages, price hikes, or policy changes and enables better leverage of scale. In today’s environment, a store alone is insufficient; retailers must become omnivores. However, acquiring new capabilities requires ensuring they align with the existing business “diet.” Control, rather than sheer size, will dictate success in this multi‑hyphenated era.

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