Walmart Edges Out Amazon for Most Black Friday Downloads

Need to Know

• Walmart saw 113,000 new app downloads on Black Friday, representing a year-over-year increase of 23%.
• First-time downloads in the US App Store’s shopping category on Black Friday increased 8%, totaling 1.8 million downloads.
• Amazon’s app placed second in the US on Black Friday with 102,000 downloads.

Analysis

On Black Friday, Walmart dethroned Amazon as the most downloaded shopping app, becoming number one in the US in terms of retail platforms.

Recent reports placed Walmart in sixth place among all apps downloaded, but with 113,000 new downloads on Black Friday alone, the retailer shot to the top of the shopping list. This is the first time Amazon has not been on top. However, their 102,000 first-time installs, placed them at a close second. 

The change is attributed to Walmart’s consistent improvements to the customer journey both digitally and in-store. In-app Store Maps and “Check out with Me” updates allow customers to locate in-store products directly within the app and complete their transactions with store workers in the aisles instead of using traditional checkout stations. 

This 360-degree shopping experience approach has been adopted by other top retailers. Recently, Best Buy rolled out a pre-holiday update expanding their e-commerce pickup options, an update that helped rank them third on the list. 

In addition to Walmart and Amazon, other top 10 most downloaded shopping apps included Target, Best Buy, GOAT, Nike, Kohl’s, Wish, Macy’s and Adidas. Combined these apps accounted for a total of 527,000 installs, representing an 11% growth year-over-year. 

With mobile e-commerce on the rise, Salesforce reported that 76% of digital traffic during the American Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend came from mobile devices with 60% of Thanksgiving Day shopping executed on smartphones. 

Despite being knocked from first place, Amazon still placed number one when apps were ranked globally, noting that customers bought “hundreds of millions” of products online between American Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.