walmart isnt keeping up in a category that will determine the future of retail as target has grown its ecommerce business walmarts growth is slowing the motley fool notes in the past two years walmarts ecommerce growth has steadily dropped in the most recent quarter the company reported growth of 8 compared with 22 in last years fourth quarter and 30 two years ago for comparison target grew its ecommerce business 34 in the last quarter the companys growth has been consistent in the last few years with digital sales growth of at least 20 each quarter for the last year walmarts lowly position isnt from lack of trying last october the company announced it would invest 900 million in its web development with plans to spend 11 billion in the coming year working to expand online grocery and scale its online assortment while that is a major investment target is planning on spending even more announcing in an analyst call it plans to spend 18 billion this year and 25 billion next year on supply chain and technology many of walmarts previous ecommerce innovations have simply failed to entice customers the retailers digital holiday sales failed to match up with the online deals at target or amazon which achieved over 15 revenue growth in product sales in the quarter walmarts shipping pass service which offers free threeday shipping for 50 per year in test markets is nowhere near the swiftly growing twoday shipping service amazon prime in terms of popularity walmart charges nonshipping pass members for shipping on orders over 50 while target offers free shipping on orders over 25 how can the company compete in addition to figuring out a way to convince customers to shop for groceries online and expand ecommerce offerings the key to digital sales seems to be linking them with the traditional shopping experience were improving our stores adding critical capabilities and deepening our digital relationships with customers as we work to become the first to deliver a seamless shopping experience at scale ceo doug mcmillon said in the companys most recent earnings call in february the seamless combination of different shopping channels is one that target has also established as a major goal even amazon is dabbling in the brickandmortar retail business with a physical store opening in seattle one way that walmart hopes to stand out from the competition is its new mobile wallet walmart pay which the company launched in december walmart pay is the perfect example of how our app gives customers a seamless experience that merges digital and physical to make shopping faster and easierneil ashe walmarts president of global ecommerce and technology said in the february earnings call it gives customers a reason to form a digital relationship with walmart when thinking of the future of shopping mobile is a crucial connector for online and instore retail while smartphone traffic makes up more than half of all online traffic mobile only accounts for 29 of all online sales