The fight between Amazon and Walmart on market power is getting more intense by the moment. Up until now, Walmart attempted to compete with Amazon on the e-commerce market. The company spent heavily to improve stores and to grow online, but it didn’t bear much fruit. Last fiscal year, their U.S. online operations lost around $2 billion. 

These days the company is trying a new strategy. Instead of fighting in Amazon’s domain, it will use its own strengths- a huge number of giant stores. The company’s supercenters will operate as the center of many businesses, all working together to attract shoppers and drive profits. Costumers could shop, fill medical prescriptions, get their hair done and more.

This doesn’t mean Walmart is planning to stay stuck “in the old days”. Instead, they’re planning to use different technology in order to capitalize. One example is selling customer data to online advertising to brands.

Walmart also plans to build “edge computing” capacity, in which data is processed close to where it’s being collected. This system is faster than the cloud, and therefore allows a wider range of uses. For example, autonomous car makers could contract with Walmart. The large number of stores will allow the cars to stay connected and do calculations while driving.

Walmart executives have also met with large telecom companies to discuss the possibility of installing 5G antennas on the roofs. Here the large number of physical stores comes again into play, as Amazon could never offer this type of service.

Putting the hypothetical plans aside, Walmart is already adding computing power to its stores. Robots that clean floors, sensors that alert staff when a freezer is too warm and systems that use cameras to visually track the pace of sales are all a part of the company’s future.