Walmart and Amazon Expand Same-Day Delivery to Rural U.S. Areas

Walmart and Amazon are racing to speed up order deliveries in rural areas of the U.S. Small cities and towns represent a source of additional sales for the retailer that can build a loyal base of online shoppers there. Roughly 90 percent of U.S. residents live within 10 miles of a Walmart store, and 45 percent of the company’s full-service Supercenters are in places with populations under 20,000, according to a report by investment bank Morgan Stanley.

The bank’s analysts estimated the rural market could be worth up to $1 trillion in annual sales. Competition has intensified as remote workers increase the populations of small towns and communities on the edges of metropolitan areas. The same technology enabling remote office work is also allowing the two largest retailers to deliver merchandise more efficiently to these locations.

Amazon invested $4 billion last year to bring same-day or next-day deliveries to 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities. These included coastal Lewes, Delaware; Milton, Florida; Padre Island, Texas; and Abbeville, Louisiana. In a letter to shareholders last month, the company reported that the average monthly number of customers receiving same-day deliveries doubled in 2025 compared with the prior year.

Amazon is using artificial intelligence-based tools to forecast demand and is opening small micro hubs in rural areas. “While other companies have been backing away from these customers, we’ve been running to them,” the chief executive wrote in the letter.

Walmart is equipping its physical stores with robotic technology that picks and packs online orders from areas stocked with the most popular delivery items for each location. The automated system at a Supercenter in Bentonville, Arkansas, expanded grocery delivery radius to 30 miles from 10 miles.