Determined to penetrate Amazon's grip on online shopping, Wal-Mart has started aiming its sizeable resources at what it sees as Amazon's Achilles' Heel: the costs and delays of shipping online purchases to buyers.

Customers who now buy some of the more than 1.5 million products on Walmart.com can have them shipped free to a local Wal-Mart, where new service desks at the front of some stores make it easier for shoppers to retrieve their purchases. Meanwhile, just outside Chicago, the retailer is testing a new concept: a drive-through window, similar to those found at pharmacies and fast-food restaurants, where shoppers can pick up their Internet orders.

Online and offline not so different
Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez recently told the US media that there was a time when the online and offline businesses were viewed as being different. But that has changed.

"Now we are realizing that we actually have a physical advantage thanks to our thousands of stores, and we can use it to become No. 1 online." Heading into Christmas, the company said 40% of its online orders were being delivered through stores.

Badly trails Amazon
Walmart.com now ranks among the top e-commerce sites in traffic according to comScore Inc.'s tracking service. But according to estimates by trade publication Internet Retailer, with just US$1.7 billion in annual sales, it trails Amazon, which reported US$19.17 billion in annual revenues last year.

The major trend being demonstrated by Wal-Mart and other traditional retailers is their efforts to link stores and Web sales as a broad shift to Internet shopping gains momentum in the bad economy.

While e-commerce represents less than 5% of American retail spending, merchants are finding that even technologically unsophisticated consumers start their shopping on computers or mobile phones, perusing product reviews and price comparison Web sites.

ComScore said Monday total online orders rose 3%, to US$19.9 billion, from November 1 through December 11 compared to the same time a year ago.