Walmart and Amazon expand faster online delivery to rural communities

Walmart and Amazon are accelerating efforts to deliver online orders faster to rural communities in the United States, betting that improvements in logistics and changing demographics will unlock large, previously hard-to-serve markets. The push is unfolding in areas far from major metros, where last-mile delivery has often been slower and more expensive, and where major parcel carriers have begun scaling back service in some rural locations to reduce costs.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley estimated that about 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store and that 45% of Walmart’s full-service Supercenters are located in places with populations under 20,000. Amazon, meanwhile, has invested $4 billion to bring same-day or next-day deliveries to 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities. In a letter to shareholders last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the average monthly number of customers receiving same-day deliveries doubled in 2025 compared with the year before, citing tools that use artificial intelligence to forecast demand and the opening of small “micro hubs.”

Both companies are also moving beyond traditional assumptions that rural shoppers are less...