The average Amazon shopper still earns more than Walmart's, and it reveals a key challenge for the e-commerce giant

• The demographics of the average Amazon and Walmart shopper are almost identical, aside from their annual household income.
• According to data gathered from Kantar Retail's ShopperScape - a monthly survey that polls 3,000 US consumers on their shopping habits - the average Amazon shopper has a higher annual household income than the average Walmart shopper.
• The difference is notable because it shows that Amazon is still fighting to win over lower-income shoppers that have traditionally shopped at Walmart.
• These consumers present an important growth opportunity for Amazon as it looks to take more market share.
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The demographics of the average Amazon and Walmart shopper are almost identical, save for one important detail.

According to data gathered by Kantar Retail's ShopperScape, a monthly survey that polls 3,000 US consumers on their shopping habits, the average customer at both Amazon and Walmart is a 46-year-old white woman. These shoppers were surveyed between January and November 2019.

What's more, the data showed that the generational spread of shoppers was almost identical, meaning that these retailers are going after almost exactly the same consumer.

There was one striking difference, however. According to the data, the average Walmart shopper has an annual household income of $76,313, while the average Amazon shopper has an annual household income of $84,449.

Walmart's average is bought down by it having a higher portion of lower-income shoppers.

Attracting lower-income shoppers has been one of Amazon's biggest priorities as the growth of its Prime membership service has slowed and it looks to expand into new customer pools.

Low-income shoppers have traditionally shopped at Walmart, so persuading them to jump ship likely requires Amazon to offer more benefits and better deals to make the shopping experience as - or more - affordable.

The first hurdle is convincing these cash-strapped shoppers to pay a membership fee to use Amazon.

To do so, Amazon said in 2017 it would lower its Prime membership fees from the then-standard $10.99 monthly fee to $5.99 for any American shoppers on government assistance. These customers are important for Amazon to win over, given that Walmart previously estimated that around 18% of all SNAP benefits - or roughly $13 billion annually - is spent at its stores.

Both Amazon and Walmart have since launched a pilot program in New York that enables consumers receiving SNAP benefits to shop for groceries and household items online as well. In the case of Amazon, SNAP benefit recipients based in New York are not required to have a Prime membership to use its Prime Pantry or Amazon Fresh service. They can also shop for certain food items on Amazon.com without a membership.

Another hurdle it faces is missing out on "unbanked" shoppers, or those who don't have bank accounts and rely heavily on cash. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 8.4 million households, or roughly 6.5% of all households in America, were considered to be "unbanked" in 2017.

To address this, Amazon launched a new feature that enables customers to upload cash to their accounts at convenience stores.

In 2019, it rolled out a similar service in collaboration with an 18,000-store Mexican convenience chain, which also enabled shoppers in Mexico to top up their accounts with cash. This partnership is expected to help the company reach the millions of customers in the country who rely on cash and whom it would otherwise be missing out on.