Walmart's smart hiring will make it Amazon's 'worst nightmare' within 2 years, strategist says
- Walmart's e-commerce sales rose 43 percent during the fourth quarter.
- Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, told CNBC that the U.S. firm is on the way to challenging Amazon's dominance.
Walmart is set to assert "worldwide dominance" and become one of "Amazon's worst nightmares," according to one analyst.
On Tuesday, the U.S. retail giant beat consensus expectations for its fourth quarter on same-store sales, revenue and earnings per share.
Walmart's e-commerce sales rose 43 percent during the period and for 2019 it's calling for internet sales to be up another 35 percent.
In comments made prior to Walmart's stellar beat, Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, said Walmart was set to, "expand their worldwide dominance in online retail and start in these next two years to become one of Amazon's worst nightmares."
Flickinger told CNBC Tuesday that Walmart's path to success has been laid after poaching the best and brightest staff from Amazon.
The analyst picked out Marc Lore, who used to work for Amazon before leaving to eventually run all of Walmart's U.S. e-commerce operations, and David Criscione, who developed the "Amazon Go" format before switching to Walmart in 2016.
Flickinger added that after talking to vendors through to shoppers it was clear that Walmart.com was gaining ground while Amazon was "slowing down and going sideways."
The analyst confirmed to CNBC that he has been a long term shareholder in both Amazon and Walmart.
A spokesperson for Amazon declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.