Amazon and Walmart Turn to Platform Economics as Consumer Spending Slows

The article argues that Amazon and Walmart are countering slowing consumer spending by pivoting from pure retail toward higher-margin platform businesses — AI, logistics, advertising, subscriptions and cloud services — which reduce dependence on discretionary sales. Amazon on May 27 began offering AI-powered shopping-assistant tools to third-party merchants, aiming to commercialize its AI stack, while Walmart is applying AI operationally to forecasting, inventory and fulfillment to squeeze costs and protect margins. The shift means weaker retail weekends (e.g., Memorial Day) matter less for long-term earnings if infrastructure revenue continues to scale, altering how investors should evaluate these retailers’ growth and resilience.