This past holiday weekend, when 2017 became 2018, analysts trotted out their requisition predictions for the coming year. Most of the predictions were predictable, to be sure. But one head-turning headline should have been of the greatest interest to the chiefs at Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), and the owners of WMT stock.

It came from well-known pro Gene Munster. The former Piper Jaffray stock-handicapper who now is with Loup Ventures predicted e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) would end up acquiring brick-and-mortar outfit Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT).

See, this combination of companies has the potential to stop Wal-Mart’s revitalization effort dead in its tracks.

3 Potential Problems for Wal-Mart

As is the case with any prediction where no money is at stake, take Munster’s guess with a grain of salt. On the flipside, as this reporter pointed out yesterday, there’s a fair amount of logic in the Target/Amazon idea as the two organizations could find some significant synergies.

What I didn’t make painfully clear to WMT stock holders yesterday, however, was that many of these synergies take dead aim at Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart’s finally-successful online and omnichannel effort in particular. That reality gets dished out today, with three specific pitfalls for Wal-Mart being thrust to the forefront. In no particular order…

1. Same-day Delivery

To its credit, Wal-Mart has been working on same-day grocery delivery in select markets, and late last year it acquired a delivery outfit called Parcel as a means of adding same-day delivery of non-grocery goods in a decent-sized chunk of New York City.

Still, it’s on this front Wal-Mart’s sheer size becomes a burden rather than a blessing. Offering same-day deliveries to all of its customers is just plain difficult.

That’s not to say it would be any less difficult for Target or Amazon, or Target and Amazon together. There’s no denying, however, that Amazon is better technically suited to handle the nagging aspects of such logistics, including turning each and every Target store into a mini distribution center in and of itself. This one small nuance could tip the scales back in favor of Target.

2. Higher-end Consumers

It’s not exactly a big secret that Wal-Mart draws a less affluent crowd than Target or Amazon.com. The average Target-shopping household makes roughly $13,000 more than Wal-Mart’s typical household customer does. The metrics for Amazon’s typical customer are a little tougher to ferret out, but there’s little doubt that it too attracts a more affluent crowd.

A recent look at its customers suggested that nearly two-thirds of its customers live in households with an annual income of more than $60,000, while 41% of its shoppers enjoy six-figure household incomes.

As for what this means to Wal-Mart, it crimps its chances of winning over bigger-spenders at a point in time when the acquisition of higher-end e-commerce names like Bonobos and MooseJaw suggested Wal-Mart saw that demographic as a key growth engine.

3. Customer Data

Last but not least, though it took some retailers a long while to figure out, they’re starting to figure out what Amazon knew a long time ago: customer data is the key to doing business in the 21st century. That is, knowing what each and every customer likes, doesn’t like, their shopping habits, where they live, what music and movies they like, etc.

Amazon has a distant lead on Wal-Mart on that front, and if it were to share its tricks of the trade with Target, Wal-Mart stands to lose business.

Bottom Line for WMT Stock

Don’t overreact to the concerns, and certainly don’t overreact immediately. Wal-Mart isn’t doomed, the WMT dividend isn’t in jeopardy, and the world’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailer is going to hold that position for a long while. Indeed, Amazon isn’t buying Target yet and may never actually do so.

Nevertheless, it’s not a bad mental exercise for current and potential owners of WMT stock to work through, if only to pinpoint exactly where the company’s vulnerabilities are should Munster’s prediction — or even just one similar to it — come to fruition. Wal-Mart may be on the mend, but it’s hardly infallible.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley.