Walmart’s E-Commerce Spikes From Online Grocery Growth
Walmart reported its U.S. e-commerce sales spiked 37% in its first quarter, attributing the sales burst to strong growth in online grocery, as well as the home and fashion categories on Walmart.com.
The mega retailer is on track to offer Grocery Pickup from 3,100 stores and same-day Grocery Delivery from 1,600 stores by year-end, which will provide coverage to approximately 80% and 50% of the U.S. population.
The retailer also announced this week it’s moving to adding free NextDay delivery on a wide range of general merchandise, without a membership fee. NextDay delivery will be available first to customers in Phoenix and Las Vegas, and will expand to Southern California in the coming days, gradually rolling out to approximately 75% of the U.S. population this year.
"We're changing to enable more innovation, speed and productivity, and we're seeing it in our results,” said Doug McMillon President and CEO, Walmart. “We're especially pleased with the combination of comparable sales growth from stores and e-commerce in the U.S. Our team is demonstrating an ability to serve customers today while building new capabilities for the future, and I want to thank them for a strong start to the year."
Walmart’s U.S. comp sales spike of 3.4% marks the best Q1 comp in 9 years for the retail behemoth and is the fourth consecutive quarter above 3%. Operating income was also better than expected, up 5.5%.
Additional Takeaways from Walmart’s Q1
• Launched new Intelligent Retail Lab in a live shopping environment to help unlock the possibilities of artificial intelligence
• Introduced Walmart Voice Order, initially through the Google Assistant, to make basket building for online grocery orders easier
• Introduced first online pet pharmacy, Walmartpetrx.com
• The retailer is participating in the USDA's SNAP online purchasing pilot
• Partnered with KIDBOX to deliver personalized kids fashion through Walmart.com
• Announced the creation of a new Angus beef supply chain to service 500 U.S. stores
• Acquired natural language processing startup, Aspectiva
• Acquired assets of Polymorph Labs to expand in-house advertising technology
• Launched new personalized baby registry on Walmart.com
• Announced partnership with Affirm to allow customers to make purchases and pay over time at Walmart stores and online
• Introduced increased rewards and protected PTO for U.S. associates
• Announced the launch of PhonePe as a payment option at Walmart's "B2B Cash & Carry" stores in India
• Opened next generation Sam's Club in Shanghai
• Launched a Super App solution with PhonePe in India
• Launched Flipkart venture capital fund
• Launched new reusable shopping bag campaign in U.S. stores
• Announced new plastic packaging waste reduction commitments