Walmart grew its US ecommerce sales by 43% in the fourth quarter. The company said Walmart U.S. eCommerce continued to benefit from the expansion of grocery pickup and delivery and a broader assortment on Walmart.com.
Note that its fiscal year is different than that of many other companies – its fourth quarter encompassed the months of November, December, and January, which makes it more challenging to compare its performance with other companies.
For the fiscal year 2019, Walmart U.S. eCommerce sales increased 40%, and it said its Net Promoter Score and Customer Value Index continued to improve. Its guidance for fiscal year 2020 has Walmart U.S. eCommerce net sales growing at 35%.
Fourth-quarter highlights:
Total revenue was $138.8 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion, or 1.9%. Excluding currency, total revenue was $140.5 billion, an increase of $4.2 billion, or 3.1%.
Walmart U.S. comp sales on a two-year stack of 6.8% is the strongest growth in 9 years.
Walmart U.S. eCommerce continued to benefit from the expansion of grocery pickup and delivery and a broader assortment on Walmart.com.
Sam’s Club comp sales increased 3.3%, and eCommerce sales grew 21%.
Net sales at Walmart International were $32.3 billion, a decline of 2.3%. Excluding currency, net sales were $34.0 billion, an increase of 2.7%.
Adjusted EPS excludes the effects of two items:
- A charge of $0.17 due to an adjustment in the provisional amount related to Tax Reform
- An unrealized gain of $0.03 on the company’s equity investment in JD.com
CNBC has a recap. Of Walmart’s ecommerce performance, the financial-news site said “The company has been investing heavily in adding more products – like celebrity-inspired apparel and high-end camping gear – to its website in order to achieve that target and compete with Amazon. It’s also been on a buying spree of online brands like Art.com and lingerie retailer Bare Necessities.”
In commenting on Walmart’s earnings report, Harry Chemko, CEO and co-founder of Elastic Path, told EcommerceBytes, “Walmart is the only retail giant that has enough competitive strengths to challenge Amazon’s e-commerce lead – they have the physical locations, strength in grocery and scale. They’ve been investing very heavily in e-commerce, and their year-over-year growth shows that it’s paying off.”
SOURCE: Walmart Press Release
