Wal-Mart’s Online Sales Grew 63 Percent in First Quarter

Wal-Mart posted its first quarter financial results this morning. The low-priced retailer claimed a 63 percent spike in online sales, compared to 29 percent growth last quarter.

The retailer bought Amazon competitor Jet.com for $3 billion in August 2016 (Jet.com’s founder, Marc Lore, is now the CEO of Wal-Mart’s e-commerce division), but on a conference call with investors, execs claimed that the majority of the online growth came through Walmart.com.

The hike could be partially attributed to Wal-Mart’s recently instituted offer of free shipping for orders over $35.

In a hypercompetitive retail landscape, Wal-Mart also posted strong comparable sales—1.4 percent (its Wall Street estimate was 1.3 percent). That makes 11 consecutive quarters of growth for the chain.

Its first-quarter revenue is up by 1.4 percent, to $117.54 billion, only slightly below the $117.74 billion analysts forecast.

“E-commerce is working [for Wal-Mart],” Barclay’s food and staples retail analyst Karen Short told CNBC this morning. “And it’s not coming at the expense of brick-and-mortar, because you need both to survive.”

(Image courtesy of Wal-Mart)
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JCK Senior Editor

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