Walmart’s e-Commerce Business Continued to Grow

Walmart (WMT) reported its first-quarter results on May 16. Walmart’s first quarter ended in April. The company’s revenues grew 1.0% YoY (year-over-year) to $123.9 billion, which missed analysts’ estimate of $125.0 billion.

While Walmart doesn’t divulge its revenue e-commerce sales, it stated that its e-commerce sales grew 37% YoY in the first quarter—a slowdown from the previous quarter. Walmart attributed its strong e-commerce growth to its flourishing online grocery business and an increase in the home and fashion categories on its e-commerce website.

Walmart’s grocery pick-up and delivery business has been booming. The pick-up and delivery business is cheaper for Walmart to operate. The company has joined hands with delivery companies like Skipcart and Point PickUp to deliver groceries to customers’ homes.

Walmart expects its online retail business to grow 35% in fiscal 2020, which could represent a slowdown compared to 40% growth in fiscal 2019. In 2018, eMarketer estimated that Walmart’s online retail business, including Sam’s Club and Jet, was the third-largest in the United States. However, Walmart’s e-commerce business is still way behind Amazon (AMZN). In 2018, Walmart’s market share in the US e-commerce business expanded from 3.3% to 4% YoY, while Amazon’s market share expanded YoY to 48% from 43.1%.