While the retail giant beat earnings estimates, revenue fell short of analysts' expectations.
Earnings per share came in at $1.08 (adjusted) versus estimate of $1.01. Revenues increased +1.4 percent to $124.89 billion from $123.18 billion a year ago, and missing expectations of $125.55 billion.(Analysts' expectations given according to a survey by Refinitiv).
Walmart’s U.S. same-store sales grew +3.4%, higher than expected +3.1%.
International sales declined -2.6% during the third quarter to $28.8 billion - one of the factors could be its selling of the majority of its Brazilian business to private-equity firm Advent International.
The company’s online sales surged +43% during the third quarter.
Walmart is stocking up on technology and brands to encourage customers’ holiday season splurge.
Thursday onward, the retail giant will arm store workers with mobile checkout scanners so that shoppers picking big items like TVs, furniture or Christmas trees can pay on spot (i.e., without having to queue up at registers), especially in the busiest sections of the stores/supermarkets. Walmart will also add digital maps on its apps to help customers navigate its store aisles/sections so they can find products more quickly.
These technology-driven upgrades intended for a smoother customer experience at its physical stores is critical for Walmart since brick-and-mortar still accounts for the majority of the company's sales, even amidst a booming e-commerce industry.
But Walmart is not shying from upping the ante on its digital market either.This year, the firm has already added more than 2,000 brands (including Lord & Taylor and Moosejaw) on its online shoppin
Walmart’s Jet.com will serve Blue Apron meal-kits starting Monday for New York City.
Jet.com will feature four Blue Apron meal kits.The e-commerce firm's angle in this deal seems to be expanding its footprints in the grocery space crowded by players like FreshDirect, Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Now service, Ahold Delhaize’s Peapod.
Blue Apron, on the other hand, apparently hopes the collaboration with Jet.com would give new fodder to its meal delivery business which is suffering from cratering sales.
Both the companies entered into an agreement that will see the SunPower install solar power at two distribution centers and 19 Walmart stores in Illinois.
This 23MW energy project is set have a combination of rooftop and ground-mount systems, and is expected to start in the first half of 2019.
As per the Walmart officials, this is the first major step of the company towards its 2025 plan, by which the company plans to power half of its operations with renewable energy.However, the bigger picture for the company is to cut emissions in its global value chain by one billion metric tons by the year 2030.
Although the agreement value has not been disclosed by any of the parties, a multi-million dollar contract of this magnitude could prove to be highly beneficial for SunPower.
Amazon is buying 49% stake in Indian supermarket chain More, according to reports in local media.
With over 540 supermarkets across India, More is part of Aditya Birla Group's retail business.No official statement on Amazon's actual investment amount has been made, however.
The deal could be seen as Amazon’s latest ammo against Walmart in the offline retail space.
Drivers sign-up with Delivery Drivers Inc, a firm that manages such workers.
In March, Walmart said that it will offer delivery of groceries to households across 100 U.S. cities by the end of 2018.It has since partnered with several small delivery companies like Doordash and Postmates to meet its target.
But more than the “trillion” number, what’s significant is the e-commerce giants’ remarkable growth story.
For years, the company went without generating positive earnings, and instead chose to focus on expanding its online retail (a major factor behind deteriorating margins of brick-and-mortar stores), foraying into diverse product/services and acquiring firms to cement its position in the various industries.Today, Amazon’s offerings encompass retail, grocery, home appliances, business technology, entertainment and healthcare.
In Q2 2018, its net income came in at $2.5 billion – compared to the year-ago period’s $197 million.
The retail company raised its projection for the rest of the year as well.
Its digital presence, too, had a strong following among customers: online sales increased 41% last quarter compared to the year-ago period.Last year, the company bought delivery service firm Shipt to boost same-day delivery speeds.
Expanding its offerings on clothing, electronics and kids’ toys might also have helped Target garner more customers and sales.
Aldi is looking to sell ‘healthy’.
The supermarket chain, known for low-cost food staples and canned goods, wants to expand its natural foods offerings to leverage U.S. consumers' preference tilt towards healthy options.
Aldi hopes to increase its fresh food selection by 40%.It would be interesting to follow how far the privately-held firm would eventually be able to hold its own against established players like Whole Foods (now owned by Amazon) in the natural/organic food market.
Aldi is the 8th biggest retailer in the world by global revenue in 2016, according to a Deloitte analysis.
Walmart produced its fastest sales growth in a decade - a sign that the retail giant is still not ‘Amazon-ed’!
Digital sales of Walmart soared +40%, while total store sales increased +4.5% in three months ending July. Walmart's Sam's Club warehouse unit experienced same-store sales growth of 5% - a six-year high.
With sales going strong, it seems the retail behemoth is still far from losing ground to Amazon even after the latter’s acquisition of grocery chain Whole Foods.
Just when you thought the Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon streaming empire was invincible, Wal-Mart has now entered the fold with plans to launch its own streaming service targeted at Middle America.Wal-Mart is increasingly seen as scrappy in its effort to modernize, first with its efforts to expand its shipping and e-commerce business and now with its effort to enter the media space.
Walmart already has a streaming service available, called Vudu, but the recent announcement of a new streaming service would be separate and focused on a different market.
A major driver was its cloud computing segment which registered a +53% year-over-year surge in sales in the last quarter.
CEO Satya Nadella’s strategy of prioritizing the firm’s cloud services (over Windows) seems to be paying off.What’s more, Microsoft recently signed a five-year cloud services deal with Walmart – a partnership that rival-in-common Amazon might need to watch out for.
With worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure projected to touch $160 billion in 2018 and burgeon to $277 billion by 2021(according to the International Data Corporation), Microsoft’s not so ‘cloudy’ ambitions could be its potential trump card.
As of today, Amazon's Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Bezos, is officially the richest person in the world with a Net Worth of $112 Billion!!With Bill Gates coming in second at $90 Billion.