After many years of struggle, 2018 proved to be the turning point for Walmart as the world’s largest retailer now has a viable e-commerce business. The company succeeded despite economic slowdown worsened by the U.S-China trade dispute and increasing competition in the world of digital selling. While Amazon still holds the sway when it comes to digital marketing, Walmart is gradually closing its gap with the e-commerce giant.
The first quarter of 2019 witnessed Walmart’s comparable same-store sales growth of 3.4%, the best in 9 years, and a grand total of $80.3 billion in net revenue out of which the e-commerce segment accounted for 1.4%. The company revealed that e-commerce sales grew 37% compared to the year ago.
In comparison, Amazon’s online sales stores increased by 10% to $29.5 billion, and physical stores were up a meager 1% to $4.3 billion after plunging 3% in Q4.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, e-commerce grew 10.4% during the first four months of 2019. While Amazon is definitely growing, it is Walmart that is posting above-average expansion through retaking some of its lost markets via the digital channel.
Walmart is also investing heavily into the overseas market as well including its majority-owned stake in India’s largest e-commerce site Flipkart as well as a partnership with Japan’s Rakuten.
So even if it may look like Amazon is a better-placed company, as far as an e-commerce business is concerned, the credit is due to Walmart.