Walmart is seeing payoff from its significant investments in ecommerce, growing online sales 29% in the fourth quarter while gross merchandise value (GMV) increased 36.1%, including its Jet.com and grocery businesses.
“We’re gaining traction and moving faster,” said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in an earnings call. “We’re the second-largest U.S. online retailer by revenue, one of the top three online retailers by traffic and our Walmart app is among the top three apps in retail.”
Ecommerce has been even more on the forefront for Walmart since it acquired Jet.com in the second half of 2016, making Jet.com CEO Marc Lore head of its U.S. ecommerce business as it hotly pursues Amazon.
“From a marketplace perspective, we now have 35 million SKUs, more than quadrupling the number available at the beginning of the year,” said McMillon. “We recently announced free two-day shipping on millions of items with a minimum order of $35. And as you might expect, we’ve seen a nice uptick in our ecommerce business since this launch.”
McMillon said the acquisitions of ShoeBuy and Moosejaw, in addition to Hayneedle, have given Walmart immediate expertise and capabilities in new, more upscale categories of merchandise.
“We’re also leveraging the strengths of Walmart and Jet to make both platforms better,” said McMillon. “I’m excited about what’s to come. I’m really pleased by how [President and CEO of Walmart U.S.]Greg Foran and his team are working in tandem with Marc Lore and his team to deliver the convenient shopping our customers desire, no matter how they choose to shop.”
McMillon said Foran and Lore will continue to partner closely to serve Walmart customers through the Walmart app, site and stores.