Walmart’s first-quarter global ecommerce sales rose 27%, the mass merchant announced on May 15. That growth is faster than ecommerce behemoth Amazon.com, which saw a 23% rise in sales during the comparative quarter.
Walmart’s consolidated net sales for the quarter, which ended April 30, were $114.2 billion, a 0.8% increase over the same period in 2003. Walmart’s U.S. sales were approximately $67.9 billion, and the company said ecommerce accounted for about 3% of that total.
Therefore, Walmart’s U.S.-based ecommerce sales were about $2.4 billion. Amazon.com’s net sales for the quarter, which ended March 31, were $19.74 billion.
But Walmart does feel that it’s ecommerce initiatives are beginning to pay off.
“We have the opportunity to create transformative growth through stronger e-commerce capabilities,” said Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. president and chief executive officer. “Our investments are focused on improving customer experience and fulfillment capacity. We’re working to deliver a relevant, personalized and seamless customer experience across all channels to further grow sales.”
During its earnings call, Walmart U.S. president and executive vice president William Simon noted that its ship-to-store and in-store pickup initiatives are working well. He said that approximately two-thirds of Walmart’s direct sales came from the Walmart.com fulfilled sales and the remainder from store fulfilled orders.
“To be clear, our investments are not only intended to attract ecommerce customers, but also to help them navigate and shop our physical stores,” said Walmart CFO Charles Holley during the earnings call. “With nearly 11,000 stores, over 2.2 million associates worldwide and a growing presence of highly skilled engineers in Silicon Valley, we feel we are uniquely positioned to offer a best in class e-commerce experience.”