- Walmart’s e-commerce sales in the U.S. shot up by 97% as customers had packages shipped their homes and used curbside pickup.
- The retailer’s U.S. same-store sales grew by 9.3% in the second quarter, fueled by purchases of food and general merchandise.
- The company did not provide a financial outlook for the rest of the year.
Walmart posted its biggest earnings surprise in 31 years Tuesday as shoppers rushed in to spend their stimulus checks, and online sales nearly doubled during the coronavirus pandemic.
The discount retailer has been leveraging its massive store base and the investments it’s made in e-commerce to supply customers with food and other goods during the pandemic. U.S. same-store sales climbed 9.3% in the fiscal second quarter, while U.S. e-commerce sales surged 97%, as more customers shipped packages to their homes and used same-day delivery and curbside pickup.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company will look to build on these gains by adding a membership service. He did not say when that would launch or provide details about its perks. He said the program will speed up deliveries for customers through curbside pickup and delivery, strengthen relationships with them and collect valuable data.
The program, called Walmart+, is expected to compete with Amazon Prime.
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Shares reached a 52-week high of $137.63 on Tuesday, but were down less than 1% by early afternoon.
On a call with investors Tuesday, Walmart executives said customers shopped online and in stores for a wide variety of items, including groceries, TVs, computers, fishing poles and bicycles. Yet they acknowledged the company struggled to keep many of those products in stock.
McMillon said managing supply chain remains a challenge, but its performance is improving.
Here’s what the company did in the fiscal second quarter ended July 31:
- Earnings per share: $1.56 adjusted, vs. $1.25 expected by Refinitiv’s consensus estimates
- Revenue: $137.74 billion vs. $135.48 billion expected by Refinitiv estimates
- U.S. same-store sales: up 9.3% vs. gain of 5.4%, expected by StreetAccount survey
In the second quarter, Walmart reported net income rose to $6.48 billion, or $2.27 per share, from $3.61 billion, or $1.26 per share, a year earlier.
Source: CNBC