Walmart Inc. announced May 17 that U.S. online sales grew 22% for its fiscal 2025 first quarter ended April 30, 2024. Global ecommerce sales grew 21% over the identical period, while international ecommerce increased 19%.
The retailer’s ecommerce penetration grew across all markets, CEO Doug McMillon said. That was partially because of growth amongst high-income customers, who turned to Walmart for convenience within the quarter.
Consolidated revenue grew 6.0% to $161.5 billion in Q1. Meanwhile, consolidated net income rose 179.9% to $5.31 billion.
“Our team delivered an important quarter,” McMillon said in a press release. “Around the globe, our goal is straightforward — we’re focused on saving our customers each time and money. It’s inspiring to see how our associates are concurrently executing the basics and innovating to make shopping with us more enjoyable and convenient.”
Walmart is No. 2 within the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s rating of North America’s online retailers by web sales. It is usually No. 9 within the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s rating of top such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
How much did Walmart make in Q1 online sales?
Ecommerce remained a source of high growth for Walmart in Q1 2025. The 22% year-over-year growth within the U.S. got here on top of a 27% increase in Q1 of fiscal 2024.
Walmart said its pickup and delivery service was once more a major driver of that ecommerce growth.
“It’s great to be able where our pickup business is growing after which, as we mentioned, our delivery business has now exceeded our pickup business in size and the run rate stays strong,” Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner told investors on May 16.
The mass merchant’s growing online business also represents a possibility with more room to expand.
“While Walmart’s online business continues to be dominated by grocery — which is a key strength in comparison with Amazon — it’s now gaining ground in categories like home and sporting goods, which underlines the actual fact it’s becoming more of a destination for non-grocery shopping,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of retail evaluation firm GlobalData. “In our view, Walmart has significant runway to expand this a part of its business, especially as memberships of its Walmart+ program proceed to extend.”
Meanwhile, Walmart’s ecommerce losses are decreasing.
“Ecommerce losses proceed to narrow, most notably within the U.S. net delivery cost per order, improving nearly 40%,” chief financial officer John David Rainey said.
Sam’s Club and other Walmart online sales results
Sam’s Club, Walmart’s membership-based warehouse chain, reported ecommerce sales grew 18% within the quarter. Like Walmart, that growth was attributed to pickup and delivery sales.
Sam Club’s net sales, meanwhile, grew 4.6% because of increases in transactions and unit volumes. Membership income grew 13%, because of “record total membership and Plus penetration at quarter end,” the retailer said.
“Walmart Plus continued to grow double-digits as members engage with us more steadily and spend greater than other customers,” Rainey added.
54% of Sam’s Club members are also Walmart Plus members, the retailer said. One-third of Sam’s Club members are also using Walmart’s Scan and Go technology.
Walmart’s third-party online marketplace also grew significantly within the quarter, it said. Sales within the furniture, sporting goods, children’s apparel and residential goods categories each grew greater than 20%. Furner noted that every one apparel categories are strong on the marketplace.
Within the U.S., Walmart’s marketplace grew its seller count by 36% throughout the quarter. 28% of sellers also use Walmart’s success service, it said.
“We’ve picked up momentum within the marketplace,” Furner said. “Really, really pleased to see a number — a extremely large number — of latest sellers come on board, and assortment’s well north of $400 million.”
Walmart Connect keeps growing
The corporate’s promoting arm grew 24% yr over yr, led by 26% growth from U.S. promoting side, Walmart Connect. U.S. ad sales from marketplace sellers grew greater than 50%, it said. Overall advertiser count also grew nearly 19%. Sam’s Club’s ad business also grew, with a 30% increase in lively advertisers.
In April, Walmart shared plans for growing Walmart Connect following its proposal to acquire Vizio. Walmart detailed plans to create more promoting options, expand them beyond Walmart.com, give advertisers higher targeting and measuring abilities, and provides them more creative tools.
Walmart appeals to higher-income consumers
The retailer attributed much of its growth in Q1 to higher-income consumers within the U.S.
Walmart breaks its customers into three tiers based on income, Rainey said:
- Below $50,000
- $50,000 to $100,000
- Above $100,000
Typically, about one-third of consumers fall into each category. Nevertheless, an emphasis on convenience quite than strictly value has brought in additional customers from that high-earning tier, he explained. As well as, Rainey attributed growth in delivery amongst that cohort to their preference for convenience.
“Convenience matters to someone regardless of what your payback is, regardless of what your income level is,” Rainey said. “And we expect that to be durable. We don’t expect that to vary.”
Walmart also invested in improving food quality to appeal to that customer segment, Furner said. He pointed to higher quality within the fruit and meat departments.
Walmart layoffs
Ahead of reporting financial results, Walmart announced it could cut a whole bunch of corporate jobs and ask distant staff to maneuver to one among three offices. Staff at Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto locations were also asked to relocate. Most staff will move to Walmart’s Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters, while some will go to the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken, Recent Jersey.
“Earlier this week, we also shared decisions to eliminate some home office roles and reduce the quantity of distant work,” McMillon told investors. “The overwhelming majority of our home office associates have been back together in offices since we got here back from the pandemic, and we would like to see much more of that. Being in person is very important.”
Walmart earnings
For its fiscal first quarter ended Apr. 30, Walmart reported:
- Consolidated revenue grew 6.0% to $161.5 billion.
- Walmart online sales within the U.S. grew 22% in Q1 FY25.
- Consolidated net income grew 179.9% to five.31 billion.
Check back for more earnings reports. See Walmart’s previous earnings release story here.
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